Abstract:
This article proposes an analysis of the ways in which Turkish women are
depicted in the memoirs of some women writers in the early 20th century. This period
in history, which corresponds to one of the most important eras of the Turkish woman,
was one of self-consciousness and cultural search. The analysis of the depiction of
Turkish women by Turkish and foreigner women writers in that era is of utmost
importance since the discourses on women in Turkey were shaped in that way.
This article analyses the portrayal of Turkish women in general and the social
role of women in particular by taking the below-given memoirs and some others into
account. Demetra Vaka Brown's Haremlik: Some Pages from the Life of Turkish
Women (1909), Hester Donaldson Jenkins’ Behind Turkish Lattices: The Story of a
Turkish Woman's Life (1911), Zeyneb Hanoum’s A Turkish Woman's European
Impressions (1913), Grace Ellison’s An English Woman in a Turkish Harem (1915),
Selma Ekrem’s Unveiled: The Autobiography of a Turkish Girl (1930)
