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

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https://hdl.handle.net/11693/13927

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Toplumcu gerçekçi Türk edebiyatında Suat Derviş'in yeri
(Bilkent University, 2001) Günay, Çimen; Oğuzertem, Süha
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
Reşat Nuri Güntekin'in romanlarında aşk ilişkileri
(Bilkent University, 2005) Aytemiz, Beyhan Uygun; Oğuzertem, Süha
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
II Selim dönemi sonuna kadar Osmanlı Edebî hâmîlik geleneği
(Bilkent University, 2006) İsen-Durmuş, Tûbâ Işınsu; Kalpaklı, Mehmet
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; Sezer, Engin
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
Vüs'at O Bener'in yapıtlarına anlatıbilimsel bir yaklaşım
(Bilkent University, 2007) Tutumlu, Reyhan; Oğuzertem, Süha
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.
Open Access
Türk şiirinde modernizm
(Bilkent University, 2007) Armağan, Yalçın; Mignon, Laurent
The thesis attempts to understand how Turkish poetry has changed with modernization and under what circumstances modernist poems were written. In order to undertand how poetry changed with modernization, the thesis deal with what kind of a literary instituition was constructed in the period that started with Tanzimat. For conceiving under what circumstances a modernist poem became possible, Second New (Đkinci Yeni) was analyzed. The literary instituition was shaped through an opposition to autonomy of aesthetic, the denial of tradition and discovery of folk literature. During the construction process of this literary instituition, the poem was characterized with the social utility and attempts highlighting the individual usage of language were not allowed. Thus the poem was not seen as an autonomous structure and especially after 1911, it became a means of disseminating nationalist thought. In this period, it was believed that modern poem could appear only by denying the tradition and using the Hece (syllabic measure) which was regarded as the national measure. Poets such as Ahmet Haşim and Yahya Kemal objected to an utilitarian literary instituition but couldn’t manage to transform this instituition radically. The Garip poetry which adhered to the literary instituition in certain aspects, suspended the discussions about the poetical measure and language. Garip wrote an avante-garde poem in terms of the textual strategy and their poems became prevalent soon thanks to its objection to autonomous poetical language. The modernist poem which was not allowed by the literary instituiton because of its objection to aesthetic autonomy, could be written by Đkinci Yeni which drew upon an autonomous poetical language. Ikinci Yeni objected to the expectation of an understandable poetical language of literary instituition and characterized the poem as a structure independent from politics and morality. The autonomous poetical language used by Đkinci Yeni was met with a great resistance. In the resistance that was opposed to Đkinci Yeni, it is possible to see the reaction to modernist sensibility in Turkey.
Open Access
Edebiyat sosyolojisi açısından Türk öykücülüğü : 1990-2005
(Bilkent University, 2007) Dündar, Leyla Burcu; Oğuzertem, Süha
In the 1990s, the emergence of a group of young short story writers was labeled as a “boom” in Turkish literature. This dissertation aims to reveal the connection between the recent changes in the short story writing and the transformations in the society by focusing on the period between 1990-2005, and examining 131 books written by 53 writers. In the thesis, the Turkish short story writing from the 1990s to the present has been discussed from a sociological point of view, employing both quantitative and qualitative research methods. First, a database has been formed in order to empirically specify the so-called boom. Next, sociological profiles have been drawn using the biographical information gathered about the selected group. Then, the period has been examined. Sociopolitical developments of the 1990s both in Turkey and the world have been summarized in order to provide a framework for the analysis. It is understood that there are astounding connections and disconnections between the texts and the period. Although the Turkish short story writing of the 1990s seems to be quite disinterested in the political agenda, it is determined that the outcomes of some incidents are indirectly reflected. The depolitization process following the 1980 coup d’état and the individualistic way of thinking stemming from that have strongly influenced the texts written in the 1990s. This individualistic approach shows itself in the personal aspects of dedications and epigraphs, and the widespread use of the first person narrative. The most remarkable feature of the recent short story writing is the employment of visual elements. In addition to the diversification of the texts by an assortment of fonts, the display of illustrations and graphics may be interpreted as the internalization of the visual culture by the literary public sphere. Apart from these formal innovations, the roots of such characteristics as thematic ambiguity, fragmentation and intertextuality can be traced back to postmodernism.
