Anna Bowman Dodd (1855-1929), a New York travel writer and journalist, journeyed to Istanbul with the American Ambassador to France and was entertained by Abdulhamid II Yildiz Palace in 1901. When the gaieties of the court were finished, Dodd embarked on a detailed account of the city and its people. Interested in documenting the changes in Turkey brought about by the "embrace" of modernity and progress, she considers Turkish women's rights, harems and marriage, the management of the household, education, slavery, the Sultan's reign, and nationalist movements in the last days of the Ottoman Empire. She caters to the American market for Orientalism but is also reflexive about its employment, both invoking and undercutting stereotypes as she addresses the "Eastern Question." America is marked as playing a pivotal role in the settling of this question: she suggests, in an imperialist fashion, that America might rescue this "weak" power, helping her to exploit her resources and join the commercial market even as she uses Turkey to "teach" America lessons about democracy.

Cultures in Dialogue returns to print sources by women writers from the East and West. Series One considers the exchanges between Ottoman, British, and American women from the 1880s to the 1940s. Their varied responses to dilemmas such as nationalism, female emancipation, race relations and modernization in the context of the stereotypes characteristic of Western harem literature reframe the historical tensions between Eastern and Western cultures, offering a nuanced understanding of their current manifestations.

Series Editors:

Teresa Heffernan is Associate Professor of English at Saint Mary's University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
Reina Lewis is Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies at the University of East London, UK.

Reviews

"The focus on 'harem,' and on issues of confinement and visibility, marks both the desire of these writers to garner an already established market for their works and their ability to manipulate stereotypes and undermine them. These texts as historical artifacts demonstrate the canny awareness that Ottoman women had of audience."--Dr. Marilyn Booth, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Table of Contents

• Introduction to the Series
• Introduction to the Reprint: The Reflexive Orientalist: An American in Istanbul
• Preface
• Within the Gates
• The Messengers From the Palace
• The Selamlik - From the Palace of Yildiz Kiosk
• The Private Audience
• Tea in His Majesty's Stables
• The Banquet in the Palace
• In the Palace Theatre
• The Court of the Osmanlis
• The Imperial Treasury and Library
• The Harem and Court of the Seraglio
• Some Ambassadors at the Court of the Osmanlis
• To Top-Khaneh
• In The Royal Caïques
• A Turkish Coup d'État
• A Chain of Royal Palaces
• The Dancing Dervishes
• All in a Day
• The Cities of Severus, Constantine, and Justinian
• Constantinople and Santa Sophia
• The Moslem City
• Pera and Galata
• Scutari and Brusa
• Notes and Impressions