Rethinking Orientalism Women, Travel, and the Ottoman Harem by Reina Lewis (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004. 297 pages.)

Abstract

In her book, Reina Lewis discusses how to acquire an accurate understanding
of the various strands of neo-Orientalism that perpetuate long-lasting
and contemporary stereotypes of Muslim women from traditional Islamic
societies. Within the context of the current global and geopolitical landscape
as well as the alleged American war on terror, the competing western imperialist
and orientalist images, along with negative stereotypes, that characterize
Muslim women are rhetorical. According to Lewis, all of these elements
are at the center of knowledge that is produced and reproduced. This book
focuses on Ottoman women’s writing from the beginning of the twentieth
century and traces their “travel accounts, memories, and fractions that reveal
a gendered counter-discourse that challenges Occidental stereotypes” (p. 1).
The author’s main theme is how these writings not only challenged western
Orientalist discourses, but also intervened in the Ottoman debate about
women and national emancipation. The book, which follows an interdisciplinary
approach, is divided into six chapters.
In her introduction, Lewis argues that postcolonial studies have been too
paradigmatic and narrow to include Middle Eastern and particularly Turkish
experiences, since most postcolonial theories focus on the South Asian experience.
Her novel endeavor helps bridge this void in postcolonial studies.
Also, she introduces “to postcolonial studies the specificities of the late
Ottoman situation and bringing to the reading of Ottoman sources the critical
perspectives of postcolonial and gender theory” (p. 5). Moreover, she
brings to light some western women’s writings, such as those of Grace
Ellison and Lady Mary Wortley, who traveled to the East exploring the status
of Middle Eastern women and, through their writings, tried to “challenge
Western misapprehensions” of their status (p. 45) ...