Open Access
Yazınsal kavrayışta köklü bir değişim : Türk öykücülüğünde 1950 kuşağı
(Bilkent University, 2007) Dirlikyapan, Jale Özata
Open Access
Phoenix'in evrimi : Edip Cansever'de dramatik monolog
(Bilkent University, 2007) Dirlikyapan, Murat Devrim
Open Access
Hüseyin Rahmi Gürpınar'ın romanlarında ahlak sorunsalı
(Bilkent University, 2007) Serdar, Ali; Oğuzertem, Süha
Hüseyin Rahmi Gürpınar’s (1864-1944) first article titled “İstanbul’da Bir Frenk” (A European in Istanbul) was published in 1884 and from that time onwards his 41 novels, 9 story books, 4 plays, and 6 collection of essays composed of his articles and polemics have been published. In this study, Gürpınar’s ten novels, namely Bir Sevda Denklemi (An Equation of Love, 1899), Metres (The Mistress, 1899), Acı Gülüş (Bitter Laugh, 1923), Ben Deli miyim? (Am I Mad? 1925), Kokotlar Mektebi (The School of Cocottes, 1929), Gönül Bir Yeldeğirmenidir (The Heart is a Windmill, 1943), Dünyanın Mihveri Kadın mı, Para mı? (What Is the Axis of the World, Woman or Money? 1949), Kaderin Cilvesi (Turn of Fortune, 1964), Can Pazarı (A Matter of Life and Death, 1968), and Namuslu Kokotlar (The Virtuous Cocottes, 1973) have been analyzed within the framework of ethical criticism, especially with regard to the repeated themes, the interference of the author and the narrator, and the intellectual sources of Gürpınar’s thought. Hüseyin Rahmi Gürpınar had adopted a moral discourse in his writings and created his fictional world around the themes of struggle for existence, starvation, moral decline, and infidelity, which are among significant notions in the field of ethics. The intrusion of the author and the narrator in fictional worlds are other salient and constitutive features of Gürpınar’s fiction. Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, and social Darwinist ideas, to which he had frequently referred, also played substantial roles in the formation of his fictional world. That is why it is vital to understand the system of values that lies beneath the author’s thought while analyzing his works. In this context, the criticisms regarding Gürpınar’s idea of the novel have been reconsidered; his works have been examined from the perspective of ethical criticism; and the system of values that shape his fictional world has been portrayed through a text-centered reading.
Open Access
"Ulusal alegori"den imparatorluk eğretilemesine : Osmanlı romanında çok-katmanlı anlatı yapısı
(Bilkent University, 2008) Başlı, Şeyda; Mignon, Laurent
Early Ottoman novels are simple “imitation”s of the French realism from the point of post-Republican critical discourse that establishes a direct relationship between the birth of the novel and the Ottoman modernisation process of the nineteenth century. Combining this claim with the “fact” that Ottoman novelists merely instrumentalised the genre in order to pursue their political aims, the birth of the Ottoman novel is assumed to be a process of technical “inferiority”. The main source of such inferiority, hence, is supposed to be the influence of the Ottoman Classical (Divan) poetry. On the other hand, this study essentially claims that a different theoretical paradigm is necessary to be able to evaluate both the process of social transformation that determines the emergence of the novel as a literary form and the novels produced in this process. Then, the source of such degrading viewpoint is not the novels themselves but the Eurocentric theoretical perspective of the post-Republican critical discourse. This study provides the literature survey on the post-Republican critiques about the Ottoman novels and the analysis of their multi-layered narrative structure to prove its basic claim. The multi-layered narrative structure is the result of the transformative synthesis of the narrative techniques of both the French realism and the Divan poetry. The novels are interpreted in a way that would reveal the political discussions on the transformation of the power structure of the empire and the aesthetical evaluation of the novel as a literary genre. The love narrative provided on the literal level acts as the basis of this multi-layered structure and carries two different narrative layers by synthesising the metaphorical narrative structure of the Divan poetry with technical narrative tools of the French realism.
