Ahmet Mithat’s novel Dürdane Hanım, which was first serialized in his own daily Tercüman-ı Hakikat and then published as a book in 1882, has been one of his the most popular novels. Yet this popularity focused mainly on the more striking and amusing features of the novel, such as the protagonist’s being a “superwoman” or the novel’s aspiration to be a “scientific novel” by introducing the newly invented telephone in it. It is, however, important as the representative of not only Ahmet Mithat novels but also of the whole early Ottoman-Turkish novelistic field due to its technical, thematic and ideological aspects. A reading and interpretation endeavour that will approach it with this consciousness, should also start from the fact that this novel is a roman-feuilleton. Its narrative progression and ideological design become more explicit when they are correlated with the romanfeuilleton form. This article approaches the novel from this angle and discusses how the well plotted Dürdane Hanım sets forth the handling of social and literary trasgression and crime, how justice is provided patiently and tactfully, and of course, how order is re- onstituted more strongly at the end.
2013/48 
Sayı 48