[No. 3 Contents | JAST Homepage]

Halide Edip* ve Amerika(Halide Edip and America) by Frances Kazan, translated by Bernar Kutlu, 1995, 85 pages. Available from: Baðlam Publishing, Ankara Caddesi 13/1, Caðaloðlu, 34410 Ýstanbul.

The book is comprised of two main sections. In the first section, entitled "Halide Edip Before She Goes to USA," the author briefly summarizes Halide Edip's personal history, her childhood, her family relations, and particularly her education in the American College for Girls in Ýstanbul. Frances Kazan asserts that Edip's exposure to American culture and the contrast this provided with the life of the "common man" have had an indelible effect on her, shaping her social outlook a well as her personal and national politics. Edip was the first woman to graduate from this school and her father, a secretary working at the palace, lost his good standing with Sultan Abdülhamid because he had sent his daughter to the American institution.

The author then outlines Edip's personal and political life, her two marriages, her seeking asylum in the American school during a religious fundamentalist uprising (32), her work in the Wilsonian League, and her first establishment of contact with Mustafa Kemal through a personal letter dated 13 August 1919 (35). In this letter, Edip suggested that in order to protect the country from the potential danger of imperialist Europe, a formula for a protective US mandate should be considered. She also worked as translator/interpreter for The King-Crane Commission which later reported that the Turkish people is unable to govern itself and that an American mandate should be put into effect immediately.

Kazan maintains that Edip later worked as a secretary, which facilitated the communication between Mustafa Kemal and the USA Commissioner Admiral Mark L. Bristol, stationed in Ðstanbul. After 1920, Edip had high expectations of being appointed the first woman ambassador to the USA. These hopes were shattered, however, when Edip's husband, Dr. Adnan Adðvar, resigned from his position in parliament and established the Progressive Republican Party in October 1924. The party was accused of instigating uprisings and was closed down in 1925. Edip and her husband left the country and lived in exile until 1939.

In the second section entitled "Halide Edip in the US," the author describes Edip's life in exile. Edip communicated with her friends in her homeland through the Red Cross. She was hailed in the US as an "exotic, woman revolutionary" (47) and the American press published many interviews with her, depicting her as an extraordinary woman of "The New Turkey." She was invited to lecture at the Williamstown Conference, where she presented a historical and ideological analysis of the Ottoman empire and the young republic.

The writer then outlines Ottoman and Turkish national identities and discusses how Edip coped with these. Coming from an old Ottoman family which had connections with the palace, Edip never defined herself as a "regular Turk." Kazan correlates Edip's politics with the social strata that appear in her novels, particularly in the Shirt of Flame. In an attempt to isolate Turkish national identity and dissociate it from the "evil" associated with Ottoman rule, Edip blamed the destructive effect of Byzantium on the weak Ottoman palace and portrayed Turkish identity as being "simple and pure." Kazan thinks that some of these proposals are too emotional and taint the otherwise scholarly work Edip brought out, particularly during the Williamstown Conference.

The last part of the second section summarizes the historical background of the women's situation in Asia Minor until 1928 and Edip's account of the role of Turkish women in their own history. Edip was one of the first Turkish feminists and established the Society for the Development of Women in 1908 (73). She borrowed extensively from Ziya Gökalp's thesis on the status of women in pre-Ottoman Turks, a thesis which served as basis in formulating the official history of the Turkish republic during the 1930s (76). Kazan asserts that Edip had a contradictory attitude toward women. In her novels she depicted strong, willful women who react against traditional gender roles. However, in her political discourse she favored male-dominant, patriarchal hierarchy, whereby the role of women can only be secondary. "In other words, Edip has simultaneously identified both with the dominant culture, and with the marginalized gender"(78).

The translation has been done by Bernar Kutlu. It is a fairly smooth translation although there are quite a few words which can be replaced by their more recent usages. Kutlu has also used some English words in parenthesis, perhaps when he suspected that the term did not translate well into Turkish. This may be understandable for words such as "vision" (10) and "non-fiction" (81) which have been translated as "bakýþ" and "romandýþý," but one fails to see the need for offering the English versions of simple words such as "the best" (en iyi-10), "dilution" (sulandýrma-67), or "massacre" (kitlesel kýrým-56).

The book would appeal to an audience interested in Turkish history, politics, and literature, and particularly gender studies. It sheds light, from an American's point of view, on Edip's literary and ideological makeup. It does not make excuses for her choices; nor does it try to justify her somewhat tarnished image in the Turkish media. It does, however, try to explain away some of her eccentricities by blaming it all too readily on the sharp contrast between the world created by her Protestant-missionary schooling and the elitist-poligamist Ottoman family in which she was brought up. All in all, the book presents a plausible (albeit limited) portrait of Halide Edip. The bibliography is also quite useful.

* The late Professor Halide Edib Adývar used to sign her name as "Edib." Ed.