The Construction of Rabia as an Eastern Woman in Sinekli Bakkal

Halide Edib Adıvar’s novel Sinekli Bakkal, originally written in English in 1935 under the title The Clown and His Daughter and published in Turkish in 1936, is one of the significant works of Turkish literature from the Republican era. The novel portrays Istanbul during the reign of Sultan Abdulhamid II through vivid scenes and draws attention, with its proposed “solutions” to the East-West conflict—a central theme of modernization literature that began with the Tanzimat period. The work opens the doors of the Eastern reality, especially that of the Eastern woman who has long fascinated the Western imagination, to the Western world. It does so by providing many details about the social life of the time, particularly through the descriptions of the formation of daily life, as exemplified by the lifestyle of the character Rabia. This study will first examine critical readings of Sinekli Bakkal to understand how the main character Rabia has been perceived. Then it will question the instruments Halide Edib utilizes to construct Rabia as an Eastern woman. To this end, the construction of Rabia’s personality will be uncovered through an examination of the traits she inherits from her mother and father. In addition to the living conditions of her family and her neighborhood Sinekli Bakkal, her interactions with the mansion and palace circles as well as with the musician Peregrini, will be analyzed. The study aims to discuss how Halide Edib, through the character of Rabia, attempted to present an image of the Eastern woman to both Western and Eastern readers.