RETHINKING ORIENTALISM: WOMEN, TRAVEL AND THE OTTOMAN HAREM.
Publisher: I.B. TAURIS
Published: 2004
Place of publication: LONDON
Language: und; eng
Number of pages: 254
Description: <">The oppressed yet highly sexualized woman of the Muslim harem is arguably the pivotal figure of Western orientalism. Yet, as Reina Lewis demonstrates, while orientalist thinking had recently been challenged, Western understandings of Middle Eastern culture remain limited. This book presents alternative dialogues between Ottoman and Western women. Lewis examines, from the position of cultural theory, the published autobiographical accounts about segregated life of self-identified "Oriental" women Demetra Vaka Brown, Halide Edib, Zeyneb Hanum, Melek Hanum and Grace Ellison. Bringing her subjects vividly to life, Lewis uses these texts to challenge the Western orientalist stereotypes that have become commonplace within postcolonial theory.<">--Bloomsbury Publishing.