Abstract
Orlando and Suskunlar: Istanbul as a Representation of the East
As a way of perceiving, interpreting, imagining and exercising control over the East, Orientalism enables us to examine the discourse on the East produced in fields such as art, literature and history, as well as in everyday life. Throughout history, the East has been one of Europe’s representations of the ‘Other’ and has often been associated with femininity. In this context, Istanbul is one of the main sites of Orientalist representation, given its geopolitical and historical position. The fact that part of Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando (1928) is set in Istanbul and Bursa allows these cities to be constructed through exotic and Orientalist imagery. Orlando’s transformation from male to female in Istanbul aligns with the city’s identity as a quintessentially feminine Eastern figure. Similar characteristics can be seen in the novel Suskunlar (2007) by the modern Turkish writer İhsan Oktay Anar. Standing out as a postmodernist example of Turkish literature, the novel sees Istanbul, chosen as the setting, take on a living identity within the historical layers in which it is embedded. The author discusses the dramatic side of Ottoman history popularised in the novel, pitting good and bad characters against one another in an attempt to move beyond opposites towards a greater whole. Despite being written in different time periods, the two novels share similarities in their fantastical depictions of Ottoman history, narration of life stories, drawing on the arts of poetry and music, intertextual references and centring on Istanbul. This study aims to examine the novels within their historical contexts and discuss the Orientalist perspectives of the two authors from different civilisational spheres.
Keywords
Orlando, Suskunlar, Istanbul, İhsan Oktay Anar, Virginia Woolf.