Dept. of Turkish Literature - Ph.D. / Sc.D.

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Subversive women writers: Turkish female gothic 1920-1958
(Bilkent University, 2021-12) Yeşil, Nilüfer
Even with the increasing interest in Turkish Gothic literature, the number of studies is still limited due to realistic literature being at the center of literary production, and literary criticism generally overlooking the originality of the Gothic genre. This dissertation intends to be the first to focus solely on Turkish female Gothic with the aim to investigate why certain female writers have written novels in the Gothic convention. To this end, the scope of the study is limited to the Gothic novels published as books between 1920-1958 by Suat Derviş, Nezihe Muhiddin, Peride Celal, and Kerime Nadir who have been considered as women writers in the same period by various literary circles. Contrary to the general hesitation in the Turkish academia to relate the Gothic mechanisms in novels to historical contextualizations, these writers’ works are analyzed with reference to paratexts and intertexts situated in socio-cultural contexts. The textual analyses in this study show that women have written in the Gothic genre for its plurality of meaning, discreetly subverting orders established in private and public spaces. In an attempt to illustrate the originality of this genre, this study thus puts forth an analysis of the interaction between instances of the Turkish female experience and Gothic literature via subversive readings of themes of Romanticism, incest, necrophilia, live burial, and the female vampire.
Open Access
Birinci ağızdan aşk mesnevilerinde duygusal ifade tarzları
(Bilkent University, 2022-01) Çiftçi, Aslı
Birinci ağızdan aşk mesnevileri, divan şiiri araştırmacıları tarafından çoğunlukla sergüzeşt-name türü altında tasnif edilmiştir. Bu sınıflandırma sebebiyle ilgili metinler üzerinde yapılan araştırmalar, dar bir inceleme alanıyla sınırlandırılmıştır. Ayrıca divan şiirinde aşk üzerine yapılan çalışmalar mercek altına alındığında, aşkın çoğunlukla ideal şekliyle alımlanması ve aşk duygusu incelenirken kullanılan iki boyutlu (mecazi-ilahi) yöntemler, alanının sınırlarını iyice daraltmıştır. Divan şiiri çalışmalarının sınırlarının genişletilmesi, dünya edebiyatında tartışılmaya devam eden farklı bakış açılarının kullanılmasıyla mümkündür. Buradan yola çıkılarak bu tezde, Osmanlı birinci ağız aşk mesnevilerinden Tacizade Cafer Çelebi’nin Hevesnâme’si, Celili’nin Hecr-nâme’si, Dai Mehmed Efendi’nin Nevhatü’l-Uşşâk’ı ve Enderunlu Fazıl’ın Defter-i Aşk’ı öz-anlatılar (self-narratives) kategorisi altında sınıflandırılmıştır. Berlin Araştırma Grubu araştırmacıları arasında yer alan Gabriele Jancke’nin öz-anlatılar üzerine oluşturduğu argümanlarından etkilenilerek oluşturulan söz konusu çalışmada, şairlerin birinci ağızdan kaleme aldıkları aşk mesnevilerinde öne çıkardıkları duygu ifadeleri vasıtasıyla, ait oldukları sosyal ağlarla iletişim kurdukları öne sürülmüştür. Yapılan incelemeler neticesinde duygusal ifadelerin birer kod / norm görevi görerek duygusal senaryo işlevi kazandığı ve ilgili senaryolar aracılığıyla şairlerin, ilişkide oldukları topluluklarla iletişimde oldukları; tersi biçimde şairlerin eserlerinde kendi duygu ifadeleri yerine, ait oldukları sosyal toplulukların belirlediği normları öne çıkararak, duygusal ifade tarzlarının sosyal ilişki ağları aracılığıyla inşa edildiği sonucuna varılmıştır. İfade biçimlerinde gözlenen bu farklılaşma ile aşkın ideal ölçütlerinin dışında farklı şekillerde de kurgulandığı ortaya konulmuştur. Ayrıca şairlerin öne çıkardıkları duygusal ifade tarzlarının farklı şairlerle ortaklaştığı ve ortaklaşan söz konusu duygusal ifadeler etrafında, ilgili şairlerin duygusal topluluklar oluşturdukları tespit edilmiştir.
