Women’s
Life Writings from a “No Wo/Man’s Land”: Northern Cyprus
Abstract
The phrase “Cyprus problem” triggers many associations. As a
story gatherer, I think of people’s untold stories as opposed to the heavily
edited official histories. Challenging the lack of resources and venues for
underprivileged people to speak for and about themselves is my driving force
here. I counter the hierarchical process of knowledge making which is usually
applied to life narratives in exploitative ways. My work on immigrant women in
Northern Cyprus follows a recent academic tendency, favouring “soft issues” of
culture, identity and representation in life writings, rather than fixations on
“hard issues” of economics and politics. I borrow the metaphor from
Fischer-Tiné and Gehrmann[1].
The term “life writing” has the potential to cross genre boundaries and
disciplines; and it functions under the influence of different schools of
thought [2].
My target population are the immigrant Turkish women who live in Dipkarpaz, an
underprivileged area. Stuck in the interactions of multiple systems of
discrimination, the women whose life stories I recorded are rarely asked for
their opinions. The dominant literature
in academia depicts a bi-communal society in conflict, which results in
silencing smaller communities. I aim to contribute to an alternative
knowledge production and introduce “other” people’s lives without taking a
rigid political stance. The Republic of Cyprus’ non-recognition of the northern
side of the divide has its paradoxes, but the narrative is still constructed by
the privileged men. In the life story interviews, my approach is the
naturalistic, person-centred view and it has evolved from an interdisciplinary
context[3].
Key
words: Women’s life writing, Northern Cyprus, Dipkarpaz, Rizokarpaso, fragmented narratives.
*****
1. May a Wasp Sting My Tongue[4]:
Language for Life Writings
When
I moved to Northern Cyprus in 2007, I had no idea that I was in an area where
‘acts of crossing, translating, inventing new hybrid languages’ were everyday
practices.[5]
After collecting, remembering and exposing many anecdotes regarding the use of
language in establishing hierarchical structures for communication, I decided
to share some with the English-speaking reader. The reader has access to the
selected women’s voices through translation, yet should bear in mind the
existence of several invisible languages, dialects, accents and mixed
languages, which could not be reflected here. Acknowledging this unfairness, I
prepared a language-list: Arabic used by immigrants from Hatay (Turkey),
Cypriot Greek, Cypriot Maronite Arabic, Cypriot Turkish, English, Kurdish, and
Turkish.
According
to Michel Foucault, language is a control mechanism because it has
the ability to exclude. For instance, institutions control people by using
language that not everyone can interact with. For Foucault, this creates power
structures, separating those that are in control and those that are not.[6]
Gloria Anzaldua would agree with Foucault’s idea that society is controlled by
language because it forms a barrier, since she claims that language shapes all
environments.[7]
These two scholars confirm the idea that language creates a system of hierarchy.
The way I spoke Turkish made it obvious that I was an urban, educated person
from Turkey, since the way Turkish Cypriots spoke was different. They spoke a
dialect of Turkish, not expressed in writing or in official documents. Although
rather charmed and confused at first, instead of describing it as “cute” or
“weird” as most outsiders do, I have done my best to learn its subtleties.
The
fragmented passages presented in the
third section (Potpourris) are evidence for a hierarchical system. Using
fragmentation as a narrative style while reflecting the women’s voices, does
not mean that I am in favour of deconstructionism in the Derridean sense. Despite
the barriers and instances of miscommunications, it is my hope that even a
“stung tongue” can manage to get some messages across. This is also the reason
why I prioritize the language section over the other subtitles.
For
some time I have been actively working on women’s “life writings,” a phrase
reclaimed by Marlene Kadar in Essays on Life Writing. She uses it to
contain many kinds of texts, fictional and non-fictional, and it includes more
than life stories. It has the potential to cross genre boundaries and
disciplines; and it functions under the influence of hermeneutics,
reader-response theory, feminism and psychoanalysis. [viii]
Inspired also by Ruth Behar’s work in the late 1990s, I became engaged in
reading reflexive and autobiographical ethnographies, often written by feminist
scholars. I have also been affiliated with The Network for Reflexive Academic
Writing Methodologies founded by Mona Livholts in 2008.
[1]
Harald Fischer-Tiné and Susanne
Gehrmann, eds. ‘Empires and Boundaries: Rethinking Race, Class and Gender in
Colonial Settings.’ (New York, USA:
Routledge, 2009). 3
[2]
Marlene Kadar. ‘Essays on
Life Writing: From Genre to Critical
Practice. (Toronto, Canada: Toronto University Press, 1992). 152-155
[3]
J.F.Gubrium and
J.A.Holstein. ‘Narrative Practice and the Coherence of Personal Stories.’
Sociological Quarterly 39 (1998). 163-187
[4] This is the verbatim English
translation of the Turkish curse “dilini eşek arısı soksun,” used when
something said is disapproved of. Since this essay exposes some prejudices and
problems known to the locals but not easily shared with outsiders, the curse is
deserved by the author since she makes insider information available in writing
and in English. However, what is revealed also includes academic hierarchies
and knowledge production barriers so the reader decides how much of the sting
is earned for sharing those.
[5]
Sidonie Smith and Julia
Watson, eds. ‘Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives.’
2nd edition. (Minneapolis, USA: University of Minnesota Press,
2010). 46
[6]
Dianna Taylor. ‘Michel
Foucault: Key Concepts.’ (Bloomington, USA: Indiana University Press, 2011). 45
[7]
http://geanzaldua.weebly.com/what-is-linguistic-terrorism.html.
[viii]
Marlene Kadar. ‘Essays on
Life Writing: From Genre to Critical
Practice.’ (Toronto, Canada: Toronto University Press, 1992). 152-155
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