Book contents
- Port Cities of the Eastern Mediterranean
- Port Cities of the Eastern Mediterranean
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Table
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Constructing Europe
- Part III The City’s New Pleasures
- Part IV Identities on the Mediterranean Shore
- 14 Educational Imperialism or Enlightenment?
- 15 The French-Language Press
- 16 Renegotiating Masculinities and Femininities at the Turn of the Century
- 17 Reining in the Free Experiment
- 18 Urban Milieus vs. National Communities
- 19 North-to-South Migration and Its Impact on the Urban Population
- Part V The End of the European Dream
- Part VI Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean Revisited
- Bibliography
- Index
17 - Reining in the Free Experiment
Discourses on Class Formation
from Part IV - Identities on the Mediterranean Shore
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 October 2020
- Port Cities of the Eastern Mediterranean
- Port Cities of the Eastern Mediterranean
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Table
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Constructing Europe
- Part III The City’s New Pleasures
- Part IV Identities on the Mediterranean Shore
- 14 Educational Imperialism or Enlightenment?
- 15 The French-Language Press
- 16 Renegotiating Masculinities and Femininities at the Turn of the Century
- 17 Reining in the Free Experiment
- 18 Urban Milieus vs. National Communities
- 19 North-to-South Migration and Its Impact on the Urban Population
- Part V The End of the European Dream
- Part VI Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean Revisited
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
While cultural practice in the Ottoman port cities showed a rather liberal blending of various shades of modernity, discourse produced by the middle classes intended to rein in the freedom identity development. In chastising mimicry of the West as well as insufficient mastery of modern etiquette, Turkish and Greek bourgeois picked up uponcriticism of port city society by foreign observers. The attribution of class characteristics to nations is also characteristic both of the foreign observers and the local middle class. Attempts to conform to international middle class standards is combined with the need for national distinguishability. Only in rare cases did individuals who did not comply with the conformity the middle class attempt to impose and out themselves as "super-Westernized."
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Port Cities of the Eastern MediterraneanUrban Culture in the Late Ottoman Empire, pp. 266 - 287Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020