Open Access
III. Ahmed devri Osmanlı şiirinde sosyal ağlar ve edebî prestij
(Bilkent University, 2022-01) Onay, Ebru
Bu tez, sosyal sermayenin Osmanlı şairlerinin edebî prestiji (kazanılması, korunması, birikimi, kaybı vb.) üzerindeki etkilerini araştırmaktadır. İncelemenin temel amacı, Osmanlı şairlerinin edebî prestijini ve görünürlüğünü etkileyen temel edebî, sosyal, siyasi, kurumsal, kişisel ve tarihî dinamikleri anlamaktır. Bu amaç doğrultusunda tezde, XVIII. yüzyıldan seçilmiş birtakım edebî tür ve metinler (divan, vekaletname, tezkire, şiir ve nazire mecmuaları vb.) incelenmiş ve III. Ahmed döneminde aktif olarak şiir üreten bir grup şaire odaklanılmıştır. Örneklem kümesi olarak seçilen şairler şunlardır: Tırsî (öl. 1140/1727?), Nedîm (öl. 1143/1730), ve Vahîd/Mahtûmî (öl. 1145/1732-33), Arpaemînizâde Sâmî (öl. 1146/1734), Râşid (öl. 1147/1735), İzzet Ali Paşa (öl.1147/1735), Sâkıb Dede (öl. 1148/1736), Seyyîd Vehbî (öl. 1149/1737), Ârifzâde Asım (öl. 1150/1738), Nahîfî (öl. 1151/1739), Âtıf-ı Defterî (öl.1155/1742), Mirzâzâde Sâlim (öl. 1156/1743), Rıza Neccarzâde (öl. 1159/1746), Neylî (öl. 1161/1748) ve Eğrikapılı Râsim (öl. 1169/1756). Bu doğrultuda tez çalışması; saray, medreseler, benzeri kurumsal ve sosyal çevrelerde kurulan edebî ilişkilere ve bağlara (intisap ve himaye vb.) özel bir bakış açısıyla yaklaşmakta ve XVIII. yüzyıl Osmanlı şiirinin alternatif bir resmini sunmaktadır. Bu resmi çerçevelemek ve anlamak için; “sosyal sermaye” ve “sosyal ilişki ağları”, “edebî prestij” ve “edebiyat alanı” gibi belirli teorik yaklaşımlar ve kavramlardan yararlanılmıştır. Araştırmanın temel bulgularından biri şudur: Üçüncü taraf aktörler, yani aracılar, Osmanlı şiir alanında her daim etkin olmuş; şair ile hamisi veya övdüğü kişi/ler arasındaki ilişkilerde, birleştirici ve destekleyici bir rol oynamakla kalmamış şiirlerin sipariş edilmesini, dolaşımını, hatta geleceğini bile etkileyebilmiştir.
Open Access
19. yüzyıl cep romanlarının beden-zihin denetimi ve romantik ilişkilenme biçimleri açısından modernleşmedeki yeri
(Bilkent University, 2019-09) Sezen, Güneş
Bu tez, 19. yüzyıl sonunda yeni bir format olarak ortaya çıkan cep romanlarının, Arakel ve Şems kitapçıları tarafından basılan örneklerinde iktidar söylemleri ile kurmaca arasındaki ilişkileri incelemektedir. Yeni Tarihselci perspektifin benimsendiği bu çalışma, 19. yüzyılın modern ailesini oluşturan “yeni insanının,” kadınlık ve erkekliklerinin nasıl inşa edildiğine odaklanmıştır. Osmanlı’nın özellikle son yüzyılında artan modernleşme endişesi, hukukî ve toplumsal açıdan bazı düzenlemelerin önünü açarken, sağlık ve nüfus politikalarını da şekillendirmiştir. Asrın sonunda Arakel öncülüğünde yeni bir türsel format olarak ortaya çıkan cep romanları, bu tarihsel seyrin izlenebildiği, önemli kurmaca örnekleridir. Cep romanları, çoğunlukla döneminin en velûd ve talep gören yazarları tarafından yazılmalarına rağmen edebiyat eleştirisi ve tarihlerinde yer bulamamıştır. Bu çalışmada romantik ilişkilere odaklanan cep romanları, olumlu ve olumsuz beden temsilleri bakımından mercek altına alınmaktadır. Satış stratejileri ve eğlendirerek okutma gayreti, cep romanlarının hem biçimine hem de içeriğine etki etmiştir. Bu romanlar, asır sonunda görünürlüğü artan gayrimeşru ilişkiler, frengi, kürtaj, histeri, obsesyon, cinnet, intihar, alkol kullanımı gibi zihinsel ve bedensel “bozulmaların” kontrolü ve disiplini için birer araç olarak konumlandırılmıştır. Bu nedenle, bu “toplum mühendisliği metinleri,” her an her yerde okunabilme pratikliklerine dayanarak, modern Osmanlı ailesinin imkânlarını ve farklı kadınlık ve erkekliklerin kamusal alanda nasıl kurulduğunun tartışılabilmesine olanak sağlamaktadırlar.
