Ludzie dwóch kultur. Wybrane przypadki transgresji kulturowej Polaków w Imperium Osmańskim w XVII, XVIII i XIX wieku
People of Two Cultures: Selected Cases of the Cultural Transgression of Poles in the Ottoman Empire (17th–19th Centuries)

Author(s): Agnieszka Aysen Kaim
Subject(s): History, Anthropology, Social Sciences, Modern Age, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, 17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century
ISSN: 2450-565X
Published by: Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: conversion; renegade; cultural broker; go-between; identity; transgression; transcultural; coexistence
Summary/Abstract: This book is devoted to multiculturality and cultural transgression. The study begins with the definitions and descriptions of the phenomena and terminology crucial to the source materials, and presents biculturality from the micro-historical perspective of the case studies of three well-known Polish figures: Wojciech Bobowski (Ali Ufkî Bey, 17th c.), Salomea Regina Pilsztynowa (18th c.) and Konstanty Borzęcki (Mustafa Celâleddin Paşa, 19th/20th c.). Their biographies exemplify the complicated identities at the border of two cultures: Polish and Turkish, Christian and Muslim. The figures in focus are representatives of the “go-between” category which includes captives, émigré converts and Turkophile travellers who prospered in the Ottoman Empire. These “cultural brokers” made their presence felt in the history of Turkish–Polish relations and have passed into the history of culture. They are examined from the perspective of contemporary cultural studies, set against the latest anthropological theories (cultural syncretism, identity in multicultural societies), with special emphasis placed on cultural transgression as a set of shifting interactions. The analysis of the transgressive processes experienced by the individuals being studied takes into account their religious conversion, its circumstances, nature and consequences.

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