Open Access
Türk şiirinde taşra : 1859-1959
(Bilkent University, 2009) Ergül, Mehmet Selim; Tezcan, Nuran
“The Province in Turkish Poetry: 1859-1959” is a study which focuses on the transformation of the fact of province in the history of Turkish poetry. In this study, it is elaborated that how the province, which is described as the regions outside the literal center, is treated in the poetry. The features which arose from the narratives of province with its nature and inhabitants are the area of interest of this thesis. This study, in which the language used in the poems, the viewpoint of the persona and the preferred images are analyzed, the transformation of the features that emerge in the narration of the province are explained. In this study, it is identified that the objective realities of the province didn’t reflect well enough in the poetry. In the poems which narrate the province, the province is mainly a means to explain a certain thought. In these poems, a language that imitates the language and art of province is used, when the elitist and standard language of the center is neglected. The personas in these poems, could only identify the different forms that they met by transforming them to the formal information of the aesthetic ideology which was disseminated by the center. In these poems, therefore, the visual images and metaphors are dominant. The province, which was narrated in the period of Divan poetry, is not the whole Ottoman geography but the central states. In the period of the Republic, the province is called as the places that are far from the sea. Although there are many common features in the narrations of province, it is observed that three different regions are treated with three different ways: Near province (Edirne, Bursa, Ege Basin), far province (Eskişehir-Afyon line, Central Anatolia, Western and Central Black Sea and the inner regions of Western and Central Mediterranean) and the deep province (Sivas, Eastern Anatolia, Southeastern Anatolia, Eastern Mediterranean and the inner parts of Eastern Black Sea). In near province, otherworldliness, eroticism, prosperity, happiness, pleasure and daily troubles are manifested. In far province, poverty, identification with provincial, immigration, mechanization in agriculture and popular symbols are used. In deep province, rebellion, nationality, underdevelopment, the desire for enlightenment, bravery and epic discourse are remarkable.
Open Access
Peyami Safa'nın romanlarında modernleşme ve mekân
(Bilkent University, 2009) Aksoy, Süreyya Elif; Mignon, Laurent
Peyami Safa (1899-1961), via his literary œuvre, also through his newspaper essays and research, had been a major contributor to the main arguments of Turkish conservative thought. His focus was on the tension between modernity and tradition. This study analyzes 11 novels of Peyami Safa, representative of each period in his novel writing, with a wiew to finding out the relations between the fictional places and the line of thought centering around modernization and the East-West question. The novels that are subject to scrutiny are as follows: Sözde Kızlar (The So-Called Girls, 1923), Şimşek (Lightning, 1923), Mahşer (Doomsday, 1924), Bir Akşamdı (It was a Night, 1924), Cânân (Cânan, 1925), Dokuzuncu Hariciye Koğuşu (Ninth Ward of Exterior Diseases, 1930), Fatih-Harbiye (Fatih-Harbiye, 1931), Bir Tereddüdün Romanı (The Novel of a Hesitation, 1933), Biz Đnsanlar (We Human Beings, 1959), Matmazel Noraliya’nın Koltuğu (The Armchair of Mademoiselle Noraliya, 1949) ve Yalnızız (We are Alone, 1951). In these novels, Safa views materialism, ardent pursuit of material gain and the satisfaction of sensual desires as the consequences of modernity and strongly condemns them. The study, carried on with the help of two research tools, namely “social space”, and “everyday life”, revealed that, urban places are depicted as the battle-ground for modern and traditional spaces. Modern urban spaces are presented as a threat to local culture and morality, whereas traditional spaces are subject to a Romantic idealization mechanism. However, in this binary opposition, Safa does not target the West as a totality, but aims at pointing to the specific ill consequences of modernity instead. To draw the line between the two, he insists on resting his arguments upon the anti-modernity arguments produced in the West itself, and he proposes a spiritual cooperation between Christianity and Islam against the materialistic inclinations of