Open Access
Nationalizing the desire : female identity in the novels written between 1909-1928
(Bilkent University, 2018-12) Yavuz, Ayşe Duygu
In this study, it is aimed to examine the decisive role of desire in the acquisition of national identity. The novels which caused a break in the fictionalization of women, such as Raik’in Annesi (1909), Seviyye Talip (1910), Handan (1912), Yeni Turan (1912), Aydemir (1918), Gönül Hanım (1920), Gün Batarken (1920), Kiralık Konak (1920), Çalıkuşu (1921), Kan ve İman (1922), Ateşten Gömlek (1922), Sözde Kızlar (1923), Vurun Kahpeye (1923), Mahşer (1924), Meliha Nuri Hanım (1928) are analyzed in a comparative perspective. In the study, the role of corporeality and desire in the making of the representation of the ideal woman has been mentioned in the context of the period from the modernization of 1908 to the Republic Era to the years of war in which territorial integrity had been vital. This study aims to touch upon alternative identity propositions of the idealized women characters in the world of fiction presented against the identity of woman who had been included in the public life by becoming genderless in the historical reality presented by the social platform. Desire has an emancipatory role of abolishing ascribed identity roles and establishing an alternative identity. In this dissertation, it is aimed to evaluate different data which will eliminate the understanding in the “woman in national literature” works which codify womanhood in the occupational groups in public life, which covers womanhood confined in a genderless area created by militarism and nationalism and covers it in an identity fiction in which womanhood serves the nationalist ideal. Topics that are covered in this study are the emphasis on the corporeality of the TurkishMuslim woman’s identity to which a kind of sanctity is attributed, the woman’s position as the conveyor of the ideology through the way in which she is desired by the opposite sex, the decisiveness of desire in the binary of love and cause, the metaphor of sickness in the inspection of the female sexuality, the position of woman as the object of desire and as the desiring subject and the view of heroines embracing the nationalist discourse on the other identities.
Open Access
Fictions of masculinites in Ottoman literature (17th, 18th, 19th centuries)
(Bilkent University, 2016-06) Gökpınar, Bahar
The primary purpose of this dissertation is to understad the changing fictions of masculinites in Ottoman literature, especially poems of 17th , 18th, 19th centuries. In this way, 7 literary works which reflects the social alternations were chosen. The critical elements and altering factors related to masculinities were evaluated. In these elements, there are desire, love, power, rulership, acknowledgment of sex, physical beauty, concern of aesthetics, obscenity, fatherhood, being a husband and social roles. Homoerotic love had an important place in this study while the fictions of masculinites were searching. In the first chapter of this theses the masculinity studies were elucidated. In the second chapter, the masnavis written before 17th century were investigated. Thereby a path was formed for changing fictions of masculinites. Third chapter was composed of texts analysis. In the last part of the study the existence of women poets in Ottoman poetry and their masculinization process in literary tradition was debated.
Open Access
Description of the visual art objects in Evliyâ Çelebi‘s book of travels: an ekphrastic approach
(Bilkent University, 2016-06) Kaya, Nilay
As a part of the ancient Greek and Roman rhetorical practices, ekphrasis basically means the verbalisation of a visual object, and it has become a literary tool in time. Since the description of Achilles‘ shield in Homer‘s İlliad, ekphrasis has been a frequently used literary practice which writers, historians, art critics apply. Ekphrasis can be applied as the description of visual art objects through the fictional forms such as poetry and novel as well as it occurs in the prose concerning history, art criticism and travelogues; it is studied in order to analyse writer's handling with the description of the object. Ekphrasis studies enable to capture the writer's relationship between objectivity and subjectivity, the elements of his/her expressed subjectivity, through literary tools. This study will examine Evliyâ Çelebi's "ekphrastic" approach in describing mosques, churches and monasteries, paintings and sculptures in Seyahatnâme (The Book of Travels), especially focusing on how the subjective factors determining the writer‘s aesthetic appreciation occur in his literary practice. What kind of a fictive language does ekphrasis, which is essentially the act of making the silent image talk, show in Evliyâ Çelebi's representation? What are the characters of the new images created by this language, which is independent from the original objects, in other sense the images which Evliyâ created on his own way? How does the reflection of personal taste and cultural positioning affect aesthetic view of Evliyâ Çelebi‘s "ekphrastic" narrative? This questioning aims to observe how the aesthetic view of Seyahatnâme's author takes shape and to be a model of an approach to put forth the new literary qualities of Seyahatnâme's in the light of ekphrasis study. The problem of "ekphrasis" enables Seyahatnâme which has been already a study topic for various social sciences, to be evaluated in the discipline of fiction more widely. As the issue concerns basically the relationship between visuality and writing, it would bring a new interdisciplinary approach to Seyahatnâme studies.
