A crisis of representation :|the literary identity of hijabi woman in Turkish novels

Abstract

This dissertation examines the ethical and problematic meaning attributed to hijabi woman identity representations in Turkish novels (1910-2017) in terms of narrative ethics. Hijabi woman, who is the subject of this dissertation, will be demonstrated masquerading as a guise or a marginal excess at the literary scene in the framework of the post-structuralist approach's information (Derrida, Lacan, Ahmed). Using the notion of "narrative progression," it explores the problematic conditions of production and reception of the hijabi typologies, which also strongly influences the woman's self-image. By focusing on three breaking points in the representation of the hijabi characters, this study argues that hijab carries a meaning that textualizes the woman image as a persona who lacks individual self-identity and agency elements. These breaking points, which are examined in four separate sections, also correspond with the periodization of the issue of hijab, respectively as “conversion” (1910-1960), “neglection” (1960-1997), “exclusion,” and “inclusion” (1997-up to now) in this study. At each breaking point, the definition of hijabi characters changes, and they are categorized as “veiled,” “headscarfed,” and “turbaned” figures who exhibit the problematic aspects of modernization by their bodies. Hijab, as the primary signification of the “conversion,” is examined as the boundary between a woman's self-identity and the representation of this in Turkish novels that function as a symbol for writers to manifest their political stands. This symbolic role requires the woman protagonist to get through mental, physical, and psychological stages that introduce unveiling as the criteria of abandoning the premodern lifestyle and attaining the modern ideal. The different narrative strategies employed in materializing women refer that the problems inherent to women’s representation do not progress solely in a chronology, but multiple dynamics make this open to inner differentiation. In this sense, the problematic identity of hijab unfolds cultural gender issue that essentially shows the symbolic value of the body.