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Constructing Subjectivities: Translingual Narrative Devices in Eylül
Abstract by Monica Katiboglu On Session III-13  (Translating Difference)

On Tuesday, November 12 at 11:30 am

2024 Annual Meeting

Abstract
According to critical consensus, Mehmed Rauf’s novel Eylül (“September,” 1900-1901) holds a significant place in Turkish literary history as the first “psychological novel” and as Mehmed Rauf’s masterpiece. However, literary criticism has long considered this novel as derivative of French literature. This paper aims to reevaluate Mehmed Rauf’s novel by examining his innovative use of translingual modes of representation, in particular, free indirect discourse, psycho-narration, quoted monologue, and gendered textual strategies. Highlighting how translated narrative devices are productively distorted, I demonstrate how they acquire their own meaning in Ottoman Turkish, with the understanding that they are at once connected to both Ottoman and European narrative practices, but at the same time distinct from them. Central to the use of translingual narrative devices is the narrated subjectivities of protagonists Necib and Suad. Through their perspectives, Mehmed Rauf explores desire and anxiety, both conscious and unconscious, and how they relate to the effect of the dominant power relationship between the sexes. In my analysis of Eylül, I attend to Mehmed Rauf’s stylistic choices at pivotal moments in the novel, particularly in the representation of Necib’s inner struggle with his forbidden desire for Suad and how his desire is deeply entwined with his idealization of her. Much of the novel is focalized through Necib’s perspective, articulating a male subjectivity. But the novel also includes Suad’s perspective, which is crucial for understanding the gender power dynamics and the emergence of female subjectivity in modernity. By giving voice to Suad, the narrative construction of her subjectivity complicates the projected idealized images of her, which has historical importance, as it threatens to disrupt established societal expectations within the patriarchal order. This complex dynamic not only sheds light on Eylül, but it points to the broader gendered and translingual condition of Ottoman modernity.
Discipline
Literature
Geographic Area
Ottoman Empire
Sub Area
None