Open Access
II Selim dönemi sonuna kadar Osmanlı Edebî hâmîlik geleneği
(Bilkent University, 2006) İsen-Durmuş, Tûbâ Işınsu
This study explores the Ottoman tradition of patronage of the literary arts up to the era of Selim II. It analyzes the definition of patronage, as well as its emergence and development, which coincided with the development of the empire, and compares disparate and similar views of patronage as it existed before and after the establishment of the Ottoman State. The main sources drawn upon in the chapters, “An Overview of the Founding of the Ottoman Tradition of Patronage of the Literary Arts,” “Patrons and Critics: The Presentation and Evaluation of Poetry during the Ottoman Empire’s Foundation,” “The Benefits of the Patronage System as Enjoyed by the Artist, the Patron and Society in General,” and “An Evaluation of Criticism of the Patronage System,” are poets’ biographies (tezkire) and original documents acquired from Topkapı Palace’s Treasury Archive. This study illustrates the crucial role that the Ottoman system of patronage played in the development of Ottoman poetry, and argues that the richness of the Ottoman poetic repertoire is due, in part, to its patrons’ double role as patrons and critics. At first glance, this system’s first benefit for the artist appears to be the câize, or reward given to the poet for a laudatory poem. However, when one considers the polemics surrounding this reward system, which point to its ceremonial nature, it becomes obvious that such material benefits were of lesser importance than the values of “protection and authority” which the patronage system ensured both patrons and artists.
Open Access
Turgut uyar`ın huzursuzluğu
(Bilkent University, 2006) Caner, Fırat
Turgut Uyar’s earlier understanding of poetry goes through a sudden change with Dünyanın En Güzel Arabistanı [The Most Beautiful Arabia of the World]. In his earlier style, the influence of “Garip Poetry” can be detected, but in Dünyanın En Güzel Arabistanı, Uyar approaches poetry with a new concep, similar to those of the other İkinci Yeni [The Second New] poets’, in which meaning is pushed to the background and figures of speech are brough to the fore. Dünyanın En Güzel Arabistanı is a modern work of art. The basic motivation that leads Uyar to write this book is the emotional pressures of modernity on the individual. Here, the poet focuses on two problems: First comes the pressure on the individual caused by religious morality, traditional ethics, and the social institutions which enforce these concepts. Second is the shock experience and discontents caused by modern civilization, urbanization, and the life style in urban the setting. Adverse affects of these experiences on the individual is not only the main theme of book, but it also determines the construction its whole design, the formal characteristics of the poems, and the dynamics of the imagery. In Dünyanın En Güzel Arabistanı, verses are not logically continuous, the narrative lacks the commonly expected form of linearity, and the construction that makes the book a whole is rather fragmented. Although these poems are meant to be read as independent pieces, they are connected to one another and constitute a coherent whole, because they are constructed within the framework of a common universe of symbols or fictional characters. The narrative events taking place in the poems do not display a chronological linearity. The poet/author hides himself behind the narrator of the individual poems and leaves the reader alone with the narrator. He employs various techniques of dramatic writing and story telling, which are not all that common in Turkish poetry. He backgrounds the meaning and expects the reader to bring together the pieces of the fragmented narrative by using various ambiguous relations between the imagery of the individual poems. The aesthetic choice of Turgut Uyar in this book is not Apollonian, but Dionysian, to refer to Nietzsche’s well-know dichotomy, one that the poet himself conceptualizes as “clumsiness”, something that makes the reader feel a sense of incompleteness before the whole work.
Open Access
Reşat Nuri Güntekin'in romanlarında aşk ilişkileri
(Bilkent University, 2005) Aytemiz, Beyhan Uygun
This study focuses on the romantic novels of Reşat Nuri Güntekin (1889-1956), who is generally acknowledged as a founding member of national Turkish literature. It investigates the following eight novels of the author in terms of the love relationships displayed in them: Harabelerin Çiçeği (The Flowers of Ruin, 1918), Gizli El (The Secret Hand, 1920), Çalıkuşu (The Wren, 1922), Damga (The Stigma, 1924), Dudaktan Kalbe (From Lips to Heart, 1925), Akşam Güneşi (The Sunset, 1926), Bir Kadın Düşmanı (A Misogynist, 1927), Eski Hastalık (The Old Pain, 1938), and Ateş Gecesi (Night of Fire, 1942). The thesis mainly examines the personal value system and the love relationships depicted in Güntekin’s novels through the perspectives of their narrators and protagonists. It is observed that these characters’ traits almost always gather around a typical narcissistic configuration. Güntekin is consistent in creating characters that are selfcentered, arrogant, and in need of constant admiration. Their lack of empathy towards almost all others in their environment emerges from their insecure childhood experiences and inadequate parental interactions. Such constructions of the self in the novels in turn shape the protagonists’ love and other interpersonal relations, as well as the representation of Anatolia, which is often described as a place of exile. However, important differences are also observed in the novels, especially in the representation of love as experienced by male and female characters. While the author’s male characters seem to be capable of love, his female characters are not. This results in the disunion of the potential lovers, a phenomenon transforming the traditional structure of the typical romantic novel.
