“Bulgarian Horrors” Revisited: the Many-Layered Manifestations of the Orientalist Discourse in Victorian Political Construction of the External, Intimate and Internal Other

Year 2017, Volume: 81 Issue: 291, 525 - 568, 01.08.2017

Nazan Çiçek

https://doi.org/10.37879/belleten.2017.525

Abstract

This study largely drawing upon the established conceptual framework of Orientalism in Saidian terms shall analyse the British perceptions and representations of the Bulgarian Crisis of 1876, a salient feature of the Eastern Question, as they appeared in British parliamentary debates. It will also make occasional yet instructive references to the coverage of the Crisis as well as the image of the Ottoman Empire and the Balkans which were organic parts of the Crisis, in some influential periodicals of the era such as the Times and the Contemporary Review in order to better contextualize the debates in the parliament. The main point this article shall make is that the Bulgarian Crisis worked as a catalyst in reinforcing the hegemony of the Orientalist discourse in the political construction of the Ottoman Empire as an absolute external Other in Britain at the time. It shall also delve into the construction of the Balkans as an “intimate other” whose Oriental and European features were alternately accentuated during the Crisis with a view to enlist the British public in either supporting or denouncing the Bulgarian uprising. All in all, it will suggest that the Orientalist rhetoric was embedded at the very core of the Victorian British elites’ cognitive map, and was also unsparingly employed in negating the domestic political opponents swamping them with negative Orientalist stereotypes.

Keywords

Orientalism, Ottoman Empire, Balkans, Bulgarian Crisis of 1876, Gladstone, Disraeli

Viktoryen Dönem Britanyası’nın Politik Söyleminde Dışsal, Mahrem ve İçerideki Öteki’lik Kanunlarının İnşasının Çok Katmanlı Bir Manifestosu Olarak Bulgaristan Krizi 1876 - 1877

Abstract

Bu çalışma Edward Said’in oryantalizm kritiği üzerinden yapılandırılmış literatürü arka plana yerleştirerek ve söz konusu literatürün sağladığı analiz araçlarını kullanarak, Şark Meselesi’nin öne çıkan olaylarından birisi olan 1876 Bulgaristan Krizi’nin Büyük Britanya Parlamentosu’nda nasıl tartışıldığını ele almaktadır. Bu tartışmaları daha iyi bağlamsallaştırabilmek adına, hem krizin hem de onun organik bileşenleri olan Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun ve Balkanların dönemin Times ve Contemporary Review gibi önde gelen kimi etkili süreli yayınlarında nasıl algılanıp resmedildiklerine de bakılmaktadır. Bu çalışmanın temel argümanı, Bulgaristan Krizi’nin dönemin Britanya’sında Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nu mutlak Öteki olarak inşa eden Oryantalist söylemin hegemonyasının konsolide edilmesinde bir katalizör işlevi görmüş olduğudur. Çalışma, merkezi Avrupa’da Balkanlar coğrafyasına ilişkin kurgulanmış olan “mahrem öteki” imajının kriz boyunca nasıl görünürlük kazandığını ve Balkanların hem Avrupalı hem de Doğulu olma halinin Britanya kamuoyunu Bulgaristan özelinde Balkan halklarına destek verme ya da Balkanlarda Osmanlı devletinin egemenlik haklarını koruma şeklindeki ayrışmanın tarafı haline getirebilmek için nasıl söylemsel bir mücadele aracı olarak kullandıldığını göstermektedir. Oryantalist retoriğin Viktorya dönemi Britanya’sının elitlerinin zihinsel haritasını kuran temel unsurlardan olduğu ve Oryantalist yargıların ulusal elitlerin kendi aralarındaki mücadelelerde de seferber edildiği Bulgaristan Krizi üzerinden ortaya konulmaktadır.

Keywords

Oryantalizm, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu, Balkanlar, 1876 Bulgaristan Krizi, Gladstone, Disraeli

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