CHAPTER 4 – HALIDE EDIP AND YAKUP KADRI
112
Ordeal
does not only deal with the events of the war but also records her impressions
of poverty stricken and backward Anatolia. In 1922 after the final victory of
nationalists Dr Adnan (who was already the Deputy Speaker of Grand National
Assembly) became the nationalist envoy in Istanbul.
After the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey along with her husband Adnan
(Adıvar), Rauf (Orbay), Kâzım (Karabekir) and Ali Fuat (Cebesoy) she became a
founder of an opposition party,
Terakkiperver Cumhuriyet Fırkası
(The Progressive
Democratic Party) which stood for liberalism and democratisation. When this party
was outlawed in June 1925 she left the country with her husband and returned to
Turkey only in 1939 after Mustafa Kemal’s death. Significantly in Mustafa Kemal’s
Nutuk,
she was vilified as a
mandacı
(supporter of mandate)
which was treated as
synonymous with being a traitor. During the period of self-imposed exile Dr Adnan
taught Turkish at the École des Langues Orientales Vivantes in Paris while she
travelled to England, America and India where she was active lecturing and
publishing.
As Hülya Adak relates, in 1928 Halide Edip participated in the Williamstown
Political Institute round-table conference as the first female lecturer in Politics and
was hailed as the extraordinary woman of the New Turkey
34
. Her conference lectures
which presented an analysis of the Ottoman empire and the young Republic were
published in 1930 as
Turkey
Faces West.
In 1931 she was a visiting professor in the
34
Adıvar 2005, xv
CHAPTER 4 – HALIDE EDIP AND YAKUP KADRI
113
History Department of Barnard College in New York. In 1935 she travelled to India
where she helped to establish the Muslim University, Jamia Millia. She stayed and
lectured in India for two months. Her lectures were published in 1937 under the title
Conflict of East and
West in Turkey
. In the same year she published in London
Inside India
which were serialised in the
Tan
(Dawn)
newspaper as
Hindistan’a Dair
(On India) in 1938
35
.
After her return to Istanbul she taught as a Professor at the University of Istanbul
English Language and Literature Department from 1940. Between 1950 and 1954
she was an independent MP for Izmir. Withdrawing from politics she resumed her
professorial duties at the University of Istanbul. She died on 9 January 1964
36
.
She wrote a three volume history of English literature and translated Shakespeare’s
Hamlet, As You Like It, Coriolanus
and
Anthony and Cleopatra
into Turkish
.
As Hülya Adak points out, Halide Edip’s absurd play
Maskeli Ruhlar
published in
1938 and translated and published in English as
Masks or Souls?
in 1953 as well as
her translation into Turkish of George Orwell’s
Animal Farm
in 1952 point to her
opposition to totalitarian regimes. “Perhaps the first absurd drama in the history of
Turkish theatre
Maskeli Ruhlar/Masks or Souls?
brings forth Edib’s pessimism
about the second decade of the Kemalist revolution: Mustafa Kemal is depicted as a
dictator, the modern version of the great Tatar conqueror Tamarlane (1335-1405)”.
35
Adıvar 2005, xvii-xviii
36
Adıvar 2005, xvi
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