Open Access
Toplumcu gerçekçi Türk edebiyatında Suat Derviş'in yeri
(Bilkent University, 2001) Günay, Çimen
Suat Derviş (1905-1972), one of the few women writers of the late Ottoman period, is a key figure in examining the conflictual phenomena of being a “woman” and a “Marxist” within the context of a predominantly traditional society. Having her first novel published at the age of sixteen, Derviş studied literature at the University of Berlin and worked as a reporter in Germany, until Hitler’s coming to power. Derviş’s life is dramatically affected by the rising of fascism in Europe and Turkey. Her becoming acquainted with Marxist ideas at the end of the 1930s, made Derviş write about the class conflicts both in her articles and novels. She published Yeni Edebiyat (1940-1941), a Marxist literary journal, with Reşat Fuat Baraner, the general secretary of Turkish Communist Party, who later became her fourth husband in 1941. This study focuses on the role of Suat Derviş in the “Socialist Realist” literature of Turkey. The tension Derviş experienced between feminism and Marxism is important for analyzing how feminism is received by the Turkish Left and also for appreciating the premises of feminism itself. The aim of this master thesis is to detect the epistemological and ideological breaking points in Derviş’s literary output and discuss the way she overcame the conflicts between socialist realism and Marxist aesthetics. In this study, three novels each representing a different period in Derviş’s novelistic career are taken into consideration and analyzed.
Open Access
Outlook on non-muslim characters in the turkish novel (1900-1960)
(Bilkent University, 2015-10) Atabağsoy, Naim
This study focuses on the approaches towards non-Muslim characters in selected Turkish novels, published between 1900–1960. It also reviews the political, social and economic developments involving non-Muslims and aims to point out the significance of literary works in historical context. Non-Muslim citizens of the Ottoman Empire, who had been assumed to have an advantage over others in many areas, were defined as minorities by the declaration of Republic. The Treaty of Lausanne, by constituting the legal basis of this definition, plays a significant role in the establishment of the Republic. In this regard, the year 1923, when the Treaty was signed, is the theoretical focal point of the study. This study considers the prominent developments along the phases including government changes in the period of Republic and social events that are essentially breakpoints for non-Muslims, and in this way, it aims to reveal how those novels react to these transformation processes, through non-Muslim characters and discourses on non-Muslim identity they include. This study includes thirty novels from twenty five different authors, and when it comes to non-Muslims, generated implications in the novels –it is also possible to come across with novels reflecting a different, or even an opposite discourse– ,selected from an ideologically wide range, mostly overlap with the official discourse. Besides, it is observed that the forms of alienation concerning non-Muslim characters in novels generally correspond to each other and constitute a whole. This thesis study which, on one hand, examines the extent and content of the alienating discourse, attempts to analyze the relations between the discourses on non-Muslims in novels and the ones in political and social levels in detail during a period from the beginning of the twentieth century to the end of the Democrat Party Power.
Open Access
The reshaping of the literary publishing fieldand emergence of the literary translation market between 1850 and 1900
(Bilkent University, 2015-10) Demirkol, Neslihan
This study reconsiders the modernization of Ottoman literature from the second half of the nineteenth century through the historical lens of literary translations. While it may seem unorthodox to think of translated works as a part of national literature, it may be necessary to re-asses the initiatory role of translation for the Ottoman literature from a new perspective. The discourse of literary history that considers translation as both the indispensable and obligatory result of the process of, and means for, “proper” modernization has been used without any criticism since the 1900s. In addition, despite their contributions, recent research in the field of translation studies, as influenced by cultural studies methodologies, continue to reproduce the same old discourse about the preliminary conditions of literary translations as they are mainly based on these literary histories. However, Ottoman modernization has been scrutinized and reformulated in the fields of history and cultural studies. Following these studies and Pierre Bourdieu’s research methodology on the field of cultural production, I deal with literary translations within the cultural, social and economic context of the era and their reshaping of the literary publishing market. This study argues that, due to the effect of the centralization movement, education textbooks gained importance and became a crucial means of profit and prestige, thus financially supporting the bloom of private printing houses. In addition, the spread and modernization of public education not only caused an increase in the number of readers but also provided a surplus of qualified manpower; in other words, it engendered a new type of translator ready to sell his/her labor for the publishing market. While it is well known that censorship on political activities and publications indirectly paved the way for literary and scientific translation and publishing activities, it also drastically limited the list of pieces to be translated. It seems that censorship together with the tough economic conditions left publisher/printers no choice but to be on good terms with the Ottoman palace so as to survive financially. Moreover, it appears that the palace supported and led the publishing activities more efficiently than what we have believed up until now. In short, this study claims that the literary translations of the last quarter of the nineteenth century were a natural outcome of a modernized printing market and power relations network, rather than a not so much adopted, obligatory phase of modernity.
