[Book Review]: "Mapping Emotional Currents in Modern Turkey: A Critical Interdisciplinary Review"

Abstract

Anthropology and Sociology of Emotions: Theoretical and Ethnographic Perspectives from Turkey and Beyond , edited by Ramazan Aras, constitutes a formidable intervention into the fabric of Turkish social life by rearticulating the role of emotions as dynamic forces that are simultaneously socio-political, historical, and cultural. Rather than relegating emotions to the realm of individual or psychological phenomena, the volume rigorously foregrounds their collective and discursive dimensions and illustrates how affect both informs and is reconfigured by broader religious, historical, and political milieus. In challenging the conventional “top-down” narratives that have long dominated accounts of Turkish modernity, the volume is critical in exposing the fact that these narratives tend to obscure the affective underpinnings of secular authoritarian legacies, Islamist mobilizations, and other transformative processes. This book interweaves historical analysis, personal testimony, and theoretical reflection to argue that any comprehensive understanding of modern Turkey must privilege emotions as central analytical categories. Furthermore, the book interrogates and transcends dominant Eurocentric frameworks and advocates for a multidisciplinary approach that synthesizes insights from anthropology, philosophy, sociology, theology, history, and religious studies. The volume mobilizes concepts such as “ Ummah- hood,” “hüzün ,” and religiously inflected emotional communities, and in so doing it not only expands traditional Western theoretical frames but also illuminates the profound cultural sensitivities and the enduring influence of Islamic intellectual traditions on the affective landscape.