Main      Turkish

KADIN / WOMAN 2000

 volume II / Issue 1 - June 2001

Contents
Abstracts

Contents / İçindekiler

[Top]

 

ABSTRACTS


Portrait of Özden Selenge as an Artist
Netice Yıldız
Eastern Mediterranean University

Abstract
It is the aim of this study to provide a biographical portrait of Özden Selenge as an exceptionally talented Cypriot woman who has reflected her artistic abilities both in her paintings and literary writings.
It is a known fact that in the evolution of art, women had always played an important part although they usually remained anonymous in their efforts. This is also true in the evolution of Cypriot art although the case for the male artists is not much different. There is a rapid development in the evolution of Turkish Cypriot art and literature during the second half of the twentieth century which I believe is worth recording now at this time of Cyprus cultural history.
Özden Selenge is a distinguished artist as measured by success both in her paintings as well as an author whose name deserves to be mentioned among the contemporary Turkish Cypriot artists. Selenge is one of the rare artists who expresses her feelings, emotions and fantasies imaginative both in her paintings as well as her writings similtaneaously. In spite of the fact that she made her first standing in Turkish Cypriot art with her naive paintings in miniature series that can be considered also selected examples of folk art, like many Cypriot artist she also prefered to paint in abstract expressionist manner. Although Selenge primarily used canvas and oil paint since the beginning of her art, she has recently used hand made paper as the medium for her paintings similar to her writing. Her palette is rather rich with the variety of colour, hues and values in each painting forming complex meaning in her painting as in her writing. She changed the colour at virtually each picture in a way similar the variety of her characters and stories narrated in her books. Her birds happily sing the song of spring while they are perched upon the trees or on the old houses, and her heroes and heroines sometimes occupy the whole surface or sometimes hide behind the doors or walls of the old Cypriot houses, which reflect the memories of the past. She produced all these paintings in her usual naive folk art style.
The presentation of Cypriot artists and writers is not sufficient by merely opening exhibitions and publications of their works. Writing biographies of these personalities based upon objective observations as well as a thorough research is essential both for their representations in the country and abroad as well recording them in the cultural history of the island for the future generations. We hope that this study, which may be considered as the first of its kind provides a detailed biography of a Cypriot artist and would be followed by work that would form a historical record for coming generations.

[Contents] [Top]


Özden Selenge’s World of Stories
Hülya ARGUNŞAH
Erciyes Üniversitesi

Abstract
Özden Selenge has stated in her memoirs “I experience before I write,” as an observation regarding the development of fictitious form. She realized that as she narrates time passes very quickly and takes the things away. The timeline in her works has a technical significance. Her stories begin with the present, goes into the past, and then returns to the present again. Selenge believes that the past has an impact on the present and therefore, she recounts the lives of different people who lived in the past. She is especially interested in human affairs. Time appears to have technical value, however, and the social period is the background in her works.
Özden Selenge speaks of Cyprus. She believes in the presence of a particular Cypriot culture. Her stories run parallel with what she observed and she successfully included the local Cypriot Turkish dialect in her stories as well as a dictionary of the locally used words in the appendix to help the reader with her books.
Selenge writes about the mysteries of a woman’s world. In her stories woman’s place is privileged despite all the exploitations and suppressions. These women are generally unhappy because of the complications and the disorders of the world in which they live Therefore, the author questions society, marriage and human traditions. The only opportunity for woman to overcome this unhappiness is to have a job and to be educated. In the stories those who manage to achieve this, challenge the established order.
Art for Özden Selenge is an inevitable passion. This can be seen in her devoted attitude for the colour and shape in her stories. An attitude of art, a perception also expressed in verbal form reflects a woman looking at Cyprus with a female sensitivity.

[Contents] [Top]


Universality of the Desire Mechanism in Özden Selenge’s Novels
Yonca Hürol
Eastern Mediterranean University

Abstract
This paper is about the significance of the desire mechanism in the novels of Özden Selenge who is a Cypriot woman writer and artist. For this purpose, a specific process is applied in order to understand Selenge’s novels. According to this process, desire mechanism is perceived self-reflectively as it affects the writer of this paper. According to this perspective, it is not possible to make an objective evaluation of an art product and especially the desire mechanism in it.
The first two parts of the paper are about the universal and local characteristics that are presented in these novels. It is shown that impossibility of love forms an universal desire mechanism in both of Selenge’s two novels, while the main desire mechanism of her last novel is the possibility of friendship. It is also shown that the way Selenge understands love and friendship corresponds to a certain perspective of women. However, this is such a woman point of view that does not have any feminine (a tendency to imitate), feminist (a tendency to oppose) or female (a tendency to be passive) characteristics. It is a point of view that is infinitely open to in-between categories in order to produce an extremely fine particularity.
The target of the paper is to explore whether these universal characteristics are dominant on the local ones. Selenge produces these universal desire mechanisms by giving the local desire mechanisms to the service of the universal ones. Repression applied by the specific (well known) social problems is inverted with the help of the particularity of her peaceful characters. This is the way she highlights the local social problems, while achieving the universality at the same time.
The last part of the paper contains an evaluation to discover if there is any consistency between the formal characteristics of the novels and the domination relationship between universal and local characteristics in them. The form is not dominant in Selenge’s novels. However, it serves the purpose of producing a universal desire mechanism with the help of local ones. The main formal characteristics of her novels are achieved with the help of the tension between the use of time and accent differences of the characters.
Identity categories of the local characters are defined with the help of their accents. However, by turning back to their personal and family histories in a free form and by telling specific events, these categories change to become peaceful particularities. At this stage, the only remaining characteristic from the categories is the differences between their accents. In this way the rise of universal desire mechanisms are made possible. Problems between the identity categories are eliminated and the strengths of accents against repression are freed.
The use of local desire mechanisms in the service of universal ones also distinguishes Selenge’s writing from Western literature that depends on the relationship between universality and form.

[Contents] [Top]

The Development of a Feminist Discourse and Feminist Writing in Turkey: 1970 - 1990
Ramazan Gülendam
18 Mart University

Abstract
In this article, I shall present the following issues: First, the development during the 1970s against a highly politicized background, when the anti-feminist, socialist ideology hindered a free development of an independent feminist discourse. Second, the development during the 1980s against the background of the Coup of September 1980, when the development of a feminist discourse was stripped of its political environment. Third, the general biographical background of the Turkish women writers, and the major conflicts and contradictions these women experienced due to their background, including an enumeration of the main issues. Based on this analysis, the development of 'feminist literature' during the 1970s is described against the background of political polarization and the context of the 'politicized female intellectual'. The development of 'feminist literature' during the 1980s is presented against the background of the Coup of 1980 and four highly dynamic forces in the context of the 'individual women' and the 'turn towards the self'.

[Contents] [Top]


Occupational Segregation: The Position of Women in the North Cyprus Labor Market
Fatma Güven-Lisaniler
Eastern Mediterranean University
Sevin Uğural
Eastern Mediterranean University

Abstract
The study aims at evaluating the position of women and measuring occupational segregation in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) labor market and making international comparisons. In the first part of the paper, the position of women is evaluated. Consequently the labor force participation rate in terms of age and education levels, distribution by main occupations and by major industries, employment status, inactivity rate and employment and unemployment by education levels are analyzed. To measure the occupational segregation, Occupational Segregation Indices by main occupations and by major industries are calculated. In the second part of the paper, Gender Related Development Index (GDI) and Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) are used to show TRNC’s position in the international ranking.

[Contents] [Top]