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LADY MARY MONTAGU’S USAGE OF A “RHETORIC OF DIFFERENCE” AND A “RHETORIC OF LIKENESS” IN TURKISH EMBASSY LETTERS

Year 2015, Volume: 39 Issue: 2, 315 - 330, 08.07.2015

Ceyda Birol

Abstract

Edward Said says in Culture and Imperialism that the studies about the Middle East have been dominated by masculism and he shows the significance of women’s role in undermining this dominance by demonstrating the “diversity and complexity of experience that works beneath the totalizing discourses of Orientalism and of Middle East (overwhelmingly male) nationalism” (Said, 1979, p. 24). In my study, I showcase the certain complicity between Orientalism’s imperialist functions and Western feminism. The feminist, orientalist, and imperialist tendencies reflect the very Enlightenment idea of Western European women as the “sole signifier of civilization” (Yeğenoglu, 1998, p. 106). Although writers like Wollstonecraft, Evans, and Chevers happen to be the repetitive voice of their male counterparts and of previous generations, other women writers, like Lady Mary Montagu, project their own life experiences into  literature that sheds light on the dark corners of the Orient. Lady Mary Montagu with her Turkish Embassy Letters is one of the most important contributors for the unbiased portrayal of Ottoman life during the imperial era. She fearlessly deconstructs the common assumptions and claims about the oppression of Muslim women in her Ottoman accounts.

 

 

Keywords

Orientalism Feminist Orientalism Deconstruction Muslim women Lady Mary Montagu Edward Said.

References

  • ANDREA, Bernadette Diane (2007). Women and Islam in Early Modern English Lit- erature. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
  • ADAK, Hülya (2001). Intersubjectivity: Halide Edib (1882-1964) or the 'Otto- man/Turkish Woman' as the Subject of Knowledge. U of Chicago Diss, USA.
  • BAKHTIN, M.M. (1981). The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Trans. Michael Holquist. Austin: U of Texas P.
  • BERNADETTE, Andrea (2007). Women and Islam in Early Modern English Literature. New York: Cambridge UP.
  • BLOUNt, Henry (1636). A Voyage into the Levant. London: Andrew Crooke.
  • BOER, Inge E. (1995-96). Despotism from under the Veil: Masculine and Feminine Readings of the Despot and the Harem. Cultural Critique, 32, 43-73.
  • CAMPBELL, Jill (1994). Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and the Historical Machinery of Female Identity. History, Gender & Eighteenth-Century Literature. Ed. Beth Fowkes Tobin, Athens: U of Georgia P, 64-85.
  • CARLYLE, Thomas (1899). Critical and Miscellaneous Essays. London: Chapman and Hall.
  • ÇELİK, Zeynep (1996). Colonialism Orientalism and the Canon. Art Bulletin, 78(2), 202-5. Çevik, Gülen (2011). American Missionaries and the Harem: Cultural Ex- changes behind the Scenes. Journal of American Studies 45(3), 463-81.
  • DODD, Anna Bowman (1903). In the Palaces of the Sultan. New York: Dodd, Mead.
  • ELWOOD, Anne Katharine (1830). Narrative of a Journey Overland from England, by the Continent of Europe, Egypt and the Red Sea, to India Vol I. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley.
  • GRISLIS, E. (1974). Luther and the Turks. The Muslim World LXIV(3), 183.
  • FERNEA, Elizabeth Warnock (1981). An Early Ethnographer of Middle Eastern Women: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762). Journal of Near Eastern Studies 40(4), 329- 38.
  • FINN, Elizabeth Anne (1866). Home in the Holy Land: A Tale Illustrating Customs and Incidents in Modern Jerusalem. London: Nisbet.
  • HUME, David (1975). Enquiries concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals. Ed. L.A. Selby-Bigge, P.H. Nidditch, and David Hume. (3rd Ed.). Oxford: Clarendon.
  • KABBANI, Rana (1986). Europe’s Myths of Orient: Devise and Rule. London: Mac- millan.
  • KONUK, Kader (2004). Ethnomasquerade in Ottoman-European Encounters: Reenact- ing Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Criticism 46(3), 393-414.
  • LÉVI-STRAUSS, Claude (1973). Tristes Tropiques. (John & Doreen Weightman, Trans.). New York: Atheneum.
  • LOWE, Lisa (1991). Critical Terrains: French and British Orientalisms. Ithaca NY: Cornell UP.
  • MACLEAN, Gerald M. (2004). The Rise of Oriental Travel: English Visitors to the Ottoman Empire, 1580-1720. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • MELMAN, Billie (1995). Women's Orients: English Women and the Middle East, 1718-1918: Sexuality, Religion and Work. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
  • MONTAGU, Mary Wortley, and Robert Halsband (1966). The Complete Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Oxford, England: Clarendon.
  • NERVAL, Gérard de (1851). Voyage en Orient, in Oeuvres completes. Paris: Charpen- tier, libraire-éditeur.
  • OXFORD English Dictionary Online (1989). 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford UP.
  • SANCAR, Aslı (2012). Harem: A Journey of Love. Istanbul: Timaş Publishing.
  • SAID, Edward (1979). Orientalism. New York: Vintage.
  • SAID, Edward (1993). Culture and Imperialism. New York, Vintage.
  • VAKA, Demetra (1952). ‘For a Heart for Any Fate’: The Early Years of Demetra Vaka (Mrs.Kenneth Brown). Athene 13(1), 26-27.
  • WEITZMAN, Arthur J. (2002) “Voyeurism and Aesthetics in the Turkish Bath: Lady Mary's School of Female Beauty. Comparative Literature Studies 39(4), 347-59.
  • WINCH, Alison (2013). What Say you to Such a Woman’: The Sexual Fantasies of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Lord Byron. Women’s Writing 20(1): 1-18. Taylor & Francis.
  • WOLLSTONECRAFT, Mary (1792). A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. London: n.p.
  • YEĞENOĞLU, Meyda (1998). Colonial Fantasies towards a Feminist Reading of Ori- entalism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP.