Open Access
Mem û zîn in the ottoman literature and its propagation
(Bilkent University, 2015-10) Tek, Ayhan
This thesis mainly investigates Mem û Zîn as an aesthetic text in classical literature. The motivation by which this work was written was evaluated in comparison with the post mathnavis written in the same century. Mem û Zîn has been known as one of the most important texts and the first love mathnavi in the classic Kurdish literature, thus it is worth examining the role and importance of Mem û Zîn in the classical literary tradition based on theoretical approaches. Being one of the Eastern mathnavis, Mem û Zîn is crucial as it has been translated into many languages and it is a multi-layered work. This thesis examines the distinctive features of Mem û Zîn in the framework of tradition, and it also discusses how Ehmedê Xanî positioned himself and his work as a poet within the tradition and his approach regarding the forms of articulation with previous poets. Furthermore, this thesis makes an observation about the influence and leadership of his work, which was produced in a canon, in the process of writing the next Kurdish mathnavis. In this context, how Kurdish literature is positioned within the tradition is demonstrated. The last part of the thesis addresses the first translation examples of Mem û Zîn into Ottoman Turkish in the framework of copyright-translation of classical literature. Examining the translated and nazereh copies of the poetry also seems to contribute to the discussions of the issue of copyright-translation. In this respect, the Kurdish version mathnavi of Ehmedê Xanî’s Mem û Zîn and its Turkish translations by Ahmed Faik and Abdulaziz Halis constitute the context of the thesis. Through the investigation of Mem û Zîn’s translated copies manuscript texts, this thesis also focuses on the form of the translations as well as the censorship and interventions made in the texts. The Mem û Zîn translation text by Ahmed Faik provided in the Appendix is a text which not only explains the relation of the literatures formed by the languages within the tradition but also indicates the reflection of a Kurdish mathnavis in the Ottoman. In this context, this text will contribute to the discussion of translation works in this thesis in terms of demonstrating the translation view of that period as well as its language.
Open Access
Going beyond borders: an analysis of the novels that include adulteress within the context of turkish modernity
(Bilkent University, 2016-04) Erginer, Ayşe
This study examines the Ottoman-Turkish novels in which the focus of the plot is female adultery. In this thesis marriage is considered as a contract that guarantees the sexual intercourse will be between only spouses and adultery is regarded that transgression of the marriage contract. The thesis focuses on the Aşk-ı Memnu (1900) by Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil, Sevda Peşinde (1910) by Hüseyin Rahmi Gürpınar, Sabir Efendi’nin Gelini (1921) by Ercüment Ekrem Talu, Zaniyeler (1924) by Salâhaddin Enis Atabeyoğlu and Ölmeye Yatmak (1973) by Adalet Ağaoğlu. These novels are a product of different historical contexts and this thesis questions the attitude towards adulteresses with regards to the reasons for and results of adultery and whether they differ or not in different novels according to the modernization periods. The first chapter examines the novels Aşk-ı Memnu by Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil and Sevda Peşinde by Hüseyin Rahmi Gürpınar. The chapter argues that even though these authors present different characteristics in their writings in terms of their perception about novel, their attitude towards adulteress is similar. The second chapter examines the novels Sabir Efendi’nin Gelini by Ercüment Ekrem Talu, Zaniyeler by Salâhaddin Enis Atabeyoğlu and Ölmeye Yatmak by Adalet Ağaoğlu. The novels examined in the first chapter relates adultery with the human nature. However, the novels examined in this chapter relates adultery with cultural factors. Thus, this chapter points out that during the nationalization period the narration of adulteress experienced a transformation. The third chapter focuses on the male characters in the adulterous triangle. It has been observed that despite the changes in the image of adulteresses, the image of their husbands stayed stable. Husbands are always fictionalized in a weakness that makes their wife rightful. Other men make their weakness more visible. The image of the husbands and other men are analyzed according to the concept of “hegemonic masculinity” by R. W. Connell.
