Toplumsal cinsiyetçi Milliyetçilik: Kadınların toplumsal cinsiyetçi Milliyetçilik bağlamında Osmanlı-Türk romalarında temsili (1908-1938)

The relation between gender and nationalism has been a controversial issuesince the 1980's when the feminist analyses have brought to light different ways inwhich women are implicated in nationalist projects. Although the feministliterature contains several insights about the significance and implications ofwomen's symbolic role in nationalist projects, the representation of women asgendered national subjects in cultural productions is not fully examined.The starting point for this study has been Anderson's definition of nation asan imagined community according to which individuals imagine that they belong tosame national collectivity in their minds. Even though Anderson talks about themember of the imagined community as gender free subject, it is obvious that eachand every member of this community is imagined either as a male or a femalesubject. Being a female or male subject, in turn, affects the form of belonging to theimagined community. In this study, I examine the claim that gendered imaginationdetermines the symbolic roles and meanings attributed to the membership of acollective identity, that is the nation.In order to understand the ongoing production of gendered nation inAnderson's sense which is mainly realized in cultural domain, novels play asignificant role in terms of representing the imagined boundaries and functioningas mediums through which cultural difference is expressed. As it is mentioned, thelink between national formation and the novel is not accidental. The novel can beused as a place where different and conflicting problems are debated through therepresentation of some imaginary figures. The aim of this study is to examine themaking of women as gendered national subjects in the novels in the pre-Republican (Ottoman-Turkish) and early Republican period (1908-1938) byfocusing on women's images and to analyze the formation of gendered nationalidentity. By examining women's images in the novels, my objective is to identifysome of the specific features of Turkish nationalism.