Elif Shafak and Emine Sevgi Özdamar: Politics of Fiction, Re-Negotiating
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University of Salzburg Ghent University English and Creative Industries Comparative Science of Cultures Elif Shafak and Emine Sevgi Özdamar: Politics of Fiction, Re-negotiating Secularism, Decolonial Feminism and Decolonial AestheSis Elif Şimşek 2016 Student Number (University of Salzburg): 1022931 Student Number (Ghent University): 01111230 Supervisors: Prof. Ralph Poole Department of English and American Studies University of Salzburg, Austria Prof. Dr. Chia Longman Department of Languages and Cultures Ghent University, Belgium Co-supervisor: Prof. Dr. Christine Kanz Department of German Literature Ghent University, Belgium Jury members: University of Salzburg Dean: Prof. Dr. Martin Weichbold (University of Salzburg) Rector: Prof. Dr. Heinrich Schmidinger (University of Salzburg) Faculty: Faculty of Cultural and Social Sciences Ghent University Dean: Prof. Dr. Marc Boone (Ghent University) Rector: Prof. Dr. Anne De Paepe (Ghent University) Faculty: Faculty of Arts and Philosophy Doctoral Advisory Committee (DBC Commissie at UGhent): Prof. Dr. Stef Craps Department of Literary Studies Ghent University, Belgium Prof. Dr. Marysa Demoor Department of Literary Studies Ghent University, Belgium Colofon Elif Şimşek, Elif Shafak and Emine Sevgi Özdamar: Politics of Fiction, Re-negotiating Secularism, Decolonial Feminism and Decolonial AestheSis, 2016 Elif Şimşek Elif Shafak and Emine Sevgi Özdamar: Politics of Fiction, Re-negotiating Secularism, Decolonial Feminism and Decolonial AestheSis A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy at Faculty of Cultural and Social Sciences; English Studies and the Creative Industries and Faculty of Arts and Philosophy; Comparative Science of Cultures The University of Salzburg & Ghent University 2016 I speak out of the deep of night, out of the deep of darkness, and out of the deep of night I speak. If you come to my house friend, bring me a lamp and a window I can look through at the crowd in the happy alley. Forough Farrokhzad vii Acknowledgements A dissertation is the final product of a long and intensive journey. Along this journey I moved across national, spatial, cultural, and even psychological borders. Traveling between Ghent, Salzburg, Istanbul and my hometown Gaziantep, the period of research and writing of my dissertation was a personal challenge. I could not have embarked on and endured without the ones who supported and inspired me throughout this period. The people whom I owe the most gratitude are my supervisors prof. dr. Chia Longman and prof. dr. Poole and my co-supervisor prof. dr Christine Kanz. Many thanks go to Chia Longman, as she never knew this but her very initial mail proposing me a joint doctorate came as a silver lining in my life in January 2011. I warmly thank Ralph Poole who through our last meeting patiently listened to my dilemmas. And Christine Kanz, thank you for your lovely smiles which were always so stimulating. My deep and sincere gratitude go to my colleagues at the Ghent University Centre for Research on Culture and Gender, who through my stay in Ghent all contributed to making our research group into a supportive, stimulating, and yes enjoyable environment. Special mention goes to Tine Brouckaert, Katrine de Graeve, An van Raemdonck, Fiorella Bucci and especially Nella van den Brandt for being peers along the road of writing my dissertation, for lunches, coffee and motivational conversations. Nella, your kind spirit would be an unforgettable inspiration all my life. In Ghent I was lucky to share my time with precious friends like Fatma Arıkoğlu. My comrade Fatma, I have learned a lot from you! If I have become someone caring more and more about not giving into the consumer society, it is because of you. You spoke out the pain to which I could not find the words for. Aysu ve Oya’yı öpüyorum, düğme burunlar! Reyhan, I am sure one day we will travel ‘somewhere only we know’. Hatice, my dear roommate at Antwerpsesteenweg, sing me songs in Kurdish forever. Semiha and Saliha, best sisters of Ghent, let’s meet at Godot and fill our evenings with joy and laughter. Hande, Hatice, Merve B., Merve Ç., and Azize, it was great to have you as flatmates. Saila, you are a beautiful creature of mother earth who embraces her compassion and anger with such grace. The Leuven camp, Merve Reyhan, Sinem, Fatma Zehra, Hatice Nur, Abdullah, thank you for your conversations and motivation. viii Through our lives one meets people with whom she develops a special bond, Özlem you are one of them. Talking politics, philosophy, womanhood and encouraging eachother towards anarchist thoughts, this is what I love about our years long friendship. Fikriye, Zeynep T., Nilgün hodja, and Bihter, with you this process was more bearable. Thank you for your patience in enduring a creature who does not understand the naiveness of life. Mediha, the critical giantess, you are the only woman I know who can make clever and funky jokes about hot topics. My sincere gratitude to my childhood friend Şerife, who challenged