Mascolinità moderne in Turchia. Dalla decadenza al militarismo

Autore: Ayse Saraçgil
In: Genesis. II/2, 2003
doi:10.1400/78267
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Abstract

Modern masculinities in Turkey. From decadence to militarism
This essay sets out to examine the changes which occurred in the conception and experience of masculinity in the Ottoman empire and the Turkish republic between 1860 and 1920. The shift from decadentism to militarism, symbolised by the striking contrast between the vacillating figures of the last sultans and the soldier-heroes Enver Pascià and Mustafà Kemal, is one of the main points of reference. The other key point is the inter-relationship between the female-male and internal-external dichotomies. The article describes the changes in masculinity taking place during the nineteenth century, especially after Kemal’s founding of the Turkish republic, with special reference to the subjective sphere, and in particular to dress, to perceptions of the body, and to styles of life. The battle for the abolition of the fez, the new emphasis on male bodies which were both athletic and military, the insistence on breaking up traditional generational hierarchies and forcing the inside to come outside, as in the case of mixed dancing and schooling, the new alliances between fathers and daughters, are all examples of profoundly innovative definitions of internal and external, of male and female relationships. In methodological terms, it is suggested that the categories of gender can shed a completely new light upon the well-known processes of ‘revolution from above’, embodied here in the remarkable figure of Mustafà Kemal, who was to become Atatürk, literally, the ‘Father of the Turks’.