Organised by Christian Meyer, project The Invention of the Modern Religious Bookshelf: Canons, Concepts and Communities, Research Area 3: "Future Perfect". This event is part of the lecture series The Invention of the Modern Religious Bookshelf.

There has been a notable rise in interest for works with an esoteric or occultist theme in Turkey over the last twenty years. Authors as diverse as Aleister Crowley, Helena Blavatsky and Dion Fortune have been translated into Turkish over recent years and appear prominently on the shelves of bookstores in the cities of the republic. The esoteric turn in the Turkish publishing world has led upholders of traditional Islamic belief forms to author responses denouncing the dangers of alternative spiritualities, or in some cases engaging with them. These developments have provoked a considerable expansion and diversification of the bookshelves devoted to religion in bookstores, libraries and, of course, private collections.  

To exemplify the diversification of the Turkish religious bookshelf the presentation of Laurent Mignon will focus on works devoted to the devil ranging from works with an openly proselytic religious content to literary works –these two approaches not being necessarily mutually exclusive. However, while acknowledging that there has an been an increased interest for occultism and non-Abrahamic religions in Turkey in the 21^st century, it will be shown, in the second part of the talk, that interest in occultism and Luciferian figures has had a long history in modern Turkish literature that still needs to be studied.

Online participation is possible via Cisco WebEx Meetings: 

https://fu-berlin.webex.com/fu-berlin/j.php?MTID=m0fc869b91ef32a21d3790c2477a82dba