ARTICLES by Despina Magkanari
in James Raven (ed), Global Exchanges of Knowledge in the Long Eighteenth Century: Ideas and Materialities c. 1650-1850, Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2023, 243-268.
This chapter examines a significant orientalist work of the late seventeenth century, Barthélemy ... more This chapter examines a significant orientalist work of the late seventeenth century, Barthélemy d’Herbelot’s Bibliothèque orientale, and its various editions in the latter half of the eighteenth century. The analysis engages with the intellectual as well as the material, situating them both in the context of Western scholarship and cross-cultural encounter during this critical period for the global history of Orientalist knowledge. Tracing the ways in which local knowledge is negotiated and reconfigured, this study shows that the perspective of the Bibliothèque orientale, in its various versions (and both the methodology of the authors and the editorial decisions that have given a new form to the work), places it at the intersection of different historiographical traditions (Ottoman, Arabic, Persian, Chinese, European). Additionally, the investigation considers the challenges and filters of different types (political, religious, economic and corporate) related to the production, circulation and validation of knowledge, as revealed in the case of the later editions of the Bibliothèque orientale. It considers, in particular, issues relating to print strategies, non-authorised editions (1776, Maastricht; 1777-79, The Hague) and then addresses the impact of editorial form on the circulation of knowledge. The chapter consequently explores the relation between material form and intellectual development and examines how the study of both the form and the content of these reprints and in particular the official later edition (Paris, 1781-83), can help us to grasp the articulation between the editorial practices and the demands and expectations of an expanding audience during the late Enlightenment.
European Journal of Turkish Studies, 2017
The present article undertakes an interrogation of the genealogy of the Turkish cultural area. Ch... more The present article undertakes an interrogation of the genealogy of the Turkish cultural area. Challenging some readings influenced by subsequent institutional and disciplinary boundaries, I propose to focus on the period preceding the first institutionalizations in order to capture the process of intellectual autonomization of the field of Turcology and to point out the role that early-European sinologists played in the identification and delimitation of a Central Asian Turkish world. This account is intended to contribute to recent attempts to historicize the study of Orientalist knowledge production, informed by a socio-cultural approach to knowledge, allowing us to grasp the dynamics relating to the connections and circulations in the global context of the early modern era. The question is one of an open and complex process – marked by constraints and possibilities – that can only be understood by means of close and subtle contextualized analysis.
PhD DISSERTATION by Despina Magkanari
PhD Dissertation, 2019
ABSTRACT
This thesis focuses on the 17th and 18th centuries west European scholars' efforts to d... more ABSTRACT
This thesis focuses on the 17th and 18th centuries west European scholars' efforts to define and understand the era and space of Turkic peoples before the emergence of the Ottoman Empire. Its purpose is to scrutinize the process of intellectual autonomization of Turkology namely to explore the genesis of Turkology as a distinct field within the larger corpus of Oriental studies; to study the archaeology of the field; to unveil the process of the early modern European scholarly engagement with Eastern civilizations; and ultimately to historicize the Orientalist production. Based upon socio-cultural approaches regarding knowledge production, this thesis aims to study primarily the material realities, alongside the practices of the actors. Special emphasis is thus laid on the interplay among individual trajectories, institutional, material and intellectual conditions, and scholarly production. Furthermore, this thesis seeks to place the production of this knowledge within the intercultural encounter of the first globalization, revealing the key role of the "transnational" circulations and exchanges that took place within the Eurasian space. In other words, this thesis raises questions related to the impact of the intellectual globalization, without losing sight of the local dynamics and individual aspirations and intentions, in relation to ways of re-appropriation and interpretation. The ultimate purpose of this dissertation is thus to make sense of the various ways that the early modern west European scholarship invested on the Asiatic historiographical traditions, to invent yet also reconfigure new forms of comprehension of the past of Turkic peoples.
