Orientalism and the male subject of Turkish nationalism in the stories of Omer Seyfeddin

Abstract

This article analyses different manifestations of Orientalism in the Turkish author Omer Seyfeddin's stories. Being a nationalist author, the facets of his relationship with Orientalism range from submission and resistance to a semi-conscious orientalization of the Balkans by means of Orientalistic imagery in his post-Balkan Wars stories. Given the centrality of sexuality to the Orientalist discourse, a close reading of several stories aims to show how Turkish nationalism (as represented by Omer Seyfeddin's work) adopts and reproduces the power structure and the masculine Subject inherent in Orientalism since it is a derivative of it. Omer Seyfeddin's designation of the Balkans as Turkey's Orient sheds light on the psychological complexities of a peculiar turn in the critical period of nation formation (1908-1922).