Login

Publications  •  Project Statistics

Glossary  •  Schools  •  Disciplines
People Search: 
   
Title/Abstract Search: 

Dissertation Information for Ruth Barzilai-Lumbroso

NAME:
- Ruth Barzilai-Lumbroso

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (2008)

ADVISORS:
- Gabriel Piterberg
- Nikkie Keddie

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Kathryn Norberg
- Carole Pateman

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: Turkish men, Ottoman women: Popular Turkish historians and the writing of Ottoman women's history

Abstract: The decade of the 1950s and early 60s in Turkey witnessed a proliferation of popular historical literature on Ottoman women. The uniqueness of these writings, in terms of the representations of Ottoman women they introduce, stand out in light of the erasure of Ottoman women from Turkish historiography prevalent until then. The study's primary sources are historical writings that appeared in Turkish popular periodicals throughout these two decades. Notwithstanding the popular nature of the journals, much of the literature they published with regard to women was based on archival material and on women's writings, such as personal letters and memoirs.

The thesis focuses on writings concerning Ottoman women and seeks to understand why Turkish historians devoted so much of their work to Ottoman women; what their motivations in the context of Turkey in the 1950s and 60s were; how Ottoman women were represented; the significance of their representation, and what these tell us about the presenters and their audience.

The dissertation argues that the major significance of the popular texts lies in the reconstruction of the representation of women in the post-Kemalist nationalist context. During the period under study a change occurred in the paradigm of the Turkish woman from the Anatolian - Western - secularist model, prevalent in the Kemalist era, to an Ottoman - Muslim model. However, albeit giving voice to Ottoman women, the new discourse continued to serve the nationalist ideology provided by Atattirk several decades earlier.

The dissertation is comprised of two parts. The first is an historical and theoretical analysis of the period and the sources, and the second an analysis of writings on women. This part suggests two possible readings of the texts and exposes their ambivalence. The first analyzes the significance of the gossipy nature of the narratives, and at the same time their contribution to the study of Ottoman women's history. The second demonstrates the historiographic debate with Western representations of Ottoman women, and exposes the Orientalist nature of these representations. Both lead to the conclusion that Turkish men employed images of Ottoman women primarily in the service of the changing nationalist discourse at the time.

MPACT Scores for Ruth Barzilai-Lumbroso

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-08-06 08:52:02

Advisors and Advisees Graph

generating graph, please reload

Students under Ruth Barzilai-Lumbroso

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None