Imperial nostalgia and conspicuous consumption: Remembrance of scents past

The consumption of the past is impossible without the production of the past. In a capitalist threshold where everything is subject to the economy, the production and consumption of the past entail a highly political intervention into what has the right to exist without economically meaning anything. This thesis aims to undertake such an interpretation through the lens of Neo-Ottomanism, which seeks dominance in Turkey. To this end, the thesis is divided into three parts. The first part will examine the history of Neo-Ottomanism. It will explore the inspirations before 1980, Turkey's shift from a neo-liberalized desire for becoming a Little Ottoman Empire in the 1980s to 2000s, ultimately becoming the New Turkey of present-day Neo-Ottoman politics with their criticisms. The second part will investigate Neo-Ottoman consumption in Turkey, analyzing how conservatism has transformed into a consumerist ideology, how history is conditioned for this consumption, how the ideology of conquest in both public and private spheres merges with a politically expansive consumerism, and the impact of nostalgia on this consumption will be discussed. This section will focus on a study of Neo-Ottomanism that is devoid of essentialism, non-foundationalist, and compared with global examples. Last section will directly engage with Neo-Ottoman producers and consumers, examining Sultandan.com, which attempts to stand out with authenticity in the competition of Neo-Ottoman consumption. This section will discuss the commodification of the Ottoman Empire, the inclusion of the sultanate in the influencer economy, and the perception of the consumer. Neo-Ottomanism is as much a historical as it is a societal reconstruction. This reconstruction of history and society aims not only for conservatism but also to produce the consumerist neoliberal individual. Consequently, Neo-Ottoman consumption not only limits the past of this individual but also limits their future, ultimately shaping everyday life with a very limited political horizon.