Conclusion: Reading and Modernity

Abstract

The preceding chapters have highlighted reading’s importance in the late Ottoman Empire and the early Turkish Republic as well as its occasional elusiveness and unpredictability. We stated at the outset that it would be important to regard reading as an inherently neutral practice, despite the fact that many have seen it as a vehicle for a number of foregone conclusions. Indeed, the study of learning to read and reading underscores the importance of following the diverse practices and tastes of the population whether or not they conform to the dominant political or historiographical expectations, particularly those generated by the state. We have seen how the impulse to spread the practice of reading was pursued by those animated by diametrically opposing outlooks and concerns: imperial and national; cosmopolitan and local; Islamic and secular; dutiful and voluptuary; and individualistic and collective. Likewise, it is important to recall that different readers experienced reading in very different ways, according to distinct modes, moods and contexts. Recognizing the diverse approaches that informed both the motivations and the practices associated with literacy is important in any context, but perhaps especially so in the Ottoman/Turkish case where learning to read and reading have been so freighted with a number of weighty agendas.