in ENGLISH TRAVEL WRITING and TURKISH WOMAN as THE JUSTIFIED ‘OTHER’ in TURKISH EMBASSY LETTERS

Year 2015, Volume: 39 Issue: 2, 315 - 330, 08.07.2015

Ceyda Birol

Abstract

Oryantalizm üzerine çalışmaların öncülerinden olan Edward Said, “Kültür ve Emperyalizm” kitabında Ortadoğu çalışmalarının maskülinizm tarafından kuşatıldığını söyler. Kadın faktörünün bu erkek egemenliğinin ve Oryantalizm ve Ortadoğu (çoğunlukla erkek) milliyetçiliği söylemlerinin arka planındaki tecrübelerin çeşitlilik ve karmaşasını ortaya çıkarıp yok etmede önemini gösterir (Said, 1993, p. XXİV). Çalışmamda, Oryantalizm’in emperyalist işlevi ve Batı feminizmi arasında kesin bir ortaklık olduğunu öne sürmekteyim. Batılı kadın tarafından taklit edilen egemen erkek söylemi feminist, oryantalist ve emperyalist eğilimleri aynen yansıtır (Yeğenoglu, 1998, p. 107). 17. ve 18. yüzyıllardaki Evans, Chevers ve Wollstonecraft gibi kadın yazarlar Doğu’yu önyargıyla karşılama hususunda erkek çağdaşlarının ve daha önceki dönemlerdeki yazarların tekrarı niteliğinde olsalar da, yine aynı yıllar içinde Doğu’nun karanlık köşelerini aydınlatan, kültürlerin benzeştiği noktaları ele alıp edebiyata kendi hayat tecrübelerini katan Manley Delarivier ve Lady Mary Montagu gibi kadın yazarlar da mevcuttur. Lady Mary Montagu Turkish Embassy Letters adlı eseriyle imparatorluk çağında, zamanının Oryantalist anlayışının dışında kalarak Osmanlı yaşamının tarafsız ve önyargısız portresine katkı sağlayan çok önemli yazarlardandır. İngiliz büyükelçisinin eşi olarak, Lady Mary yaygın varsayımları ve Müslüman kadının ezilmişliği hakkındaki iddiaları Osmanlı notlarında/kayıtlarında korkusuzca yapısöküme uğratmıştır

