From The Perspective of Women Writers: Representations of Modern Girls in 1920s and 1930s Turkey And Japan

In the 1920s, Modern Girls emerged in both Turkey and Japan, drawing attention with their Westernized appearance and liberal lifestyles. They became popular subjects among authors and media outlets. However, portrayals of Modern Girls by male authors and in the media predominantly relied on stereotypes, such as fashion icons, femme fatales, materialistic party girls, and so on. Studies on the Japanese Modern Girl focus on media portrayals to define the figure, while Turkish Modern Girls in literature have been viewed as a neglected topic. Most scholarly works use newspaper articles or advertisements as primary sources, often mentioning the Modern Girls’ descriptions in literary texts only briefly. My paper challenges the limited representations of Modern Girls by exploring themes of desire and self-representation in women’s writing. I analyze the portrayals of Modern Girl characters in the selected works of Japanese authors Uno Chiyo (1897-1996) and Nomizo Naoko (1897-1987), as well as in works by Turkish authors Suat Derviş (1905-1972) and Güzide Sabri (1886–1946) to demonstrate that Modern Girls’ definitions extend far beyond the representations offered by male authors and mainstream media. My project supports the idea that examining the experiences of Modern Girls in Turkish and Japanese contexts offers valuable perspectives on the impact of Westernization on women’s lives in non-Western societies. It presents an innovative approach to understanding the Modern Girl figure by drawing comparisons between these two cultures.