Thèse de doctorat, 2019
RESUME
Cette thèse porte sur l'émergence en Europe, au cours des XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles, d'un doma... more RESUME
Cette thèse porte sur l'émergence en Europe, au cours des XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles, d'un domaine d’étude qui prend comme objet le temps et l'espace turcs de l'époque pré-ottomane. Notre propos est de saisir le processus d'autonomisation intellectuelle du domaine de la turcologie, au sein du domaine plus large des études orientales, de décrire la genèse d'un champ d'études, de faire en d'autres termes une archéologie du domaine des études turques ou de l'aire culturelle turque. Notre enquête s'inscrit dans l'étude de l'engagement savant européen sur la connaissance et la compréhension des civilisations orientales : un engagement qu’elle tente d'historiciser, en s'inspirant de l'approche socio-culturelle des savoirs. Il s'agit, d'une part, d'étudier la production de ce savoir en prenant en considération les réalités matérielles et les pratiques concrètes des acteurs, d'interroger le lien entre les trajectoires individuelles des savants, les conditions institutionnelles, matérielles et intellectuelles et l'élaboration de concepts et de connaissances. De l'autre, notre recherche tente de varier les registres temporels et spatiaux d'analyse, et de situer la production de ce savoir dans la rencontre interculturelle de la première globalisation et, tout particulièrement, dans le cadre des circulations « transnationales » qui se produisent à l’intérieur de l'espace eurasiatique, tout en prenant en considération le rôle des dynamiques locales et les phénomènes de réappropriations, de traductions et de reconfigurations. Nous avons ainsi souhaité mettre en lumière la manière dont les traditions historiographiques des peuples asiatiques, investies et reconfigurées par les savants européens, motivés eux-mêmes par leurs propres interrogations et appliquant des méthodes élaborées dans un contexte culturel différent, ont conduit à l'invention de nouvelles formes d'appréhension des réalités spatio-temporelles turques.
RESEARCH PROJECTS by Despina Magkanari
PAPERS by Despina Magkanari
International Conference Oriental Manuscripts in Germany. Collection History Between the Academic Thirst of Knowledge, Antique Trade Across the Globe, and Imperial Claims to Power, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin-Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, 29 June-1 July 2022.
International workshop Re-examining Empires from the Margins: Towards a New Imperial History of Europe, Munich Centre for Global History, Munich, 22-23 October 2021
Literary Citizenship Conference, National Library of Norway, Oslo, 25-27 September, 2019
Workshop Philology and Comparative History of Cultures Oriental Studies in Europe and East Asia from the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Century, Institute of History of Philology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, April 26-27, 2019
International Conference Balkan Worlds IV: The ‘Great Ideas’ of the Balkans (18th – 20th c.), University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, November 29- December 1, 2018
International Conference Archives in the Age of Digital Humanities, Colégio do Espírito Santo, University of Evora, Evora, 24-25 October, 2018
International Conference The Circulation of Linguistic and Philological Knowledge between Germany and the World 16th-20th c., Labex TransferS-SHESL-SLP, École Normale Supérieure, Paris, 25-27 January, 2018
International Conference TURKOLOGENTAG-Second European Convention on Turkic, Ottoman and Turkish Studies, Hamburg, 14-17 September, 2016
International Conference Matières à transfaire. Espace-temps d’une globalisation (post)-ottomane, Paris, 7-9 September, 2016
International Workshop Toward a Transnational History of Turkish Studies (18th-20th Century), Institut Français d’Études Anatoliennes (IFEA), Istanbul, 18-19 February, 2016
TALKS by Despina Magkanari
Online talk at the Forschungskolloquium Kulturgeschichte der Frühen Neuzeit, Prof. Dr. Daniela Hacke and Prof. Dr. Alexander Schunka, Freie Universität Berlin-Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut, Berlin, 2 February, 2021
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ARTICLES by Despina Magkanari
PhD DISSERTATION by Despina Magkanari
This thesis focuses on the 17th and 18th centuries west European scholars' efforts to define and understand the era and space of Turkic peoples before the emergence of the Ottoman Empire. Its purpose is to scrutinize the process of intellectual autonomization of Turkology namely to explore the genesis of Turkology as a distinct field within the larger corpus of Oriental studies; to study the archaeology of the field; to unveil the process of the early modern European scholarly engagement with Eastern civilizations; and ultimately to historicize the Orientalist production. Based upon socio-cultural approaches regarding knowledge production, this thesis aims to study primarily the material realities, alongside the practices of the actors. Special emphasis is thus laid on the interplay among individual trajectories, institutional, material and intellectual conditions, and scholarly production. Furthermore, this thesis seeks to place the production of this knowledge within the intercultural encounter of the first globalization, revealing the key role of the "transnational" circulations and exchanges that took place within the Eurasian space. In other words, this thesis raises questions related to the impact of the intellectual globalization, without losing sight of the local dynamics and individual aspirations and intentions, in relation to ways of re-appropriation and interpretation. The ultimate purpose of this dissertation is thus to make sense of the various ways that the early modern west European scholarship invested on the Asiatic historiographical traditions, to invent yet also reconfigure new forms of comprehension of the past of Turkic peoples.
