Copyright by Hülya Yıldız 2008 The Dissertation Committee for Hülya Yıldız Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Literature as Public Sphere: Gender and Sexuality in Ottoman Turkish Novels and Journals Committee: Ann Cvetkovich, Supervisor Kamran Asdar Ali, Co-Supervisor Elizabeth Richmond-Garza Samer Ali Sonia Seeman Yıldıray Erdener Literature as Public Sphere: Gender and Sexuality in Ottoman Turkish Novels and Journals by Hülya Yıldız, B.A.; M.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August, 2008 Dedication To Hamdi and Hamide Yıldız, my parents Acknowledgements This study would not have been possible without the contributions of many individuals and institutions over the years. With the risk of unintentionally leaving someone out, I would like to thank those who have trained, helped, supported and funded my research and me. I would first like to thank my committee members who have inspired, challenged, supported, and improved my work. My co-chairs, Ann Cvetkovich and Kamran Asdar Ali, have been generous supporters and kind critics. Ann Cvetkovich has helped me to develop a fuller sense of the roles of print culture, public cultures, and the public sphere in understanding the Ottoman society and culture. She has read several different drafts of this dissertation, giving critical, thoughtful, and encouraging feedback on all versions. She pushed me to articulate my arguments with force and confidence. I am especially thankful to her for always respecting me as a scholar and expressing her belief in me. Her intellectual and emotional support during the emotional ups and downs of graduate school made everything more bearable. She has also set for me a constant example of academic rigor, professional integrity, and human kindness. Kamran Asdar Ali has been influential in my understanding of the role of nationalism and gender in the Middle East. He has helped me to read the modernity project more critically, paying attention to losses as well as gains of such practices in the larger Middle East as well as in Turkey. He also v helped me to see the connections between Turkey and the Middle East and South Asia in terms of late nineteenth century women’s movements and print cultures. He and his wife, Saima, have also been the warmest friends to me as well as to other students from Turkey at UT, inviting us to Eid celebrations, thus making us feel at home far from home. My deepest gratitude also goes to Elizabeth Richmond-Garza, whose continuous support and interest in my project, and her generosity in sharing her knowledge and comments, have been extraordinary. As the chair of the Program in Comparative Literature, as the co- chair of my Master’s Report, and as my dissertation committee member, Elizabeth Richmond-Garza has been an excellent mentor since I started the program. She has supported my research in every possible way. She read all drafts of my dissertation, giving generous and insightful feedback. Samer Ali introduced me to medieval Islamic history and medieval Arabic texts as well as Arabic novels. He also encouraged me to continue working on this project by reminding me of the contributions of this study to Middle Eastern studies and of the need for interaction between comparative literature and area studies. Yıldıray Erdener kindly agreed to be on my committee and always showed confidence in my work and supported it. Whenever I saw him, with his wit and humor, he always reminded me to see the bigger picture in life. Sonia Seeman’s coming to UT Austin right at the time I started writing my dissertation has been a wonderful coincidence. She kindly agreed to be part of this project and contributed to it both with her expertise on Turkey and her careful reading of my final draft and giving feedback on it. Her own work on music cultures of Turkey helped me to appreciate the Ottoman and Turkish culture in a more complete way. Since she has joined the UT Austin faculty, with the Middle Eastern Ensemble concerts that she directs and the music parties she vi organizes, she made Austin a heaven for Middle Eastern, Ottoman, Turkish, Kurdish, Roma, and Balkan music for me and others. My interest and curiosity towards Turkish literature and Turkish women writers started when I was an undergraduate student at the Department of Foreign Language Education at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara. As an English Literature major, in my courses on Medieval English texts or Shakespearean drama or the Victorian novel, I would always wonder about the canonical texts and authors in Turkish, my mother tongue. So, it all started with a naïve curiosity about wondering what Ottomans were writing at the same time as the authors of the texts