Gendered Fortunes

Zeynep K. Korkman is Assistant Professor of Gender Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

• Acknowledgments  ixIntroduction. Gendered Fortunes  1Part I. The Religious, the Superstitious, and the Postsecular1. Crimes of Divination  372. The Gendered Politics of Secularism  593. Feeling Postsecular  87Part II. Femininity, Intimacy, and Publics4. Feeling Publics of Femininity  1115. The Joys and Perils of Intimacy  139Part III. Feeling Labor, Precarity, and Entrepreneurialism6. Feeling Labors of Divination  1617. Entrepreneurial Fortunes  193Coda. Feminist Divinations  221Notes  225References  241Index  263

"Gendered Fortunes contributes to multiple disciplines like gender studies, Middle Eastern studies, critical theory, and social sciences. Beyond all the theoretical novelty, conceptual clarity, and historical complexity, anthropologists and ethnographers will particularly enjoy meeting the many eccentric but familiar characters coming alive through Korkman’s masterfully crafted ethnography. Gendered Fortunes is poised to become the go-to fun and interesting text in undergraduate anthropology syllabi to teach gender, religion, and secularism in postsecular Turkey."- Deniz Duruiz (American Anthropologist) "This book is innovative, thought-provoking, and well-written. It offers novel insights for scholars interested in feminist scholarship on gendered labour and its affective modalities in the age of neoliberalism. Moreover, it is a necessary read for those who aim to grasp the shifting terms of the affective atmosphere in the political sphere and public culture of millennial Turkey and how divination publics constitute novel public arrangements at the intersection of gender precarities, emotions, affect, neoliberalism and postsecularism." - Didem Unal (Feminist Encounters) “In her pivotal scholarly work, Gendered Fortunes Zeynep K. Korkman embarks on a penetrating exploration of fortune-telling cafÉs of Istanbul. . . . [T]he book offers an enriched and nuanced perspective, shedding light on the intricate interplay between Turkey’s gender politics, the shifts wrought by neoliberal transformations since the 1980s, and the layered historical debates sur­rounding Turkish secularism.”- Koray Öcal (Gender, Place & Culture) "The book’s strength lies in its theoretical sophistication, substantiated by an extensive and rich ethnography, and in its unique focus on, at first glance, a niche topic of feminized publics, intimacies, and gendered labors. Yet Korkman’s rigorous analysis illustrates how these themes serve as an important entryway into the discussion of (post)secularism, the textures of neoliberal precarity, and cultural politics in urban Turkey." - Tatiana Rabinovich (American Ethnologist) "This book will interest students of gender and sexuality, those studying Turkey under the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), and anyone interested in learning about minority communities resisting growing rightwing extremism threatening their rights." - Laïla Véissid (Middle East Journal) "A fascinating book on fortunetelling in twenty-first-century Istanbul. . . . Korkman’s feminist perspective is highly informative, shedding light on how various actors in this fortune-telling economy-including secular Muslim women and LGBTIQ individuals-experience 'the anxieties of the postsecular condition'. . . ." - Volkan Aytra (Contemporary Sociology)