Halide Edib (1884-1964) is one of those figures whose life runs through the end of the Ottoman Empire to the first years of the Turkish republic.

She was a writer, warrior and politician who fell out with Atatürk and spent the years 1925-1936 in exile abroad, mostly in England.

Halide Edib’s father was a proponent of Anglo-Saxon model of education and employed an Anglo-Indian governess, and her intellectual development was bilingual from the start.

This talk focuses on Halide Edib’s interactions with the English starting with her early years, looking at her impressions of London in 1909 as a guest, and then her interactions with them in the 1920 as occupiers in Istanbul.

This talk by Nagihan Haliloğlu, hosted by the Anglo Turkish Society in October, further examines how Edib’s understanding of occupier and host, nationalism and internationalism were shaped as she witnessed the British occupation in Istanbul, as she set about writing columns for the independence of Turkiye, maintaining her cosmopolitan approach.

Halide Edib expressed her views of the English in fiction, memoir, and newspaper article format, dealing with different aspects of a nation in different contexts.

Both during her earlier visit and years in exile, England introduced her to an international world of letters which she embraced for the rest of her life, and which led her to lecture in places such as the US and India.

About Nagihan Haliloğlu 

Nagihan Haliloğlu started her academic career at Boğaziçi University where she studied Chemistry. She then went on to do two masters, one in English at Middlebury College, and one in Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford.

She completed her doctoral studies at the University of Heidelberg, where she wrote a thesis on Jean Rhys and narrative. She started teaching at Giessen University, and then continued at Lehigh University, Fatih Sultan Mehmet University and Ibn Haldun University.

She is currently an Associate Professor at the Western Languages and Literatures Department of Boğaziçi University.

She has published articles and taught courses on Shakespeare, world literature, contemporary Turkish fiction, orientalism, modernism, posthumanism. She also regularly writes film and book reviews, and has made a 13-episode TV programme on books adapted to the screen ‘Satır Arası Filmler’.

Talk Details

Title: Halide Edib in Hampstead: The English as Occupier and Host

Date: Tuesday 03 September 2024

Time:  6pm to 8pm

Venue: Royal Anthropological Institute, 50 Fitzroy Street, Fitzrovia, London W1T 5BT

Admission: £11.55 (includes £1.55 booking fee) in person, or view via a Zoom Stream Link for £6.13 (incl. £1.13 bf).

The event is free to ATS members

Tickets: Register via Eventbrite – click here.