Elif Shafak: The revolutionary power of diverse thought
إليف شفق: القوة الثورية للفكر المتنوع
Elif Shafak explicitly defies definition -- her writing blends East and West, feminism and tradition, the local and the global, Sufism and rationalism, creating one of today's most unique voices in literature. Full bio
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that caught me by surprise.
at a literary festival,
experience an overlap in their senses
حواسهم
by this subject, myself included.
وأنا منهم
and said, "Yeah, I know all of that.
نعم أعلم كل ذلك
We learned it at school.
of food and ingredients
get hungry when you write?
maybe you could taste words.
الكلمات
has a different color,
is quite pungent, almost perfumed,
تقريباً معطر
all of this to the teenager,
what I was trying to convey
allowed me to say.
in similar situations:
and I stopped talking.
the truth was complicated,
remain silent for fear of complexity.
to give on that day.
اليوم
a different flavor than sad words.
الكلمات الحزينة
the word "creativity" taste like,
this last word that troubles me.
تزعجني
there's more and more people
the culture, the land, the food.
by its politics and politicians,
of despair or hurt or anger.
our emotional intelligence.
pays very little attention to emotions.
بقليل من الاهتمام للمشاعر.
are so busy with data and metrics
ينشغلون جداَ بالبيانات والمقاييس
those things in life
under statistical models.
الإحصائية.
for two main reasons.
I think we all are like that.
a new stage in world history
guide and misguide politics
and social networking,
الاجتماعية
around the world quite fast.
بسرعة كبيرة
about economic factors,
الاقتصادية،
about emotional factors.
العاطفية.
feelings and perceptions?
of our biggest intellectual challenges,
الفكرية لدينا،
are replete with emotions.
exploiting these emotions.
المشاعر.
and among the intelligentsia,
on economic inequality worldwide,
المساواة الاقتصادية في جميع انحاء العالم،
to emotional and cognitive gaps worldwide
للمشاعر والثغرات المعرفية حول العالم
living in Istanbul,
women writers in the Middle East
الأوسط
in our exchange, she said,
why you're not a feminist,
into two imaginary camps,
خياليين
were liquid countries.
not yet settled.
namely the West,
that needed feminism
unfortunate enough
for these most essential values.
would someday catch up.
in the progress of history
of other people elsewhere,
did not have to struggle
was shattered to pieces.
this dualistic pattern
does not necessarily move forward.
أن يتقدم للأمام.
can make the same mistakes
versus liquid countries.
in liquid times,
definition for our age.
to be walking on moving sands.
المتحركة
slide backwards into authoritarianism,
للاستبداد
to be a vital moment,
for global sisterhood as well.
before I go any further.
أبعد من ذلك.
an international conference or festival,
احتفال
of the more depressed speakers.
and how our dreams of coexistence
التعايش
with a bewildering speed,
quite demoralized.
some other gloomy writers,
الكئيبين
such as Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan,
باكستان
China, Venezuela, Russia.
at each other in sympathy,
Writers International Club.
joined first, came on board.
جاءوا على متن طائرة
from Austria, the Netherlands, France,
هولند،افرنسا
where I live and where I call my home,
الذي أدعوه بلدي
the fate of our nations
in our own motherlands.
very depressed for a long time,
لفترة طويلة
they were so not used to feeling this way
الشعور بهذه الطريقة
from Bangladesh or Turkey or Egypt
مصر
or from post-election USA.
of unprecedented challenges,
enters into the picture.
how collective sentiments work
can benefit from them.
منهم.
belong in our tribes,
if we are surrounded by sameness.
يشابهنا.
and in all shapes.
of a marginal political party
متطرف
preaching dogma and hatred,
والكراهية
Nazi-admiring orator somewhere else.
آخر.
they seem disconnected.
مترابطة.
and how they inspire movements,
الحركات
unmistakable quality in common:
of an authoritarian personality."
of the age we're living in?
فيه؟
I see nuances withering away.
one anti-something speaker
if they shout at each other.
is supposed to be nourished,
أن الفكر لدينا تغذى،
competing with a firmly theist scholar,
between two certainties.
to be complex.
terror attack after another.
and when you react against the cruelty,
القسوة
for civilians in Yemen
who write such messages
الرسائل
and stand in solidarity with
in the Middle East, in Europe,
أوروبا
that we don't have to pick one pain
واحداً من آلامنا
tribalism does to us.
to the suffering of other people.
we weren't always like this.
I did lots of events.
الأحداث
younger kids in Turkey.
في تركيا
how much empathy, imagination
الخيال
to become global citizens
عالميين
when you ask them,
to be poets and writers,
to erase their individuality.
and within ourselves.
I do know that the loss of diversity
the world's biggest jailer
over there in Turkey
was an illusion,
a multiplicity of voices inside.
every ingredient necessary
is to mix those ingredients."
as a global soul, as a world citizen,
عالمية
just like all of us do.
mean multiple stories.
chase stories, of course,
interested in silences,
about and written extensively
to say in a public space
ever, remain silent
صامتاً
no stranger to anxieties,
about the power of emotions --
or a threshold --
have their own tipping points.
الهوية
Khalil Gibran used to say,
the need for global solidarity.
العالمي.
the beauty of cosmopolitanism
with one word, or one taste.
مذاق واحد.
means "motherland."
because it makes me think
to be rooted in one place.
مكان واحد.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Elif Shafak - NovelistElif Shafak explicitly defies definition -- her writing blends East and West, feminism and tradition, the local and the global, Sufism and rationalism, creating one of today's most unique voices in literature.
Why you should listen
Elif Shafak is an award-winning novelist and the most widely read female writer in Turkey. She is also a political commentator and an inspirational public speaker.
She writes in both Turkish and English and has published 15 books, 10 of which are novels, including the bestselling The Bastard of Istanbul, The Forty Rules of Love and her most recent, Three Daughters of Eve. Her books have been published in 48 languages. She is published by Penguin in the UK and represented by Curtis Brown globally.
Shafak is a TEDGlobal speaker, a member of Weforum Global Agenda Council on Creative Economy in Davos and a founding member of ECFR (European Council on Foreign Relations). She has been awarded the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2010 by the French government.
She has been featured in and contributes to major newspapers and periodicals around the world, including the Financial Times, The Guardian, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Der Spiegel and La Repubblica.
Shafak has an academic background and has taught at various universities in Turkey, UK and USA. She holds a degree in International Relations, a masters degree in gender and women's studies and a PhD in political science. She is known as a women's rights, minority rights and LGBT rights advocate.
Shafak has been longlisted for the Orange Prize, MAN Asian Prize, the Baileys Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Award, and shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and RSL Ondaatje Prize. She sat on the judging panel for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (2013); Sunday Times Short Story Award (2014, 2015), 10th Women of the Future Awards (2015); FT/Oppenheimer Funds Emerging Voices Awards (2015, 2016); Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction (2016) and Man Booker International Prize (2017).
As a public speaker, Shafak is represented by The London Speaker Bureau and Chartwell Speakers and Penguin Speakers Bureau. She lives in London.
Elif Shafak | Speaker | TED.com