Open Access
Madness and women in turkish literature through the lens of gender and aesthetic autonomy
(Bilkent University, 2014-12) Aydın, Hilâl
In this study, I examine why and how madness—an overarching concept that is positioned as the opposite of rationality and functions as a way of showing what is abnormal—has been associated with femininity in Turkish literature. Beginning with the 19th century, I will discuss genderized forms of madness in literature in conjunction with the paradigmatic changes these forms underwent in connection to the Turkish modernization process. In this manner, I will clarify in periodical terms the effects on literature of norms determined by such closely interrelated social variables as political conditions, the development of modern psychiatry, the women’s movement, and the transformation of gender-related social policies. Beginning in the 1890s, and particularly in the works of male authors, there is a notable prevalence of female characters who go mad as a result of free love and unrestrained sexuality, characters who were drawn under the influence of such contemporary psychiatric notions as hysteria and degeneration. In this context, it is clear that this oft-repeated image is a literary reflection of tacit patriarchal anxieties concerning a loss of authority in the face of women’s struggles for equality and basic rights, struggles that had become an important issue of the Ottoman project of modernization and that took center stage in contemporary debates on societal change. At the same time, those female authors of the period who dealt with the subject of female madness in their works approached the issue differently than male authors in that they took up the matter in terms of women’s place(s) in society. It can also be observed that, in more general terms, the connection made between female madness—as opposed to male rationality and willpower—and the supposed danger to the social order of a female sexuality characterized as “sedition” continued to rear its head through the social gender roles that were given shape under the emergent nationalism of republican modernization. Moreover, in the period after the establishment of the republic, in opposition to the ostensibly new type of woman that emerged as women became “rationalized,” as well as becoming more masculine and losing their aura of mystery, traditional female beauty and sexual attraction became an object of nostalgia for male desire and, once again, came to be resurrected in the form of madness. In the post-1960 period, a social realist aesthetic became dominant in literature in parallel with the rise of leftist politics. Modernist enterprises that defended aesthetic autonomy came to be criticized within the framework of psychopathology, and female authors—who were among the pioneers of this anti-aesthetic that was medicalized as a bourgeois disease—came face to face with a double dilemma in terms of having to prove themselves as a result of the gender hierarchy that was in place. However, even as female authors who sought autonomy both aesthetically and intellectually as well as individually were highly praised, they also came to be associated with madness in a romanticized manner that ultimately rendered their literary originality quite indistinct. As a result, the work of Leylâ Erbil, Sevim Burak, and Tezer Özlü—whose names are often connected with madness and at the same time taken as exemplars for contemporary female authors—have remained little studied by critics. In this study, I conduct detailed analyses that focus on one work by each of these authors in which they are considered to have, in different ways, pushed the limits of literature. In this manner, the study will question the specific aesthetic relationship each of these authors and works establishes with madness.
Open Access
Evliâ's voive the sultan's shadow: fiction in Evliâ Çelebi's Seyahatnâme
(Bilkent University, 2015-06) Öztürk Bitik, Başak
Despite some views regarding the existence of “untruthful” and “fabricated” historical data in Evliyâ Çelebi’s Seyahatnâme, this study puts forward that fictitious tales in the Seyahatnâme are constructed deliberately with the use of certain techniques and methods. By using close reading, Evliyâ Çelebi’s stories on Ottoman sultans are reviewed with their historical background. Research carried on several references, including Peçevî’s History which is frequently cited in the Seyahatnâme, revealed that Evliyâ constructed certain historical events as the way he “wanted” them to happen. Throughout Evliyâ’s work, an “ideal” Ottoman sultan image is depicted regarding several issues; from relations between the Palace and the Bektaşî, Mevlevî, Gülşenî, Melamî leaders and other religious orders whom Evliyâ regard as miraculous, to the propriety of building a sultan mosque. Examples have been found in the Seyahatnâme, where contradicting acts and behaviours of the sultan’s with this image are “corrected” or criticized by fictitious stories. Although there is coherence and consistency in the sultans’s tales throughout the ten volumes of the Seyahatnâme, it has been identified that certain changes and additions were made to some stories depending on the context. Evliyâ Çelebi, like a shadow play puppeteer, with his choices such as adding details and highlighting when or who gets attention in his text, turns a one dimensional Karagöz stage into a multi-dimensional literary masterpiece that is the Seyahatnâme.
Open Access
Dil devrimi’nin erken Cumhuriyet dönemi’nde şiir ve çeviri bağlamında Türk edebiyatı’na etkisi (1932-1950)
(Bilkent University, 2016-03) Sert, Havva Hâle
This study analyses the influence of language policies implemented in the early Republican period on the Turkish literature in the context of poetry and translation. It first looks at language change policy that started with the Alphabet Reform and argues that its first impact was felt on displacement of semiotic associations of metaphorical words in the Ottoman poetry. When the debates covered in the First Turkish Language Congress Proceedings Records are analysed in the context of literature, it can be seen that a link between language, thought, mentality and civilization was established. Moreover, there was a determination to develop an easily understandable literature by replacing the Ottoman (Divan) poetry and Arabic and Persian originated words implying the old mentality and way of life with words taken from the public language/folk literature. The thesis examines the poems published in the leading newspapers of the era Cumhuriyet, Ulus and Akşam and the journals Servetifünun, Ülkü and Varlık as part of a campaign that has been launched after the 2nd Turkish Language Congress to write prose and poetry using “pure Turkish” words / neologisms. The deputies, bureaucrats, journalists and men of letters who wrote these poems were critically examined with Gramsci’s “organic intellectual” concept in the sense that they were the founders and re-producers of the language policy theory and had the ideal of making the people adopt “pure Turkish”. The language policies of the İnönü era are followed through the Tercüme journals published by the Translation Bureau (Tercüme Bürosu). The study presents its findings about the impact of the Language Reforms on the literature respectively in the 1940s and 1950s as follows: “New” and “old” words were used together in the translations and the sentence structure of the Western languages were tried to be adapted to this language. Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca, Ahmet Muhip Dıranas and Oktay Rifat replaced the “old” words they used in their poems in the 1930s with “new” words in the 1950s and beyond.
