French and Turkish women writers during the age of englightenment

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present Turkish and French women writers of the Enlightenment period by making a social, historical and literary comparison between two civilizations whose religions, languages and customs are very different. In this perspective, the author of this article tries to draw attention to their education, activities and their position in family life and intellectual environment. As the French women writers are much more numerous than the Turkish ones, unfortunately is study is not well balanced. This fact is due to a reality: Whereas the invention of printing was made during the XVth century and established right away in France; for various reasons, it was established in the Ottoman Empire during the XVIIIth century, which explains why just a few publications belonging to Turkish women writers survived till the present. The women authors to be studied in this article are Françoise de Graffigny, Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni who have modest origins and Emilie du Châtelet, Sophie de Condorcet, noble women writers. They are chosen especially to show that all of them succeeded in having their works published during their lifetime. As for the unique Turkish women writer of the same period, Zübeyde Fitnat Hanım, she also is remembered due to the publication of her works due to the establishment of the printing in the Ottoman Empire by İbrahim Müteferrika in 1728. This comparative study aims to reveal the reasons of the lag of a century between the French and Turkish women writers. This can be explained by the difference of mentalities and the effects of religion that created problems especially for Turkish writers by keeping them dependent and ignorant throughout the XVIIIth century.