modernity. Hence, Safa questions the rhetoric of the “East-West opposition” and argues that the main conflict is between modernity and tradition, matter and spirit. Another insight is that, Safa’s transition from being an ardent supporter of modernization in the 1930s, towards functioning as the spokesman for tradition and religion in the 1950s, as well as the underlying conservative trait of his ideas, can be traced in his novels as well his essays and research. Despite his serious criticism against the consequences of modernity as experienced in the city and against the misconception and misinterpretation of modernity in certain circles, Peyami Safa does not totally exclude modernity from his universe. He rather displays an awareness about the features of modern city life, which enables modernity to pervade existence and to bring modernity and tradition into contact. The connection and communication between these two spaces are made possible mainly by modern transportation vehicles, such as cars and trams, as well as key characters who move in both modern and traditional spaces with equal effectiveness. So, in Safa’s fictional environment, modernity and tradition interact. Modernity transforms people’s perception and becomes an essential component of existence. Thus, the study suggests that Safa’s attention is not only on the opposition between East and West, or tradition and modernity, but on the relations between the two. This result is also supported by his conservative line of thought, found in his essays and non-fictional books, which clearly reveals his search for an ideal composition of preferable parts of the old and new, a position which makes him comparable to British conservative thought, as well as linking him to the postTanzimat (Reformation) Ottoman sentiments against rapid modernization, in the 19th century.
Open Access
Osmanlı şiirinde kadin şairin poetikası : Leylâ Hanım
(Bilkent University, 2009) Çulhaoğlu, F. Gülşen; Mignon, Laurent
This study investigates the gendered poetics of Ottoman Divan poetry, which has for long been acknowledged as a tradition of poetry written in a masculine language, and questions the validity of this prolonged belief. Focusing on Leylâ Hanım, a 19th century female poet, this study examines whether it is true, in agreement with the popular belief, that female poets reproduced the so-called masculine language of Divan poetry and did not produce a poetics of their own, or it is possible to argue the opposite. Based on observations of the female voice/discourse/language in Divan poetry, the study explores Leylâ Hanım’s Divan and asks if there are peculiarities that distinguish Leylâ Hanım from her male contemporaries. The female discourse, in this study, is not an equivalent of the common feminist idea of a female language that aims to conquer the male language to develop a language peculiar to women, but it is identical to passivity. Dualistic pairs with gendered meanings in Divan poetry are examined in this study, in terms of the female hegemony over the male. Using these pairs as a starting point, the traditional masculinity of Divan poetry is then questioned and it is concluded that, contrary to the established belief, we can talk about a female discourse in Divan poetry. Taking into account the hierarchical pair lover-beloved, and considering the hegemony of the beloved over the lover, the passivity in the discourse of the lover is examined. Following these observations, this study delves into the depths of Leylâ Hanım’s Divan and questions if she utilized the traditional mazmuns of Divan poetry so as to produce a female discourse. Leylâ Hanım’s poetry has a female discourse in core, because she uses the established female discourse of male poets which is made ready to her. In some poems, Leylâ Hanım identifies herself with Leila, of the famous couple Leila and Mejnun, trespassing on the domain of the beloved and therefore violating the passive female discourse of the male poets of the Divan poetry, who identified themselves with the position of the lover, but this identification can also be interpreted as an attempt to put an emphasis on the female subject, and to make femininity more salient. Identifying oneself with Mejnun in a framework where female hegemony over the male persists, implies accepting the discourse of passivity (which in this study corresponds to the female language) and identifying with Leila in the same framework, implies an attempt to form “a new female discourse.”
