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

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

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

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.  

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