Istanbul, Cairo and the Demography of Babel

Martin Stokes

Istanbul, Cairo and the Demography of Babel

Music

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

This afterword considers Istanbul as a site of translation (architectural, acoustic, sonic, musical, poetic) – an approach to the city richly suggested in all of the articles in this special issue. Might we consider the matter of translation in terms of the kinds of (radically opposed) comparative epistemologies that were being developed in Istanbul by Auerbach and Spitzer (principally, but other refugee scholars too, considering the work of Emily Apter) in the 1930s? How – viewed through such a lens – has Istanbul been configured as a global site of translation “between East and West,” and how have Istanbul’s intellectual worlds themselves forged the very terms with which we think “between East and West” (or “globally”). And what happens when we replace or enhance “comparative literature” with “comparative music/sound studies” as our framework? Does this make Istanbul “special,” in historical terms?

Original language	English
Number of pages	18
Journal	WORLD OF MUSIC
Volume	13
Issue number	2
Publication status	Accepted/In press - 9 Sept 2024

Keywords

Istanbul, Cairo, translation, comparative musicology, comparative literature, ethnomusicology

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Embargoed Document

09_Stokes_Afterword
Submitted manuscript, 57.4 KB
Embargo ends: 28/02/2025

Cite this

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Istanbul, Cairo and the Demography of Babel

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

Embargoed Document

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