Maria Theresa, “The Turk,” and Habsburg Nostalgia

Bibliographic Data

ID22345942
AuthorsElizabeth Bridges (0000-0003-2926-8281, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume47
Issue2
Pages17-36
Publication date2014-06-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Austrian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2165-669X • E-ISSN: 2327-1809
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/oas.2014.0024
OpenAlexW2047550243
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited5

Presented by royal engineer Wolfgang von Kempelen, “The Turk” was a chess-playing automaton that debuted in the court of Maria Theresa in 1770 and defied skeptics of the illusion for decades. This article contends that, viewed in terms of the specific time and place of its creation, the automaton serves as a nexus of mixed nostalgic and fearful associations with the Ottoman world. On the one hand, the Turk’s stereotypical—yet, in that period, stylish—appearance and von Kempelen’s playful presentations of the automaton reflected evolving perceptions of the Ottomans that had developed during the relative peace after the 1739 Treaty of Belgrade. On the other hand, the automaton would also have invoked equally powerful associations of Turks as warlike and inscrutable, drawing on memories of a series of bloody conflicts. Beyond the fantasy of winning lost battles and regaining lost territories, the chess-playing Turk also offers a template for understanding nostalgia more generally: as an inherently unwinnable scenario that seeks to recapture a golden past

Art · Automaton · Cognitive psychology · Epistemology · Fantasy · Illusion · Literature · Skepticism · Balkans: History, Politics, Society · Central European national history · Computer Science · European Cultural and National Identity · History · Philosophy · Psychology · Artificial Intelligence

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