Periodic Reporting for period 1 - WCOLW (Women's Criminality in the Ottoman Literary World (1860-1922))
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-06-01 bis 2025-06-30
This research investigates the evolving representation of female criminality in Ottoman and early Republican Turkish literature between 1870 and 1926. It contextualizes this inquiry within the broader transformations of the Ottoman criminal justice system, gender norms, and the emergence of new literary genres, particularly the crime novel and dime novel. The study seeks to understand how literary narratives reflected and reinforced dominant social anxieties about women’s roles, sexuality, and agency in a modernizing society. Drawing on feminist criminological theory, the article critically examines selected novels—including İntibah by Namık Kemal, Esrar-ı Cinâyat by Ahmet Mithat, Milli Cinâyat Koleksiyonu, and Peyami Safa’s Tilki Leman and Çekirge Zehra—to analyze how language, plot structure, and character development shaped the portrayal of women perpetrators.
The main objective is to highlight the ideological function of literature in constructing symbolic boundaries between moral and deviant femininity. It traces how early narratives marginalized or pathologized female criminal agency through metaphors of seduction, madness, or supernatural evil, while later works—especially those influenced by dime novel culture—allowed for more autonomous, strategic, and visible female transgressors. The study aims to reveal the intersection of literary modernity, criminology, and gender, showing how popular fiction participated in negotiating modern concepts of womanhood and crime. Ultimately, the article contributes to a deeper understanding of how literature served both as a mirror of societal transformations and a vehicle for reimagining gendered power and deviance in late Ottoman and early Republican cultural history.
The main objective is to highlight the ideological function of literature in constructing symbolic boundaries between moral and deviant femininity. It traces how early narratives marginalized or pathologized female criminal agency through metaphors of seduction, madness, or supernatural evil, while later works—especially those influenced by dime novel culture—allowed for more autonomous, strategic, and visible female transgressors. The study aims to reveal the intersection of literary modernity, criminology, and gender, showing how popular fiction participated in negotiating modern concepts of womanhood and crime. Ultimately, the article contributes to a deeper understanding of how literature served both as a mirror of societal transformations and a vehicle for reimagining gendered power and deviance in late Ottoman and early Republican cultural history.
This article is based on a close reading of five meticulously selected literary works from the late Ottoman and early Republican periods, chosen from a broader pool of dozens of novels, novellas, and serialized stories that were published in Ottoman Turkish between the 1870s and 1920s. During this transformative period, Ottoman literature saw the rise of modern prose forms, including the introduction of crime fiction and dime novels, which became significant platforms for negotiating themes of gender, morality, and modernity.
While many works featured marginal or symbolic female characters, only a limited number placed female perpetrators at the center of their narratives. After an extensive survey of the period’s literary production, I selected five representative texts that not only span this fifty-year timeframe but also reflect distinct ideological, narrative, and stylistic shifts: İntibah (1876) by Namık Kemal, Esrar-ı Cinâyat (1884) by Ahmet Mithat, Milli Cinâyat Koleksiyonu (1914) by Vassaf Kadri and Süleyman Sudi, and two early Republican dime novels by Peyami Safa, Tilki Leman (1926) and Çekirge Zehra (1928).
These works were chosen for their diverse portrayals of female criminality and their roles in reflecting or subverting dominant social values. Through detailed textual analysis, my research uncovers the literary construction of women’s deviance and the cultural meanings it carries across changing historical contexts.
This research makes several significant contributions to both literary and gender studies by examining the representation of female criminality in Ottoman and early Republican Turkish literature. One of the primary achievements is the identification of a thematic and narrative evolution in how female perpetrators were portrayed from the Tanzimat era through the early Republican period. By analyzing five carefully selected works across five decades, the study reveals how early literature often marginalized, pathologized, or demonized criminal women, while later works—especially those influenced by dime novel culture—allowed for more complex, autonomous, and visible female criminal figures.
A second key contribution is the integration of feminist criminological theory into Ottoman literary analysis. This interdisciplinary approach challenges the male-centric assumptions of both classical criminology and Ottoman prose fiction by highlighting how gendered perceptions shaped not only legal and social treatment of women, but also their symbolic roles in fiction. The research uncovers how literature both reflected and reinforced dominant ideologies of femininity, morality, and power.
