MONTAGU, CRAVEN VE BARKLEY’İN OSMANLI DEVLETİ VE TÜRKLER HAKKINDAKİ İZLENİMLERİ

Geçmişten günümüze Batılı yazarlar Doğu’ya ilgi duymuşlardır. Doğu’nun, Batılı bakış açısından yeniden şekillenerek anlatıldığı sayısız eser ve bilimsel çalışma mevcuttur. Bu çalışmanın amacı 18 ve 19. yüzyıllarda yazılmış olan üç farklı İngiliz seyahat metninde Osmanlı Devleti ve Türkler hakkındaki yazılanları karşılaştırmalı olarak incelemektir. Eserler seyahat edebiyatı terminolojisi kullanarak yorumlanacak ve yazarların eserlerinde yansıttığı ‘olumlu’ veya ‘olumsuz’ tasvirlerin ve belirsizliklerin sebepleri tartışılacaktır. Eserlerden ilki Türkler hakkında ‘tarafsız’ ve ‘olumlu’ yazıları ile tanınan ve Batılı erkek yazarların oluşturduğu egzotik-erotik Doğu retoriğini ve klişeleşmiş ‘doğu’ imajını kısmen değiştirmiş olan, okuyucularına yepyeni bir Türk resmi tanıtan 18. yüzyıl kadın seyahat yazarı Lady Wortley Montagu’nün kaleme aldığı Turkish Embassy Letters eseridir 1717 . İkinci eser Lady Elizabeth Craven’ın A Journey through the Crimea to Constantinaple in Series of Letters 1786 eseridir. Craven Türk kadınını gözlemlerini ve Osmanlı otoritesi ile ilgili ilginç ve yanıltıcı varsayımlarını anlatır. 18. yüzyılda İstanbul’a seyahat etmek, Montagu ve Craven için İngiltere’nin baskıcı toplum ve aile yapısından kaçış ve macera anlamı taşır. Üçüncü eser ise 19. yüzyıl İngiliz İnşaat Mühendisi ve yazar Barkley’in Türkiye izlenimlerini anlattığı Bulgaria before the War during Seven Years’ Experience of European Turkey and Its Inhabitants 1877 çalışmasıdır. Eserlerdeki izlenimler gerçek gözleme ve tecrübeye dayandığı gibi Osmanlı’ya yapılan bu ziyaretler yazarlar için ayrıca ‘Batılı’ okuyucu kitlesini memnun eden fantezi üretme aracı olmuştur. Bu çalışmada ele alınan üç seyahat metninde vurgulanan konular yazarların ilgi alanlarına göre, kadın-erkek olmalarına göre değişiklik gösterir. Ayrıca yazarlar gezi notlarını seyahat sonrası memleketlerine geri döndükten sonra, yeniden gözden geçirerek yazdıkları için gerçeği tam anlamı ile yansıtmadıkları görülür. Montagu mektuplarında Türklerin müzik, şiir, bahçe, yeme içme zevklerini felsefi ve estetik bakış açısı kullanarak anlatırken, Craven ve Barkley ‘Batılı’ okuyucu kitlesinin beklentilerini karşılamak ve onları memnun etmek amacı ile sömürgeci bir perspektif tercih eder.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

İngiliz Seyahat Edebiyatı, Osmanlı Devleti, Türkler, Montagu, Craven, Barkley

Ottoman and Turkish Impressions In Montagu, Craven and Barkley

Western writers have often been fascinated by the East. There are numerous non-fictional and fictional writings in which the East is reshaped through a Western prospect. The aim of this study is to interpret, compare and contrast three different pieces of travel writing about the Ottaman Empire and the Turks in relation with travel literature terminology. Another aim of this paper is to discuss the reasons for the writers’ positive, negative and ambiguous reflections. The first piece of work, The Turkish Embassy Letters 1717 , belongs to the 18th century female travel writer Lady Wortley Montagu who has been widely popular with her objective and positive descriptions of the Ottoman Empire and Turkish women. Montagu has produced an alternative discourse in order to challenge and change the Western male gaze which has fantasized and stereotyped an egzotic and erotic Eastern rhetoric. The second work, A Journey through the Crimea to Constantinaple in Series of Letters 1786 , belongs to another 18th century female travel writer, Lady Craven. Craven has observed the Turkish women of higher rank in particular, and has identified interesting but unreliable and false assumptions about the Ottoman authority. Travelling to Turkey has meant a means of liberation from the strictures of the English homeland for Montagu and Craven. The third work, Bulgaria before the War during Seven Years’ Experience of European Turkey and Its Inhabitants 1877 , was written by Henry C. Barkley, a British civil engineer and a writer. The Turkish impressions in the works have been inspired by real observation and experience at times but most of the time the travels to the Ottoman lands have meant for their authors an escape in order to produce fantasy. The selected travel writings in this work prioritize different topics in relation with their authors’ preoccupations. The writers had written their texts after reviewing their travel notes on arrival to their hometowns, hence their suggestions do not reflect complete truth. While Montagu takes a philosophical and an aesthetic viewpoint in describing the Turkish music, poetry, gardening and cuisine, Craven and Barkley prefer to adopt a colonial perspective

Keywords:

English Travel Writing, Ottoman Empire, Turks, Montagu, Craven, Barkley,

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