Osmanlıdan Cumhuriyet’e Kadın Romancıların ve Kadın Figürlerin Dönüşümü
The Transformation of Female Novelists and Female Figures from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic

Summary/Abstract: This article reveals that Ottoman women novelists, who were part of the women’s movement, left an important legacy to the Republic, but that women entered the path of real emancipation with the Republican revolutions, in the context of three novels. These are Fatma Aliye’s Hayal ve Hakikat, Halide Edip’s Vurun Kahpeye and Erendiz Atasü’s Dağın Öteki Yüzü. Fatma Aliye’s first novel is Hayal ve Hakikat, which she wrote with Ahmet Mithat. However, while Ahmet Mithat could put his own name to the novel, Fatma Aliye had to sign her name as “Bir Kadın”. In her novels, Halide Edip draws portraits of literary women who do not refrain from sacrifice for their nation, just as she plays social roles in her life. Aliye, the example of the ideal woman in Vurun Kahpeye, not only tries to enlighten her students despite all the problems of the countryside arising from ignorance and bigotry, but also does not refrain from sacrificing herself for her nation. With the achievements of the Republic, especially middle-class urban women find the opportunity to realise themselves in many fields and come to the forefront in literature. However, they belatedly realise that citizenship is necessary but not sufficient on the road to freedom. Since the culture of democracy has not developed, political powers hinder the individualisation of women. For this reason, the questioning of patriarchal mentality is realised late in literature. Even though it is late, the situation of women in the patriarchal order is questioned by women writers who were formed in the Republican revolutions. Erendiz Atasü, one of these writers, reveals the process of women’s emancipation in Dağın Öteki Yüzü.

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