What's in a Culture? What's in a Novel?

Cultural heritage, as an evolving pattern of human interaction, vitalizes members of society. And in our present day world where globalization plays a major role, cultural studies, rather than adherence to literary studies, have gained significance. Thus there has been a trend to shift from traditional literary studies to cultural studies, which takes us to the concept around which this paper is formed. The novel Tales from the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern Turkey by Anastasia Ashman and Jennifer Eaton Gokmen was used and students were asked to write briefly what they learned about the Turkish culture, and their overall views on the book. Interestingly enough, almost all of them believed the book exposed them to a culture they had no prior knowledge about, and a good number of them thought they should follow the footsteps of the expats and immerse themselves in new cultures.