Cette thèse porte sur l'émergence en Europe, au cours des XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles, d'un domaine d’étude qui prend comme objet le temps et l'espace turcs de l'époque pré-ottomane. Notre propos est de saisir le processus d'autonomisation intellectuelle du domaine de la turcologie, au sein du domaine plus large des études orientales, de décrire la genèse d'un champ d'études, de faire en d'autres termes une archéologie du domaine des études turques ou de l'aire culturelle turque. Notre enquête s'inscrit dans l'étude de l'engagement savant européen sur la connaissance et la compréhension des civilisations orientales : un engagement qu’elle tente d'historiciser, en s'inspirant de l'approche socio-culturelle des savoirs. Il s'agit, d'une part, d'étudier la production de ce savoir en prenant en considération les réalités matérielles et les pratiques concrètes des acteurs, d'interroger le lien entre les trajectoires individuelles des savants, les conditions institutionnelles, matérielles et intellectuelles et l'élaboration de concepts et de connaissances. De l'autre, notre recherche tente de varier les registres temporels et spatiaux d'analyse, et de situer la production de ce savoir dans la rencontre interculturelle de la première globalisation et, tout particulièrement, dans le cadre des circulations « transnationales » qui se produisent à l’intérieur de l'espace eurasiatique, tout en prenant en considération le rôle des dynamiques locales et les phénomènes de réappropriations, de traductions et de reconfigurations. Nous avons ainsi souhaité mettre en lumière la manière dont les traditions historiographiques des peuples asiatiques, investies et reconfigurées par les savants européens, motivés eux-mêmes par leurs propres interrogations et appliquant des méthodes élaborées dans un contexte culturel différent, ont conduit à l'invention de nouvelles formes d'appréhension des réalités spatio-temporelles turques.
RESEARCH PROJECTS by Despina Magkanari
PAPERS by Despina Magkanari
TALKS by Despina Magkanari
This thesis focuses on the 17th and 18th centuries west European scholars' efforts to define and understand the era and space of Turkic peoples before the emergence of the Ottoman Empire. Its purpose is to scrutinize the process of intellectual autonomization of Turkology namely to explore the genesis of Turkology as a distinct field within the larger corpus of Oriental studies; to study the archaeology of the field; to unveil the process of the early modern European scholarly engagement with Eastern civilizations; and ultimately to historicize the Orientalist production. Based upon socio-cultural approaches regarding knowledge production, this thesis aims to study primarily the material realities, alongside the practices of the actors. Special emphasis is thus laid on the interplay among individual trajectories, institutional, material and intellectual conditions, and scholarly production. Furthermore, this thesis seeks to place the production of this knowledge within the intercultural encounter of the first globalization, revealing the key role of the "transnational" circulations and exchanges that took place within the Eurasian space. In other words, this thesis raises questions related to the impact of the intellectual globalization, without losing sight of the local dynamics and individual aspirations and intentions, in relation to ways of re-appropriation and interpretation. The ultimate purpose of this dissertation is thus to make sense of the various ways that the early modern west European scholarship invested on the Asiatic historiographical traditions, to invent yet also reconfigure new forms of comprehension of the past of Turkic peoples.
Cette thèse porte sur l'émergence en Europe, au cours des XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles, d'un domaine d’étude qui prend comme objet le temps et l'espace turcs de l'époque pré-ottomane. Notre propos est de saisir le processus d'autonomisation intellectuelle du domaine de la turcologie, au sein du domaine plus large des études orientales, de décrire la genèse d'un champ d'études, de faire en d'autres termes une archéologie du domaine des études turques ou de l'aire culturelle turque. Notre enquête s'inscrit dans l'étude de l'engagement savant européen sur la connaissance et la compréhension des civilisations orientales : un engagement qu’elle tente d'historiciser, en s'inspirant de l'approche socio-culturelle des savoirs. Il s'agit, d'une part, d'étudier la production de ce savoir en prenant en considération les réalités matérielles et les pratiques concrètes des acteurs, d'interroger le lien entre les trajectoires individuelles des savants, les conditions institutionnelles, matérielles et intellectuelles et l'élaboration de concepts et de connaissances. De l'autre, notre recherche tente de varier les registres temporels et spatiaux d'analyse, et de situer la production de ce savoir dans la rencontre interculturelle de la première globalisation et, tout particulièrement, dans le cadre des circulations « transnationales » qui se produisent à l’intérieur de l'espace eurasiatique, tout en prenant en considération le rôle des dynamiques locales et les phénomènes de réappropriations, de traductions et de reconfigurations. Nous avons ainsi souhaité mettre en lumière la manière dont les traditions historiographiques des peuples asiatiques, investies et reconfigurées par les savants européens, motivés eux-mêmes par leurs propres interrogations et appliquant des méthodes élaborées dans un contexte culturel différent, ont conduit à l'invention de nouvelles formes d'appréhension des réalités spatio-temporelles turques.