Open Access
Nahit Sırrı Örik'in romanlarında narsisist entrikalar
(Bilkent University, 2009) Dündar, Hülya; Tezcan, Nuran
This study focuses on the novels of Nahit Sırrı Örik (1894-1960), one of the most significant authors of the 20th. century Turkish literature. The novels that have been analyzed are Kıskanmak (Jealousy, 1937), Yıldız Olmak Kolay mı? (Is it Easy to Become A Star?, 1944), Tersine Giden Yol (The Road Reversed, 1948), “Gece Olmadan” (Before The Nightfall, 1951) and Sultan Hamid Düşerken (The Demise of Sultan Hamid, 1957). The dissertation mainly investigates interpersonal, “love” and parent-child relationships depicted in the novels from a psychoanalytical perspective. It is observed that Nahit Sırrı had portrayed a “narcissistic” world in terms of the value system and the quality of the emotions involved in the interpersonal universe of his novels. It is also found out that narcissism had also shaped the literary components of the novels including the constitution of plot, characterization, setting, language, and style. The plots of the novels are based on “plotting”, which is also an integral part of narcissistic pathology, and almost all characters have certain narcisssistic qualities. The settings, too, can be related to narcissism in terms of their feeding characters’ need for admiration and being temporary in nature. Besides, the language and style indicate the existence of narcissistic narrators who give great importance to describing characters’ physical appearances, look down on most of them, abhor the indications of old age, and in contrast glorify youth and beauty. The study ultimately focuses on the biographical implications of Örik’s fictional world by taking a close look at the author’s childhood experiences, his relationship with his parents, his fantasies as reflected in his childhood plays, and so on. It is concluded that the author’s childhood experiences had been likely to give way to the development of a narcissistic personality and Örik, who is observed not to be reconciled with old age, tended to categorize people as beautiful or ugly, and look down on them, is very much like the narrators in his novels.
Open Access
19 yüzyılda Osmanlı toplumu ve basılı Türkçe edebiyat : etkileşimler, değişimler, çeşitlilik
(Bilkent University, 2009) Ayaydın Cebe, Günil Özlem; Mignon, Laurent
This dissertation is built on the proposition that the majority of literary histories hitherto written on 19th century Ottoman Turkish literature reflects a very limited part of the object of investigation, selected generally according to non-literary criteria. Consequently, it is asserted that most of the research and examination relying on these sources is inadequate in comprehending the true nature of Ottoman literary universe. In this study, in order to overcome this problem of short-sightedness about the object of investigation, it is deemed necessary to depict an accurate map of printed literary texts in Turkish and focus on the medium that creates literature. To achieve this, a database is formed comprising bibliographic data on texts printed in Turkish in Arabic, Armenian and Greek letters between the years 1800-1900, and a new method of classification and counting is developed according to the specific needs of the material collected. Afterwards, the chronological trends of literary genres and their production in ratios are revealed. Through this, various tools are created for questioning set periodizations and fixed judgements about the field. By interpreting these tools in tandem with the historical, political and socio-cultural developments of the era, and in comparison to literature in manuscript form, the following main observations and conclusions, among others, are made: First, it is demonstrated that literature is the key field to understanding the modernization venture of the Ottoman Empire. Secondly, it is observed that there had been a closer literary interaction and exchange among the Muslim and nonMuslim communities of the Empire than that is supposed in contemporary assumption. Thirdly, it is found out that the advancements in printing and publishing caused a dramatic shift from oral and written culture to print culture that gave rise to social and literary transformations. Lastly, the effects of this transformation on classical, traditional and modern literary forms are discussed, and fresh areas of research are presented.
