National identity and otherness in the 19th century historical novel

This thesis aims to examine the 19th century historical novel and Orientalism together in the context of national identity construction. Both focused on the representations of human beings, but the accuracy of these representations posed a fundamental problem for both. National identities that were centred around European values first emerged in Western Europe, spreading during the 19th century to Central Europe and finally to Eastern Europe. In trying to build European national identities, each society created its own specific Orientalism that was reflected in literature. Within this theoretical framework, three selected novels representing Western, Central and Eastern Europe are analysed in the contexts of national identity construction and their own kind of Orientalism. The first chapter discusses the English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Leila; or The Siege of Granada through Edward Said's Orientalism. The second chapter examines the Hungarian author Mór Jókai's Halil The Pedlar (original title: A fehér rózsa or The White Rose) within the scope of Andre Gingrich's Frontier Orientalism. The third chapter analyzes the Turkish author Namık Kemal's Cezmi in the context of Usama Makdisi's Ottoman Orientalism. In addition, analysis of identity building and othering issues in all three chapters were developed via Stephen Greenblatt's concept of 'self-fashioning' and the opinions of various feminist critics. Based on these, it is seen that the identities that were developed around Europeanism were constructed with the existence of an 'other' who was perceived as a danger and a threat. Therefore, both European and Oriental identities were constructed and represented by the authors, and thus did not reflect reality.