Narrative (re)Constructions: Reading the Formation of Contemporary Istanbul

An attempt to synthesize a framework through which to approach the relationship between space, place, narrative, and power within the conditions of the (post)colonial, (post)imperial, and (post)modern contemporary, this thesis utilizes Spiro Kostof's "Organic" model of urban form to approach the city of Istanbul as the socio-spatial embodiment of a multitude of competing political imaginations of the state and the subject within modern Turkey. Beginning by establishing this theoretical framework, the majority of this piece discusses the relationship between prevailing narrative and ideological imaginations of the city and the material, legal, and social transformations thereby induced from the Tanzimat period to the present. In agreement with prior postcolonial, postimperial, and postmodern theories of geography, this analysis posits that place, space, and identity within contemporary Istanbul are ideologically constituted and are, therefore, inherently dynamic.