In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

HALİDE EDİB: THE TURKISH ORDEAL Title: The Turkish ordeal Originally published: New York, The Century Co., 1928 Language: English The excerpts used are from the original edition, pp. i; 30–33, 407. About the author Halide Edib (Adıvar) [1882, Istanbul – 1964, Istanbul]: writer, journalist and political activist. Halide Edib was among the most prolific writers of the late Ottoman and early Republican periods, as well as being the most prominent female public figure of the Turkish independence struggle. Born in Istanbul to a well-to-do family, she was the first Muslim-Turkish woman to graduate from the American College for Girls in Üsküdar (1901). Her career as a writer and social activist started amidst the optimism and euphoria of the Young Turk revolution, with the prospects of freedom and equality ushered in by the 1908 constitution. Close to the inner circle of the ruling party, the Committee of Union and Progress (hereafter the CUP), Halide Edib became a regular columnist in the newspaper Tanin (The voice), edited by the prorevolutionary activist and ardent nationalist Hüseyin Cahid and the eminent poet Tevfik Fikret. She also published articles in several journals, addressing issues related to the advancement of the Ottoman nation, with particular emphasis on the emancipation of women. Heavily inspired by the nationalist ideas of Ziya Gökalp, Halide Edib defended the full participation of women in social and political life as part of a new period of national resurgence. She was also active in founding many women’s organizations, the most significant being the Teali-i Nisvan Cemiyeti (Society for the advancement of women). Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War, Halide Edib emerged as a major public figure, delivering fervent speeches in nationalistic gatherings that attracted hundreds of thousands of spectators in Istanbul. At this time, Edib was a vocal advocate of the American mandate , which, she believed, was the only benign alternative for countering the destructive effects of European imperialism and for preserving the long term autonomy and territorial integrity of the Empire. In 1920, convinced in the cause of armed resistance , Edib and her husband Dr. Adnan fled to Anatolia to join the independence movement led by Mustafa Kemal. An active member of the resistance’s inner circle in Ankara, Edib joined the war as a soldier (with the rank of corporal), a journalist (she was among the founders of the Anatolian News Agency) and writer (her nation- HALİDE EDİB: THE TURKISH ORDEAL 181 alist novels on the independence war enjoyed wide popularity and were translated into several languages). Following the establishment of the Republic, Edib and her husband were increasingly alienated by the absolutist ruling apparatus of Mustafa Kemal. They left Turkey in 1925, and lived in self-imposed exile in London and Paris until the death of the Turkish leader in 1938. During her years in exile, the author published her memoirs in English, where she glorified the Turkish struggle for independence. Upon her return to Turkey, Halide Edib (assuming the surname Adıvar ) started chairing the Department of English Language and Literature at Istanbul University. In 1942, her novel Sinekli bakkal (The fly-plagued grocer) won the Republican People’s Party novel award, indicative of her belated recognition by the ruling establishment. Although official historiography imparts a fairly ambivalent portrayal of Halide Edib, both as a hero and an outcast, her national romances have always been cherished as the most prominent literary narratives of the Turkish War of Independence. Main works: Yeni Turan [The new Turan] (1913); Ateşten gömlek [Shirt of fire] (1922); Vurun kahpeye [Thrash the harlot] (1923); Memoirs of Halidé Edib (1926); The Turkish ordeal: Being the further memoirs of Halide Edib (1928); Sinekli bakkal [The fly-plagued grocer] (1936); Inside India (1937); Türk’ün ateşle imtihanı [The Turkish ordeal] (1962); Mor salkımlı ev [The house in wisterias] (1963). Context Following the establishment of the Turkish Republic, Halide Edib maintained a critical distance from the authoritarian apparatus of Mustafa Kemal’s single party rule. Edib and her husband left Turkey in 1925, after Dr. Adnan’s involvement in the short lived opposition experiment initiated by the Turkish leader himself through the founding of the Terakkiperver Cumhuriyet Fırkası (Progressive Republican Party). In 1927, when Mustafa Kemal delivered his definitive account of the Turkish independence struggle in his momentous Nutuk (the Speech), he deliberately excluded Halide Edib from the authorized cast of national heroes and...

Share