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Abstract

In the present study, a close reading of the “Housewife” poems of Ziya Gökalp and Halide Nusret Zorlutuna reveals not only a travelling concept – that of the angel in the house, originally introduced by the British Victorian poet Coventry Patmore – but also illustrates how this concept mirrors the contradictions inherent in the early republican conception of Turkish women. On the one hand, women were recognized as holders of rights; on the other hand, they were idealised as submissive domestic helpers of their husbands. The concept of the angel in the house, as employed by Gökalp and Zorlutuna, celebrates the woman who makes it her mission in life to take care of the home. The “Housewife” poems provide support for a view of the Turkish woman of the early republic as only partially emancipated in relation to the state and as unliberated in relation to family and traditional gender roles.

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