Freedom and Desire in Late Ottoman Erotica

Episode 448

with Burcu Karahan

hosted by Suzie Ferguson

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"One Thousand Kisses," "Plate of Cream," "Story of a Lily:" these are some of the provocative titles that graced the covers of Ottoman erotic novels in the early decades of the twentieth century. While erotic fiction and poetry had a long history in Ottoman and Arabic manuscript culture, the erotic novels of the second constitutional period (1908-1914), some creatively adapted from French originals, emerged in a period of unprecedented freedom for writers. Yet the novels themselves were often less explicit and transgressive than their their titles might suggest. In this episode, Burcu Karahan shows how, in late Ottoman fiction, stories about sex and desire celebrated not only sexual freedom, but also conservative fantasies about male sexual power and the power of heterosexual love.

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Contributor Bios

	Burcu Karahan is the Turkish Literature and Language lecturer at Comparative Literature Department at Stanford University. Her research focuses on late 19th and early 20th century Ottoman literature.
	Suzie Ferguson is a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Academy for International and Area studies. Her work focuses on the conceptual and social history of education, gender, and democracy in Egypt and Lebanon.

Credits

Episode No. 448
Release Date: 7 February 2020
Recording Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Audio editing by Maryam Patton
Music: Chad Crouch - Lilac; Kai Engel - Cabaret; Chad Crouch - Appreciation
Bibliography and images courtesy of Burcu Karahan

Images

Bin Bir Buse: En Şen ve En Şuh Hikâyeler. Çeharşenbe günleri neşr olunur: Numero 11 (Istanbul: Amedi Matbaası)

Zifaf Hatırası (Istanbul: Cem'i Kitabhanesi, 1330 (1914))

Mehmet Rauf, Bir Zambağın Hikâyesi, pp. 1-2.

Bibliography

Bin Bir Buse. 1923-24 İstanbul'undan Erotik Bir Dergi. Haz. Ömer Türkoğlu. Istanbul: Kitap Yayınevi, 2005.

Birinci, Ali. “Müstehcenlik Tartışmaları Tarihinde ‘Bir Zanbağın Hikâyesi.” Dergâh 16 (June 1991): 18-20.

Karahan, Burcu. “Repressed in Translation: Representation of Female Sexuality in Ottoman Erotica” Journal of Turkish Literature Issue 9. 2012.

— —. “Naciye Nasıl Kurtulur?: Meşrutiyet Edebiyatında Kadın Cinselliği” (How to Save Naciye?: Female Sexuality in the Constitutional Era Literature) Kritik V. November 2009: 163-82.

Karakışla, Yavuz Selim. “Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda Müstehcenlik Tartışmaları ve Bir Zambağın Hikâyesi.” Tarih ve Toplum 208 (April 2001, “Mahrem Tarih” special issue): 15-21.

Marquise Mannoury d’Ectot. Le Roman de Violette. Paris: Le Serpent à Plumes, 2002.

— —. The Romance of Violette. trans. (unknown). NY: Tower Publications, 1967. (published anonymously).

— —. Violette. trans. Celeste Piano. London: W.H. Allen, 1986. (published anonymously).

— —. Violette’in Aşk Destanı. trans. Esin Sınır. Istanbul: Öteki Yayınevi, 1991. (published under Oscar Wilde’s name).

Mehmet Rauf. Bir Zanbağın Hikâyesi. Istanbul: Matbaa-i Bahriye, 1326 / 1910.

Tarih ve Toplum: “Mahrem Tarih” special issue. 208. (April 2001)

Toprak, Zafer. “Meşrutiyet’ten Cumhuriyet’e Müstehcen Avam Edebiyatı.” Tarih ve Toplum 38 (February 1987): 25-28.

Schick, Irvin Cemil. “Osmanlı ve Türk Edebiyatında Toplumsal Cinsiyetin ve Cinselliğin Temsili.” in Bedeni, Toplumu, Kainatı Yeniden Yazmak: İslâm, Ci̇nsiyet ve Kültür Üzerine. Edit. and translated by Pelin Tünaydın. İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2011. 185-213.

— —. “Sunuş.” Bin Bir Buse. 1923-24 İstanbul'undan Erotik Bir Dergi. Haz. Ömer Türkoğlu. Istanbul: Kitap Yayınevi, 2005.

"Identity of Gustave Courbet's 19th Century Nude "L'Origene du Monde Revealed," The Guardian 25 September 2018