141416 SE M5a SE Osmanische Literaturen (2023S)

The course intends to offer a comprehensive narrative of the cultural activity of varied Armenian communities within the Ottoman Empire and on its borders in the period between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries. In particular, the focus will be on the printing production and tendencies embraced by the Armenians in several main centres of the Ottoman Empire, such as for instance Constantinople, Smirne/Izmir, and Baghesh/Bitlis, and in some peripheral/border zones between the Habsburg and the Ottoman empires, such as for instance the Carpathian and Podolian regions. Venice and Trieste will be also included, insofar as both cities represented two crucial axes in influencing the book production and in circulating printed books among the Armenian communities between the East and Western Europe. Compelling tendencies and characteristics of the printing enterprise, such as the phenomenon of the Armeno-Turkish and Armeno-Kipchak literature, will be examined in relation to questions of ethnic self-consciousness, self-belonging and literacy.