| Abstrakt: |
The paper focuses on Village Institutes, schools that were established in the early years of the Turkish Republic and had an integral part in the nationformation process of Turkey. The purpose of this paper is to inquire how a former Village Institute in a Tatar village is remembered by its graduates, village inhabitants, and people who are nostalgic to the enlightenment ideals these schools represented. The paper is based on an ethnographic study, which includes interviews conducted with the former students, the elderly in the village, and the members of an NGO called YKKED (Yeni Kusak Köy Enstitülüler Dernegi) "New Generation Village Institutes Association". This paper investigates the voluntary practices to remember these schools, yet also discusses the possibility of involuntary memory in modern times by approaching the ruins of the former Village Institute as an affective space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
