Violent Intimacies - by Asli Zengin

About the Book

Drawing on the history and ethnography of the trans communal life in Istanbul, Aslı Zengin traces how trans people in Turkey creatively negotiate and resist everyday cisheteronormative violence.

Book Synopsis

In Violent Intimacies, Aslı Zengin traces how trans people in Turkey creatively negotiate and resist everyday cisheteronormative violence. Drawing on the history and ethnography of the trans communal life in Istanbul, Zengin develops an understanding of cisheteronormative violence that expands beyond sex, gender and sexuality. She shows how cisheteronormativity forms a connective tissue among neoliberal governmentality, biopolitical and necropolitical regimes, nationalist religiosity and authoritarian management of social difference. As much as trans people are shaped by these processes, they also transform them in intimate ways. Transness in Turkey provides an insightful site for developing new perspectives on statecraft, securitization and surveillance, family and kin-making, urban geography, and political life. Zengin offers the concept of violent intimacies to theorize this entangled world of the trans everyday where violence and intimacy are co-constitutive. Violent intimacies emerge from trans people's everyday interactions with the police, religious and medical institutions, street life, family and kinship, and trans femicides and funerals. The dynamic of violent intimacies prompts new understandings of violence and intimacy and the world-making struggles of trans people in a Middle Eastern context.

Review Quotes

"With her book Violent Intimacies, Asli Zengin takes us on ethnographic journey into worlds largely hidden from many publics: trans communities in Turkey, and specifically in Istanbul. . . . A rich contribution to trans and gender studies in global perspective--and more."--Susan C. Pearce "Turkish Studies" (7/9/2024 12:00:00 AM)

"In this insightful exploration of the intricate dynamics between systemic violence and the resilience of trans people, Aslı Zengin depicts with meticulous care the trans everyday lived amid cisheteronormativity, neoliberal governmentality, and authoritarian management of difference. With exquisite ethnographic sensibility and a profound understanding of the sociopolitical landscape of Turkey, Zengin provides a deep dive into the creative labor of trans and queer communities as they insist on imagining otherwise. The book is a must-read for anyone seeking to grasp the nuanced complexities, joy, and empowerment of trans lives and kin-making under conditions of intensifying state violence, familial abandonment, and death." --Ayse Parla, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Boston University

"An insightful analysis of the trans community of Istanbul and their relationship to the violence they face from the state, medical institutions, and their families. This must-read book makes an important contribution to understanding trans lives beyond North America and Europe."--Afsaneh Najmabadi, author of "Familial Undercurrents: Untold Stories of Love and Marriage in Modern Iran"

About the Author

Aslı Zengin is Assistant Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Rutgers University.