Crossing Borders: New Findings on Halide Edib’s Writing Experience and a Literary-Sociological Analysis
Şerif EskinIn 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).
Dünyaya Yol Almak: Halide Edib’in Yazarlık Tecrübesine Dair Yeni Bulgular ve Edebiyat Sosyolojisi Perspektifinden Bir İnceleme
Şerif EskinBu makalede öncelikle, farklı arşivlerden edindiğim belgeler ve mektuplar ışığında Halide Edib’in yazarlık serüveni ve entelektüel biyografisi hakkında ulaştığım yeni bulguları paylaşacağım. Ardından sosyal sermaye, kültürel sermaye, edebî üretim, yayın piyasasının dinamikleri ve edebiyat ödüllerinin işlevleri gibi izlekler etrafında edebiyat sosyolojisi açısından bir tartışma yürüterek Halide Edib’in ulus-ötesi mecralarda yakaladığı başarı ile eriştiği tanınırlıkta sermaye yönetiminin ve sosyal ilişki ağlarının etkili olduğunu öne süreceğim. Çalışmada kullanılan belgeler ve mektupların büyük bir bölümü, Halide Edib’in Londra’daki yayıncısı George Allen & Unwin Ltd. şirketinden geriye kalan, bugün University of Reading’de muhafaza edilen arşivlerde tespit edildi. Diğer belgelere ve mektuplara ise T.C. Cumhurbaşkanlığı Arşivleri, T. C. Devlet Arşivleri Başkanlığı Cumhuriyet Arşivleri, T.C. Dışişleri Bakanlığı Türk Diplomatik Arşivi, Fransa Millî Arşivleri ve Halide Edib’in İstanbul Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesinde korunan arşivi aracılığıyla ulaşıldı. George Allen & Unwin Ltd. koleksiyonu Halide Edib’in yazarlık serüvenine, eserlerinin dünya dillerine çeviri süreçlerine, farklı ülkelerde gördüğü ilgiye, kitaplarının satış oranlarına ve Sinekli Bakkal’ın ABD menşeli yapımcılar tarafından sinemaya uyarlanma teşebbüslerine dair önemli veriler barındırır. Ayrıca lektör raporları vasıtasıyla George Allen & Unwin yayınevinin Döner Ayna ve Âkile Hanım Sokağı romanlarını yayımlamayı niçin reddettiği açığa çıkar. Dolayısıyla bu bulgular dünya edebiyat ekosistemi hakkında çıkarımlar yapmamızı da sağlar. Diğer arşivlerdeki belgeler ise Halide Edib’in sosyal ilişki ağı, Londra’da düzenlenen Dünya İnançlar Kongresine (World Congress of Faiths, 1936) iştiraki, oryantalist muhayyilenin Avrupa kamuoyunda ürettiği Halide Edib imgesi, CHP Roman Mükâfatı jüri üyesi M. Fuad Köprülü’nün oylamadaki tercihi gibi hususlarda bulgular sunar.
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).
Some of the prominent details about the new findings regarding Halide Edib’s writing experience as obtained through this research are as follows: The records of George Allen & Unwin Ltd. contain reader’s reports on four works by Halide Edib. Sir Wyndham Henry Deedes, the reader of Sonsuz Panayır, expresses his generally positive opinion about the novel. However, he does make an interesting comment as well: “I am led to wonder that Halide Hanim should care to have this life exposed to a European public, for it can be in no sense typical of the life of the majority, even of middle-class people in Turkey.” However, I could find no information about why the novel had not later been translated and published in English. Meanwhile, the reader’s reports for both Âkile Hanım Sokağı and Döner Ayna were negative. The reader’s reports by Malcolm E. Barnes criticized both works for having poor English. Barnes also stated these novels to have low potential, as they were not of interest to the British public and therefore should not be published. This information ultimately reveals that George Allen & Unwin refused to publish two of Halide Edib’s novels with the belief that they would not achieve high sales rates. As for Masks or Souls?, Edward Lewis stated in his reader’s report that Halide Edib, whom he had never heard of before, was a good writer, and Masks or Souls? was a philosophically powerful text that has no chance whatsoever of reaching the theatre: “It is good ‘book’ material, but not good ‘theatre’ material.” We learn from letters in the George Allen & Unwin archives, however, that Halide Edib had covered the printing costs for Masks or Souls? entirely by herself, paying George Allen & Unwin Ltd. approximately 220 pounds to publish it.
According to Halide Edib’s letters, Warner Bros. had started working to adapt the novel into a movie as a result of the efforts of Lennart Westlinder, who had translated The Clown and His Daughter into Swedish. However, an official from the Warner Bros. London office then wrote to George Allen & Unwin with the following statement: “In view of the fact that the locale is Turkish, [we] fear that a production of the subject would be impossibly expensive.” Although the attempt to adapt it into a movie had failed, other correspondence reveals The Clown and His Daughter to have been received with considerable interest, especially in Sweden and the Netherlands. In fact, Swedish and Dutch readers appear to have been more interested in The Clown and His Daughter than British readers. According to George Allen & Unwin records, Masks or Souls? also did not sell well in Britain, only selling approximately 140 copies between 1954-1959.
