The current volume developed out of an international workshop of the
German Research Foundation's Research Group 530 on "self-narratives in a
transcultural perspective" [DFG-Forschergruppe 530 "Selbstzeugnisse in
transkultureller Per-spektive"] that was held at the Orient-Institut
Istanbul from September 29 until October 2, 2009. The workshop formed
part of a long-standing cooperation with the Orient-Institut Istanbul,
where research on transcultural self-narratives con-tinues beyond the
term of the research group, with the project "Istanbul Memo-ries.
Personal narratives of the late Ottoman period"
(www.istanbulmemories.org). The stimulating discussions at the
Orient-Institut Istanbul centered around the multifaceted interplay
between dress and person/personhood in written self-narratives or ego
documents. By focusing on "Fashioning the Self in Transcul-tural
Settings: The Uses and Significance of Dress in Self-Narratives," we
hoped to supplement the existing research on self-narratives with the
dimension of ma-terial culture. In the workshop light was shed on the
potential of dress to shape identities, to express forms of affiliation
or foreignness, as well as on vestimen-tary practices. Were clothes
simply purchased to be worn, to possess, and to give away as a gift or
in barter trade? During the presentations and discussions it be-came
clear that new insights might be gleaned if one widens the focus in
self-narratives, beyond material culture to include the consideration of
other sources such as trousseau inventories or account books.
