Folklor/Edebiyat (May 2021)
From Logic to Idealized Female Image: Halide Edip’s Çaresaz / Mantıktan İdealize Edilmiş Kadın İmgesine: Halide Edip’in Çaresaz’ı
Abstract
Born in the late nineteenth century, Halide Edip Adıvar is one of the leading women writers of Turkish literature. In the works of the author, who has made a name for himself with his articles on stories, poems, memoirs, translation, analysis and various subjects, especially novels; social, cultural, economic and political change of the period he lived in and their effects finds reflections both with traces of his life and in the guidance of his ideological thoughts. Çaresaz, published as a novel ten years after the author’s first serialization in Cumhuriyet Newspaper in 1961, describes the social structure of the period with the changes it went through. In the novel, where this change is explained through a woman, the modern and traditional image of a woman is considered in comparison. Trying to keep up with the changing conditions of modern life with the patriarchal family structure, the novel’s female protagonist is remembered in unity with her understanding of gender and the roles she foresees and/or imposes on men and women. The female protagonist of the novel, Mediha, not only reflects a member of society on the path to modernity, but also becomes an image of a woman who is idealized. Love, which is considered as the main trace in the novel, consisting of a total of five parts, finds its reflection with different meanings and views. Istanbul, chosen as a space in the novel, takes on the function of showing the traces of this change through daily life as a city-oriented one. In the work, issues such as male and female relationships, love and marriage, family, material and moral values, official and non-official marriage are reflected in the period in which the novel was written and the views of its people. The name Çaresaz, which gives the novel its name, refers to a helpful and devoted young teacher, while Mediha refers to an idealized woman. While the author shows the woman with these two sides, she implicitly invites the reader to share the rightful triumph of Mediha, who transforms into an idealized woman from logic.
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