Furthermore, the study introduces and contextualizes dime novels as a transformative genre in Ottoman-Turkish literary history, showing how their sensationalist and serialized structure created new spaces for imagining female agency—albeit often in exaggerated or ambivalent ways.
Finally, by foregrounding underexplored texts and female characters, this research expands the canon of Ottoman-Turkish literature and opens new avenues for rethinking the relationship between gender, crime, and cultural representation. It provides a framework for understanding how literature functioned as a tool of both social control and subtle resistance.
While many works featured marginal or symbolic female characters, only a limited number placed female perpetrators at the center of their narratives. After an extensive survey of the period’s literary production, I selected five representative texts that not only span this fifty-year timeframe but also reflect distinct ideological, narrative, and stylistic shifts: İntibah (1876) by Namık Kemal, Esrar-ı Cinâyat (1884) by Ahmet Mithat, Milli Cinâyat Koleksiyonu (1914) by Vassaf Kadri and Süleyman Sudi, and two early Republican dime novels by Peyami Safa, Tilki Leman (1926) and Çekirge Zehra (1928).
These works were chosen for their diverse portrayals of female criminality and their roles in reflecting or subverting dominant social values. Through detailed textual analysis, my research uncovers the literary construction of women’s deviance and the cultural meanings it carries across changing historical contexts.
This research makes several significant contributions to both literary and gender studies by examining the representation of female criminality in Ottoman and early Republican Turkish literature. One of the primary achievements is the identification of a thematic and narrative evolution in how female perpetrators were portrayed from the Tanzimat era through the early Republican period. By analyzing five carefully selected works across five decades, the study reveals how early literature often marginalized, pathologized, or demonized criminal women, while later works—especially those influenced by dime novel culture—allowed for more complex, autonomous, and visible female criminal figures.
A second key contribution is the integration of feminist criminological theory into Ottoman literary analysis. This interdisciplinary approach challenges the male-centric assumptions of both classical criminology and Ottoman prose fiction by highlighting how gendered perceptions shaped not only legal and social treatment of women, but also their symbolic roles in fiction. The research uncovers how literature both reflected and reinforced dominant ideologies of femininity, morality, and power.
Furthermore, the study introduces and contextualizes dime novels as a transformative genre in Ottoman-Turkish literary history, showing how their sensationalist and serialized structure created new spaces for imagining female agency—albeit often in exaggerated or ambivalent ways.
Finally, by foregrounding underexplored texts and female characters, this research expands the canon of Ottoman-Turkish literature and opens new avenues for rethinking the relationship between gender, crime, and cultural representation. It provides a framework for understanding how literature functioned as a tool of both social control and subtle resistance.
This research offers an original contribution by bridging Ottoman literary analysis with feminist criminological theory—an approach previously underexplored in Turkish literary studies. Unlike traditional scholarship that focused on male-centered narratives or treated female criminality as symbolic or anecdotal, this study systematically traces female criminal representation across five major texts from 1876 to 1928. It brings to light how women perpetrators were framed not only as literary characters but also as ideological constructs reflecting deeper anxieties about gender, modernity, and morality.
A key advancement lies in the contextualization of dime novels as a transformative genre that introduced dynamic, unconventional female figures into the Turkish literary imagination. By comparing early Tanzimat-era moral dichotomies with later sensationalist and serialized fiction, the research illustrates a clear shift in how female agency and criminal intent were narrated and perceived.
Moreover, the analysis uncovers how these fictional women both reproduced and resisted the epistemic models of classical criminology, thus highlighting literature as a space of both control and contestation. This interdisciplinary framework opens a new scholarly lens, situating Turkish popular fiction within global debates on gender and crime, and offering new parameters for evaluating how literary modernity interacted with social transformation and gendered power
A key advancement lies in the contextualization of dime novels as a transformative genre that introduced dynamic, unconventional female figures into the Turkish literary imagination. By comparing early Tanzimat-era moral dichotomies with later sensationalist and serialized fiction, the research illustrates a clear shift in how female agency and criminal intent were narrated and perceived.
Moreover, the analysis uncovers how these fictional women both reproduced and resisted the epistemic models of classical criminology, thus highlighting literature as a space of both control and contestation. This interdisciplinary framework opens a new scholarly lens, situating Turkish popular fiction within global debates on gender and crime, and offering new parameters for evaluating how literary modernity interacted with social transformation and gendered power