Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Turkiyat Mecmuasi, cilt.33, sa.33, ss.781-813, 2023 (Scopus)
In this article, I will primarily present new findings on Halide Edib’s writing experience and intellectual biography in light of the documents and letters I have obtained from different archives as a result of long research. I will then attempt to conduct a discussion in terms of literary sociology around such topics as social capital, cultural capital, literary production, the dynamics of the publishing market, and the functions of literary awards. Most of the documents and letters used in the study were discovered in the archives of Halide Edib’s London-based publisher, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., now stored at the University of Reading Special Collections. Other documents and letters were obtained from the State Archives of the Republic of Türkiye (BCA), the Archives of the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye (TCCA), the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Türkiye (TDA), the National Archives of France, and Halide Edib’s personal archive preserved at Istanbul University Faculty of Letters. The documents in the records of George Allen & Unwin Ltd. contain important data about Halide Edib’s journey as a writer, the translation of her works into different languages, the interest she attracted in several countries, the sales rates of her books, and the attempts to adapt The Clown and His Daughter into a movie by US-based producers. Additionally, we learn through reader’s reports why George Allen & Unwin refused to publish the translations of the novels Döner Ayna and Âkile Hanım Sokağı. These findings resultantly allow conclusions to be drawn about the world literary ecosystem. Documents in other archives provide findings regarding Halide Edib’s social network, her participation in the World Congress of Faiths in London in 1936, the image of Halide Edib as produced by the Orientalist imagination in the European public, and the voting preference of M. Fuad Köprülü, jury member for the Republican People’s Party’s Novel Award (CHP Roman Mükâfatı).