that I was studying then. My interest and knowledge in literature have been developed and sharpened as a result of courses taught by my professors at METU as well as with lively discussions with friends. I would like to commemorate my late professor Seyfi Karabaş (1945-1998) and thank him for teaching me not to be afraid of challenging the established readings of texts, to trust in my literary judgment, and to be creative and bold in my own interpretations. As a comparatist himself and a renowned folklore scholar, he was the first professor who inspired me about the possibilities and pleasures of studying one’s own literature and culture. In that respect, his own scholarship on Dede Korkut Hikayeleri and the Nasrettin Hoca stories has been an insightful example for me. Sevda Çalışkan has been a wonderful mentor to me, both when I was completing my course work as well as writing my MA thesis at METU. She encouraged me to continue my interest in literature in the comparative literature field as well as my decision to continue my studies in the U.S. She also introduced me to feminist studies in her literary theory courses, and I wrote my very first analysis on Turkish literature in her graduate course on Literary Theory and vii Criticism. Nursel İçöz taught me Victorian studies and the Victorian novel. In her courses, I have started to think more critically about the representation of women in fiction. Margaret Sönmez has been the kindest and most generous of my professors in her guidance in teaching me research methodologies, which were foundations for developing my own research questions and methodology. I started learning Ottoman by taking private lessons from Yılmaz Kurt from the Dil Tarih Coğrafya Fakültesi at Ankara University in the summer of 2003. I continued to take Ottoman in the Fall 2004 and Spring 2005 semesters at the Department of History at METU, which kindly allowed me to participate in Ottoman courses even though I wasn’t a student at METU anymore. There, my Ottoman instructors Murat Uluğtekin and İsmail Gündoğdu generously helped me to advance in my learning of Ottoman as well as guided me in the complicated nature of Ottoman texts and archives. Murat Uluğtekin also kindly helped me in transcribing some of the materials I used in this study. He has been a constant mentor whenever I needed to check something related to Ottoman language and culture. While conducting research in Turkey, several librarians and scholars guided me in the archives and libraries. I would like to thank the staff of the following archives and libraries in İstanbul and Ankara: Beyazıd Devlet Kütüphanesi, Taksim Atatürk Kitaplığı, Kadın Eserleri Kütüphanesi, İstanbul Üniversitesi Kütüphanesi, Milli Kütüphane, Türk Tarih Kurumu Kütüphanesi, İslam Araştırmaları Merkezi (ISAM), Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi Kütüphanesi. In particular, I would like to thank the Associate Director of the Beyazıd Devlet Kütüphanesi, Ms. Süheyla Şentürk, who generously allowed me to make copies of all of the Ottoman women’s journals the Beyazıd Library owned. Serpil Çakır viii from the Department of Political Science at the University of İstanbul assisted me during my research in İstanbul with her knowledge and expertise on Ottoman women’s movements and journals as well as by introducing me to other people who could help. Although we have been away from each other for years now, my friends in Turkey reminded me about the reasons why I in the first place decided to continue studying in the U.S. at the times I needed to hear it most and encouraged me to continue even at my most desperate moments. I thank them all: Nurhan Erbil, Nalan Özdemir, Kadriye Ramazanoğlu, Selime Onmuş, and Tamay Ergüven. Ιşık Erem has been a wonderful friend who has always welcomed me at her home in İstanbul. During my research in İstanbul, she has made all kinds of yardım ve yataklık to me that tremendously helped my stay and moving around İstanbul. Cambria Stamper-Santana was my very first friend that I made in the U.S. when I landed in Lubbock, Texas, and found myself in a cultural shock. Over the years, she has become one of my best and longest friends in the U.S. With her always positive and cheerful attitude, she uplifted my spirit, spoiling me with candies, chocolates, and other gifts as well as providing much needed editing support whenever I needed it. She also generously copy-edited one of the chapters of this dissertation. The friends from Turkey that I met in Austin have been a significant community for me to discuss everything about Turkey and Turkish culture, and we supported each other. Over the years, Selma İkiz and Murat Maga have helped me in many different ways, and I thank them both.