Open Access
Yazınsal kavrayışta köklü bir değişim : Türk öykücülüğünde 1950 kuşağı
(Bilkent University, 2007-08) Dirlikyapan, Jale Özata
Bu doktora tezinde 1950 kuşağı öykücülerinin yazdıkları öyküler tematik ve biçimsel yönlerden irdelenmektedir. Tezde öncelikle, 1950’li yıllarda yaşanan siyasal ve kültürel dönüşümler ele alınmaktadır. Demokrat Parti’nin 1950 yılında seçimi kazanmasıyla, Türkiye’de toplumsal yaşamın birçok alanına etki eden yeni bir siyasal dönem başlar. Ardından, aynı yıllarda kültürel ortamda dikkat çeken hareketlilik çeşitli yönlerden incelenmektedir. Bu yıllarda, hemen her sanat dalında sanatçılar, Batı’da gündemde olan sanat akımlarından beslenmeye ve yapıtlarında biçimsel yeniliklere önem vermeye başlarlar. Şiirde ve öyküde de modernist bir edebiyat anlayışıyla şekillenen yapıtlar ortaya çıkar. Yenilikçi yazar ve şairlerin ürünlerini özgürce yayımlayabildikleri ve çeşitli tartışmalar yürüttükleri A, Dost, Mavi ve Yeni Ufuklar gibi dergiler, 1950 kuşağı içinde önemli işlevler yüklenirler. Yenilikçi öykücülere destek veren bu dergilerde, “toplumcu gerçekçilik”, edebiyat yapıtında “kapalılık-açıklık” ve varoluşçuluk akımıyla gündeme gelen “bunaltı” ve “umutsuzluk” gibi konular tartışılmıştır. Bu tartışmalar sürerken, Yusuf Atılgan, Vüs’at O. Bener, Orhan Duru, Ferit Edgü, Leylâ Erbil, Özcan Ergüder, Bilge Karasu, Feyyaz Kayacan, Onat Kutlar, Nezihe Meriç, Erdal Öz, Demir Özlü ve Adnan Özyalçıner gibi yazarlar öykü kitaplarını art arda yayımlarlar. Tematik ve biçimsel açıdan farklılaşan bu yayınlarla, bireye odaklanan yeni bir öykücülük anlayışı şekillenmeye başlar. Öykülerde, varoluşçuluğun etkisiyle anlamsızlık, can sıkıntısı, cinsellik, intihar ve suç gibi temaların sıkça işlendiği, bilinç akışına, iç konuşmalara ve dilsel deformasyonlara başvurulduğu gözlemlenir. Öykülerdeki bu farklılaşma, genel anlamda yazınsal kavrayışta bir değişime yol açmış ve modernist bir edebiyat anlayışının yerleşmesine öncülük etmiştir.
Open Access
Vüs'at O Bener'in yapıtlarına anlatıbilimsel bir yaklaşım
(Bilkent University, 2007) Tutumlu, Reyhan
Vüs’at O. Bener’s (1922-2005) literary career started with his short story “Dost” (The Friend) which he published in 1950. Later he published two novels, two plays, six story books, and also a book of poetry. In this study a narratological approach is adopted in order to analyze such formal aspects of the works as the narrators’ standpoints, the techniques of narration, and the use of time in the following works: Dost (1952, The Friend), Yaşamasız (1957, The Lifeless), Buzul Çağının Virüsü (1984, The Ice Age Virus), Bay Muannit Sahtegi’nin Notları (1991, The Notes of Mr. Muannit Sahtegi), Siyah-Beyaz (1993, Black and White), Mızıkalı Yürüyüş (1997, The March with a Band), Kara Tren (1998, The Steam Train), and Kapan (2001, The Trap). Bener’s works are interrelated and interreferantial. Often the same characters reappear in Bener’s different works and sometimes the same events are repeatedly narrated from new perspectives. That is why Bener’s works should be considered as a whole and the interconnections should be closely examined. When they are read from such a viewpoint it is understood that Bener’s works carry a profound imprint of his life. That is why one has to know the subtext on which his works are based. In this study, in addition to narratology, an author-based approach is used in order to analyze the relationship between Bener’s life and works, and also to examine the methods of his fiction writing. In this context, the criticisms regarding the genre of Bener’s works have been reconsidered and a new reading strategy is suggested.