Women in the closet in Peyami Safa: homonationalism as an analytical category to read early republican Turkish literature

Abstract

The novel Havva’nın Üvey Kızları [The Stepdaughters of Eve] (1928), written by Peyami Safa under the pseudonym Servet Bedi, was serialised during Turkey’s early Republican period. The novel narrates the complex relationship between four lesbian women and the husband of one of these women. Through the husband’s ostensibly tolerant attitude toward his wife and her female companions, the text suggests, according to the author, that the women ultimately come to view their homosexuality as a pathology, subsequently adopting more traditionally feminine roles. This article explores the husband’s tolerance in the novel in relation to Jasbir K. Puar’s concept of homonationalism. Finally, it employs Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s paranoid reading as a technique to close-read queer texts.