Male Discourses of Gender and Sexuality: How History Omits the Ottoman Elites' Love of Literature

Abstract:The large number of poems produced by Ottoman male elite testifies to the fact that composing and reading literary works were central to their lives. Ottoman literary production was male-centered, an aspect yet to be interrogated in historical and literary studies. This aspect points to the role of entangled nodes of gender and sexuality in Ottoman historical and literary studies. Through brief observations about scholarship on gender and sexuality, this essay provides a close reading exercise on two premodern verse-romances and identifies the function of literature in Ottoman Turkish, beyond its aesthetic dimension, as a means of expression for elite Ottoman men's dreams and fantasies.