Orientalism and the Male Subject of Turkish Nationalism in the Stories of Ömer Seyfeddin

This article analyses different manifestations of Orientalism in the Turkish author Ömer Seyfeddinʹs stories. Being a nationalist author, the facets of his relationship with Orientalism range from submission and resistance to a semi-conscious orientalization of the Balkans by means of Orientalistic imagery in his post-Balkan Wars stories. Given the centrality of sexuality to the Orientalist discourse, a close reading of several stories aims to show how Turkish nationalism (as represented by Ömer Seyfeddinʹs work) adopts and reproduces the power structure and the masculine Subject inherent in Orientalism since it is a derivative of it. Ömer Seyfeddinʹs designation of the Balkans as Turkeyʹs Orient sheds light on the psychological complexities of a peculiar turn in the critical period of nation formation (1908 – 1922).