the very idea of time and space through my stay in Ghent. All the Zeynep’s and Mohammed’s in my life, thank you guys for jumping into the toughest period of my life. Zuhal, I know your door in Istanbul is always open to a homeless traveller. Looking forward to honouring another concert with our presence. My sincere gratitude to the Salzburg community. Leyla abla I will miss our breakfast sessions and conversations, let’s repeat them. Özlem, thank you very much for sharing your flat with me while staying in Salzburg. The Eşkil sisters and Fatma abla, I have no words to describe the beauty of your kinship. Hümeyra, ‘cycling’ between borders in terms of time and space, no one is better than you. My gratitude goes to the soundtrack of this work. Sigur Ros, Asgeir, Agnes Obel, of Monsters and Men, Aurora, Anna Ternheim, Pallett, Marjan Farsad, Mahsa Vahdat and many other Icelandic and Middle Eastern melodies. I dedicate my dissertation to the angry people of the world, who are in the south and in the north, in the west and the east, who are in diaspora, who are at home, who are in Ferguson and Baltimore, who are in Gaza, who are in Damascus, Idlib and Aleppo caught between the fires of the puppets of imperialism, all the angry children of Olympos and Hira. And last but not least, I need to thank my family members who have been invaluable throughout the years for support, enthousiasm, worries and believing in me. My mother and father, thank you for teaching me not to go along but go beyond the lines of life. My sisters Feyza and Hilal, my best friends in life, thank you for being patient with such a crabby sister like me. You always manage to weaken the fabric of the universe by flinging down the very idea of time and space. My brother Mohammed, you are the most precious gift Allah has given me in this life. We, the women of the Şimşek’s, are ix fortunate to have a man like you by our sides who is always ready to sooth us at times of emotional chaos. Grooms of the Şimşek’s, I could not spend enough time with you through this tough period, but always felt your support. And lastly, Ayşe Bahar, the joy of my life. Life has become meaningful with you three years ago. When auntie looked into the innocence, purity, peace, love, and simplicity in your eyes, she instantly forgot about her distress, her emotional fatigue, her hopelessness. Auntie loves you so much! Al- Hamdulillah. x Table of Contents Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………..………...vii Chapter 1. Introduction ………………………………………………………………….1 1.1. Why Stories Matter.........……………………………………………………1 1.2. Mapping the Scope and Methodology…….………………………………...9 1.3. The Decolonial Feminist Paradigm In-Depth……………………………...18 1.4. Towards Decolonial Aesthesis and Rethinking Aesthetics………………..20 1.5. Zeitgeist of the Study: From where I stand, Breaking Silence and Voicing Complexity……………………………………………………………….……..24 1.6. Chapter Outline…………………………………………………………….31 Chapter 2. Mapping the Scope of a Social and Political History of the Turkish Feminist Paradigm and Modernization Interwoven with Literature……………………………..34 2.1. Introduction ……………………………………………………..…….......34 2.2. Is Secularism Simply an Impasse for the Turkish “State”? ……………….40 2.3. Late Ottoman Feminism and Secularism Through Sociopolitical Activism…..…………………………………………………………………….45 2.4. The Secular-Kemalist Feminist Path: Early Symptoms of “White Turk” Orientalism……………………………………………………………...………52 2.5. The Neo-Kemalist and Liberal Bourgeois Feminist Paradigm: A self- Colonization of the “White Turk” Secular Feminist………………………...…61 Chapter 3. From Colonial/Modern AestheTics to Decolonial AestheSis: Shafak and Özdamar as the Nomadic Avant-Gardes………………………...……………………..73 3.1. Introduction………………………………………………...………………73 3.2. Understanding Decolonial AestheSis…………………..……………….…77 3.3. Exploring the Process of the Modern/Colonial AestheTics in Turkey and xi the Significance of Story Writing..…………………………………………......78 3.4. Succes or Backlash: The “March 12th” Revolutionary Female Authors.....85 3.5. Ayşe Kulin: A Contemporary Self-Proclaimed Feminist Author……….....87 3.6. Decolonial AestheSis and the “Other” Tongue……………………………89 Chapter 4. Elif Shafak’s The Bastard of Istanbul Diasporic Subjectivities, Border Crossings and the Decolonial Imaginary…….…………………………………….….106 4.1. Introduction………………………………………...…………….……….106 4.2. Turkish Feminism’s Dissapointed Daughter: Elif Shafak and the Politics of Her Fiction…………………………………….………………………..……..108 4.3. The Bastard of Istanbul: Decolonial (Feminist) Imaginary and Diasporic Subjectivities……………..…………….……………………………………...125 4.4. Storytelling in Shafak’s BI: A Feminist Strategy of Unfolding Buried Memories and Disrupting Power Structures.………………………………….128 4.5. Entering the Decolonial Feminist Terrain with The Bastard of Istanbul...131 4.5.1. Auntie Banu: The Sufi Mystic (hi)Story-Teller and Time/Space Traveler………………………………………...……………………...132 4.5.2. Auntie Zeliha’s Non-Believing, In-Between and Resisting Subjectivity………………………………………………….……...…142 4.5.3. The Emancipated Turkish Woman Discourse of Kemalism and Petite-Ma………………………………………………………………148 4.5.4.