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Year 1999, Issue: 9, 71 - 82, 01.04.1999

Abstract

References

  • Gordon, Lynn D. Gender and Higher Education in the Progressive Era. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.
  • Kalogeras, Yiorgos. “Nationalism Unveiled: A Greek American View of the Harem.” Women, Creators of Culture. Eds. Ekaterina Georgoudaki and Domna Pastourmatzi. Thessaloniki. Hellenic Association of American Studies, 1997. 107- 116.
  • Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley. Embassy to Constantinople: The Travels of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Ed. Christopher Pick. New York: New Amsterdam Books, 1989.
  • Overton, Grant. The Women Who Make Our Novels. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company. 1925.
  • Pryor, Elizabeth Brown. Clara Barton, Professional Angel. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987.
  • Vaka, Demetra. In the Shadow of Islam. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1911.
  • Woolf, Virginia. “Professions for Women.” The Death of the Moth and Other Essays. New York: Harcourt, 1942. 236-238.

American Women Readers Encounter Turkey in the Shadow of Popular Romance

Year 1999, Issue: 9, 71 - 82, 01.04.1999

Abstract

Demetra Vaka's In the Shadow of Islam, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1911, depicts Millicent Grey, a recent Radcliffe graduate bent on improving the world through her naïve attempts at international philanthropy. The athletic, blonde American heiress arrives in İstanbul with little more than the vaguest of good intentions and soon finds herself in a passionate struggle with a threatening, desperate, and dark-complexioned Ottoman lover. At first glance, Vaka appears to have created a popular romance novel, a New Woman variation on F. Marion Crawford’s love stories, then the rage with women readers, in which heroes and heroines, separated largely by their race, ethnicity, or social class, pursue and flee each other across sensational locations. In the Shadow of Islam’s setting seems to capitalize on the Western hunger for the exotic, specifically the Oriental, that would inspire silent films such as The Sheik 1921 , the paintings of Gustav Klimt, and the architecture, decor, and clothing fashion of the 1920s.

References

  • Gordon, Lynn D. Gender and Higher Education in the Progressive Era. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.
  • Kalogeras, Yiorgos. “Nationalism Unveiled: A Greek American View of the Harem.” Women, Creators of Culture. Eds. Ekaterina Georgoudaki and Domna Pastourmatzi. Thessaloniki. Hellenic Association of American Studies, 1997. 107- 116.
  • Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley. Embassy to Constantinople: The Travels of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Ed. Christopher Pick. New York: New Amsterdam Books, 1989.
  • Overton, Grant. The Women Who Make Our Novels. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company. 1925.
  • Pryor, Elizabeth Brown. Clara Barton, Professional Angel. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987.
  • Vaka, Demetra. In the Shadow of Islam. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1911.
  • Woolf, Virginia. “Professions for Women.” The Death of the Moth and Other Essays. New York: Harcourt, 1942. 236-238.
There are 7 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Journal Section Research Article
Authors

Kathlene Postma This is me

Publication Date April 1, 1999
Published in Issue Year 1999 Issue: 9

Cite

MLA Postma, Kathlene. “American Women Readers Encounter Turkey in the Shadow of Popular Romance”. Journal of American Studies of Turkey, no. 9, 1999, pp. 71-82.

JAST - Journal of American Studies of Turkey