Güzide Sabri’s Feminist Humor in the Late (Anti-Feminist) Ottoman Humor Press: The Plot of the Story “Tevfik Efendi” and its Extension into a Novel

Abstract

The historical importance of Güzide Sabri’s humorous story “Tevfik Efendi,” published in Aydede in 1922, is three-fold. First, it is a rare instance of feminist humor produced by women in the late Ottoman satirical press, characterized as it was by anti-feminist discourse. Second, it is a relatively unknown but accomplished humorous example of Güzide Sabri’s work, better known for commercial novels featuring lovesick characters. Third, it was retold and elaborated in her novel Neclâ, published in 1941. The present study, intended as a discussion of these three points, begins by focusing on the anti-feminist publications of the Turkish humor press printed in Arabic script during the first half of the 1920s, then turns to the limited opportunities for women’s self-expression as exemplified by the magazine Aydede, and finally reviews Güzide Sabri’s humorous writings. The main part of the study is devoted to a discussion, along the axes of gender and feminist humor, of the story of a certain Tevfik Efendi who satirized women’s quest for emancipation during the early twentieth century, as well as of the transformation of the story into and through a novel. Based on the divulgence of Tevfik Efendi’s unethical attitude in the story and the novel, within a context framed by the triad coffeehouse-woman-misogyny, as well as women’s entrepreneurship/employment as an example of gender solidarity in the novel, the conclusion is devoted to a discussion of whether or not it is possible to consider Güzide Sabri a feminist writer.