Gudrun Wedel
Autobiographies of German-speaking Women in Constantinople in the Late Ottoman Period
Abstract:
My talk will be based on my research in the context of a project concerning autobiographical writings of German speaking women, who visited Constantinople during the late 19th century. Some of them were women writers: Helene Böhlau, Marie von Hobe, Bernhardine Schulze-Smidt, Mathilde Weber and they will be the centre of my reflections. These four writers had very different reasons for going to the multi-ethnic metropolis of Constantinople. Some stayed there for a long time, others only for a few weeks.
My paper will concentrate on two points. One is the biographical context in which each of these writers faced the new cultural living conditions. Because of the various and different reasons for travelling to Constantinople, their perspectives on the foreign and unknown environment differed accordingly. Two women went as tourists, well read and prepared to see all the well known sights. One went together with her husband, who began working for the Ottoman court. The writer Helene Böhlau went to be married according to Islamic law.
The second point will deal with the different ways women writers treated and integrated those phases of their lives into their autobiographical writings. Most of them kept a written record of their experiences and their surroundings during their stays in Constantinople in preparation for publishing. The range of topics and kinds of texts published later on was quite diverse, as was the media of publishing - for example as a book, and as articles in newspapers or magazines.
SvD, October 2012
- Conferences > NEWW international conferences > Belgrade April 2011 > Wedel