Recalling a Forgotten Travel Book in the Context of Orientalism and Occidentalism: A Turkish Girl's Journey to America

In this study, the work titled A Turkish Girl's Journey to America, which was published by Aksam Printing House in 1935 and can be described as a "forgotten travel book" today, is centered in orientalism and occidentalism. Although Faik Sabri Duran's name is written on the cover of the book, it is his daughter Lutfiye Duran who went on the trip and took the notes. During this journey, which lasted approximately four months, American Dr. Cosette Faust Newton also accompanied Lutfiye. Thus, the opportunity arises to watch a Western female-sovereign subject and a Turkish girl in a common adventure, sometimes in solidarity and sometimes in conflict. However, considering that Lutfiye's mother is English and her father always strives for westernization/modernization, the issue of identity in the book becomes more intense. Based on this, both the author of the book and its creation process, as well as the perspectives of the two women on "foreign presences" and their positioning toward them are discussed in detail in this study. The self-presentation of Lutfiye as a "free traveler" and her various impressions of a pure Western subject are also scrutinized. Thus, a compact theoretical basis on orientalism and occidentalism was created in the study to make these analyses more effective and to reach the deep structure of the text. With all these features, the book A Turkish Girl's Journey to America can be defined as a forgotten, fertile river of the travel writing branch of Turkish literature.