19. yüzyıl batılı kadın seyahatnamelerinin analizinde kesişimselliği metodolojik bir araç olarak kavramsallaştirmak

Bu çalışma, 19. yüzyılda Osmanlı Türkiye'sini ziyaret eden Batılı kadınların yazdıkları seyahatnamelerin eleştirel analizini daha derin bir yöntem ile ele almayı amaçlamaktadır. Bu araştırma, Edward Said’in önemli çalışması Oryantalizm’e (1978) dayanmakta ve toplumsal cinsiyet sorununda Said’in bıraktığı boşluğu doldurmaya çalışmaktadır. 1990’lardan itibaren birçok yazar Oryantalizm çerçevesinde toplumsal cinsiyet sorunu üzerinde çalışmıştır (Melman, 1992; Lowe, 1991; Mills, 1991; Lewis, 1996 ve 2004; Yeğenoğlu, 1998; Foster, 2002). Bu çalışmalardan teorik destek alan bu araştırma, toplumsal cinsiyetin genel olarak emperyalizm, kadınlık, otorite, estetik, yayıncılık vb. söylemler ile etkileşim içinde olduğunu vurgularken, aynı zamanda her kadın seyyahın farklı milliyet, inanç, sınıf, medeni durum, eğitim, politik ve sosyal ideolojiye sahip olduklarının dikkate alınması gerektiğini savunur. Bu kadın yazarların baskı yapan olduğu kadar, baskı gören özellikleri yazdıkları seyahatnamelerin daha karmaşık bir metodoloji ile analiz edilmesini gerekli kılmaktadır. Bu çalışma, batılı kadınlar tarafından yazılan seyahatnamelerin kesişimsellik (intersectionality) metodolijisi ile analiz edilmesini önermektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Kadın seyahatnameleri, Oryantalizm, Feminizm, Sömürgecilik Sonrası çalışmalar

Conceptualizing intersectionality as a methodological tool in the analysis of 19th century western women travelogues

My paper aims to reflect on a methodology that could help to further deepen the critical analysis of travelogues written by western women visiting and writing about Ottoman Turkey during the 19th century highlighting their dual position as “colonized by gender but colonizer by race” (Ghose, 1998). This research draws deeply from Edward Said’s seminal work Orientalism (1978) and tries to work towards filling up a gap left by the late Said in his study: the issue of gender. My paper intends to show that gender is a salient variable that assumes importance in the interaction with discursive constraints, related to imperialism, femininity, authority, aesthetics, publishing etc. and at the same time needs to be weighted in respect to the deep heterogeneity that characterized women travelers, different by nationality, faith, class, marital status, education, political and social ideology. By showing the broad and composite spectrum of perspectives envisaged by women writers, their position as both oppressors and at the intersection of multiple oppressions, this paper argues for a more complex methodology of analysis of both gender and colonialism, where women travel writings can be located at the intersection of shifting and multiple overlapping circles. This complexity needs more sophisticated instruments of analysis that can be envisaged in the methodological tool of intersectionality, intended as the examination of the intersection of multiple forms of discrimination.

Keywords:

Women travelogues, Orientalism, Feminism, Postcolonial studies,

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