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A review by juliwi
Haarem. Looritagune maailm by Alev Lytle Croutier
4.0
When I saw that in celebration of its 25th birthday Harem was available on Netgalley I knew I wanted to dip into it right away. One of the first books written on the topic, Croutier invites the reader into one of the world's most secretive and mysterious secrets: the harem. Combining personal childhood memory with intense research, I'm very glad I got my hands on Harem. Thanks to Abbeville Press and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The idea of the harem is one that has intrigued me and Western culture for a very long time. Orientalism, that complete and utter appropriation of Eastern culture by the West, definitely took the image of the harem and ran with it, imprinting its own repressed sexuality on it. Even though everyone has a picture of what a harem is, most people actually hardly know anything about it. In that sense Croutier's book was a gift 25 years and still is. Croutier discusses almost everything that one would wish to know about the harems throughout the Middle-East but especially focuses on the harem in the palace of Topkapi in Istanbul. The text, as such, jumps about quite a lot, occasionally seeming to move randomly from one topic to the other but Croutier manages to make all them somehow fit together.
I really enjoyed reading Harem, Croutier absolutely caught my attention and I feel much more informed, and chastised, in my opinion about harems. I'd recommend this to anyone who is interested in History and Gender.
For full review: http://universeinwords.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/review-harem-behind-lifted-veil-by-alev.html
The idea of the harem is one that has intrigued me and Western culture for a very long time. Orientalism, that complete and utter appropriation of Eastern culture by the West, definitely took the image of the harem and ran with it, imprinting its own repressed sexuality on it. Even though everyone has a picture of what a harem is, most people actually hardly know anything about it. In that sense Croutier's book was a gift 25 years and still is. Croutier discusses almost everything that one would wish to know about the harems throughout the Middle-East but especially focuses on the harem in the palace of Topkapi in Istanbul. The text, as such, jumps about quite a lot, occasionally seeming to move randomly from one topic to the other but Croutier manages to make all them somehow fit together.
I really enjoyed reading Harem, Croutier absolutely caught my attention and I feel much more informed, and chastised, in my opinion about harems. I'd recommend this to anyone who is interested in History and Gender.
For full review: http://universeinwords.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/review-harem-behind-lifted-veil-by-alev.html