Keywords

Oryantalizm Feminist Oryantalizm Yapısökümcülük Müslüman

References

  • ANDREA, Bernadette Diane (2007). Women and Islam in Early Modern English Lit- erature. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
  • ADAK, Hülya (2001). Intersubjectivity: Halide Edib (1882-1964) or the 'Otto- man/Turkish Woman' as the Subject of Knowledge. U of Chicago Diss, USA.
  • BAKHTIN, M.M. (1981). The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Trans. Michael Holquist. Austin: U of Texas P.
  • BERNADETTE, Andrea (2007). Women and Islam in Early Modern English Literature. New York: Cambridge UP.
  • BLOUNt, Henry (1636). A Voyage into the Levant. London: Andrew Crooke.
  • BOER, Inge E. (1995-96). Despotism from under the Veil: Masculine and Feminine Readings of the Despot and the Harem. Cultural Critique, 32, 43-73.
  • CAMPBELL, Jill (1994). Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and the Historical Machinery of Female Identity. History, Gender & Eighteenth-Century Literature. Ed. Beth Fowkes Tobin, Athens: U of Georgia P, 64-85.
  • CARLYLE, Thomas (1899). Critical and Miscellaneous Essays. London: Chapman and Hall.
  • ÇELİK, Zeynep (1996). Colonialism Orientalism and the Canon. Art Bulletin, 78(2), 202-5. Çevik, Gülen (2011). American Missionaries and the Harem: Cultural Ex- changes behind the Scenes. Journal of American Studies 45(3), 463-81.
  • DODD, Anna Bowman (1903). In the Palaces of the Sultan. New York: Dodd, Mead.
  • ELWOOD, Anne Katharine (1830). Narrative of a Journey Overland from England, by the Continent of Europe, Egypt and the Red Sea, to India Vol I. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley.
  • GRISLIS, E. (1974). Luther and the Turks. The Muslim World LXIV(3), 183.
  • FERNEA, Elizabeth Warnock (1981). An Early Ethnographer of Middle Eastern Women: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762). Journal of Near Eastern Studies 40(4), 329- 38.
  • FINN, Elizabeth Anne (1866). Home in the Holy Land: A Tale Illustrating Customs and Incidents in Modern Jerusalem. London: Nisbet.
  • HUME, David (1975). Enquiries concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals. Ed. L.A. Selby-Bigge, P.H. Nidditch, and David Hume. (3rd Ed.). Oxford: Clarendon.
  • KABBANI, Rana (1986). Europe’s Myths of Orient: Devise and Rule. London: Mac- millan.
  • KONUK, Kader (2004). Ethnomasquerade in Ottoman-European Encounters: Reenact- ing Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Criticism 46(3), 393-414.
  • LÉVI-STRAUSS, Claude (1973). Tristes Tropiques. (John & Doreen Weightman, Trans.). New York: Atheneum.
  • LOWE, Lisa (1991). Critical Terrains: French and British Orientalisms. Ithaca NY: Cornell UP.
  • MACLEAN, Gerald M. (2004). The Rise of Oriental Travel: English Visitors to the Ottoman Empire, 1580-1720. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • MELMAN, Billie (1995). Women's Orients: English Women and the Middle East, 1718-1918: Sexuality, Religion and Work. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
  • MONTAGU, Mary Wortley, and Robert Halsband (1966). The Complete Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Oxford, England: Clarendon.
  • NERVAL, Gérard de (1851). Voyage en Orient, in Oeuvres completes. Paris: Charpen- tier, libraire-éditeur.
  • OXFORD English Dictionary Online (1989). 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford UP.
  • SANCAR, Aslı (2012). Harem: A Journey of Love. Istanbul: Timaş Publishing.
  • SAID, Edward (1979). Orientalism. New York: Vintage.
  • SAID, Edward (1993). Culture and Imperialism. New York, Vintage.
  • VAKA, Demetra (1952). ‘For a Heart for Any Fate’: The Early Years of Demetra Vaka (Mrs.Kenneth Brown). Athene 13(1), 26-27.
  • WEITZMAN, Arthur J. (2002) “Voyeurism and Aesthetics in the Turkish Bath: Lady Mary's School of Female Beauty. Comparative Literature Studies 39(4), 347-59.
  • WINCH, Alison (2013). What Say you to Such a Woman’: The Sexual Fantasies of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Lord Byron. Women’s Writing 20(1): 1-18. Taylor & Francis.
  • WOLLSTONECRAFT, Mary (1792). A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. London: n.p.
  • YEĞENOĞLU, Meyda (1998). Colonial Fantasies towards a Feminist Reading of Ori- entalism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP.
There are 32 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Journal Section Articles
Authors

Ceyda Birol

Publication Date July 8, 2015
Published in Issue Year 2015Volume: 39 Issue: 2

Cite

APA Birol, C. (2015). LADY MARY MONTAGU’S USAGE OF A “RHETORIC OF DIFFERENCE” AND A “RHETORIC OF LIKENESS” IN TURKISH EMBASSY LETTERS. Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 39(2), 315-330.

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