The Street of the Cauldron Makers

Summary:

A well-known Turkish novelist confronts her country's modern history on a nondescript street in Istanbul.

Website:

http://www.homelands.org

Additional Credits and Funding:

Worlds of Difference executive producer is Jon Miller
Major funding by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Rockefeller Foundation

Tones:

Contemplative, Melancholic, Personal

Description:

Turkish novelist Elif Shafak, who was prosecuted and acquitted in 2006 for "insulting Turkishness" in her novel The Bastard of Istanbul, takes us on a tour of the steep, narrow street where she once lived and wrote. Shafak sees Kazanci Yokushu, the "Street of the Cauldron Makers," as a metaphor for Turkey's modern history -- a place where the nation's battles over identity, modernity, ethnicity and minority rights have played out in miniature over the decades. The piece was produced by Sandy Tolan with help from Melissa Robbins.

New to PRX?

Learn More | Sign Up