Open Access
İzlek ve biçem ilişkisi açısından Suat Derviş romanlarının Türk edebiyatındaki yeri
(Bilkent University, 2010) Uluğtekin, Melahat Gül; Halman, Talât
This study analyzes the novels of Suat Derviş (1905-1972) by exploring theme and style interrelatedness and discovering how to contextualize her within the history of Turkish literature. Although thirteen Suat Derviş novels were referred to in this study, three of them, Fosforlu Cevriye, Çılgın Gibi , Sınır serialized 1943 - 1945, were chosen for close reading. The analyses draw from Georg Lukács’ contributions to the fields of realism, the concept of reification and the theory of the novel. As the study of these works of popular fiction progressed, the question of popular literature versus high literature arose . In this context, however, it was more pertinent to focus on the feuilleton as a form of popular literature rather than on popular literature versus high literature. The study of all Dervis’ novels emphasized the lines of continuity from the writer’s earlier period versus the novels of her mature period. As a result, a leitmotiv, “alienation”, was found to recur in all her novels. Regarding style, romantic elements are dominant in her earlier novels whereas the structure of her later novels reflects a tension between romantic and realistic elements. In these novels, love is the tool that promises totality by overcoming alienation. However, love, while transforming the characters, is not enough to bring them happiness. The popular elements of her novels, their romantic and realistic style, and the themes of alienation and love were scrutinized to shed light on the writer’s relation to the Turkish tradition of novel-writing in terms of continuity and transformation. This perspective enabled a focus on her non-existence in literary history and also demonstrated that Suat Derviş is a forerunner in Turkish novel-writing in two areas: themes of “horror” in the Turkish novel in the 1920s and the first examples—in Turkish literature—of proletarian novels in the 1930s. Her contribution to the Turkish novel, however, was ignored because her non-appearance in literary histories and her being labelled as a popular fiction writer.
Open Access
Yahya Kemal Beyatlı şiirinde düzyazı ve dünyevilik
(Bilkent University, 2010) Akgül, Alphan; Kalpaklı, Mehmet
In the studies on the poems of Yahya Kemal Beyatlı (1884 - 1958), poet’s intention is regarded as a literary criterion. This point of view gives rise to the contradictions, inconsistencies and deficiencies that are observable in the interpretations of Yahya Kemal’s poetry. In these studies Yahya Kemal’s arguments have been evaluated in piecemeal fashion, and no comprehensive examination has been conducted on their content as a whole. However, when Yahya Kemal’s arguments are considered as a whole, it emerges that although his poetic conception reflects the theoretical framework of “modern European lyric poetry”, his poems do not conform with this conception. Yahya Kemal’s poetic conception depends on certain binary oppositions such as “meaning / utterance,” “parable / lyricism” and “meter / internal rhythm.” In theory, the poet attributes privileged status to the latter terms in these binary oppositions. Yet, when the relationship between Yahya Kemal’s poetic conception and his poems are analyzed through a “deconstructive strategy”, it is revealed that in direct contrast to his poetic conception, privileged status is attached not to the latter but rather to the initial terms in these binary oppositions; namely, “meaning”, “parable” and “meter.” Yahya Kemal’s arguments on “internal rhythm” turn out to be inconsistent, and it is necessary therefore to ignore this concept in studying his poetry. Much more functional than this concept are the linguistic devices corresponding to the harmony between “meaning” and “utterance”. In this respect, a crucial detail peculiar to Yahya Kemal’s poetry requires attention: the cooperation found in his poems between “meter,” “phonetic spelling,” and imale. Đmale, as a kind of metrical defect, leads to deviations from ordinary language in poetry. Moreover, these deviations are meticulously displayed through “phonetic spelling” in the printed copies of Yahya Kemal’s poems. Accordingly, the cooperation between “meter,” “phonetic spelling” and imale provide a sort of musicality to Yahya Kemal’s poems, while this musicality does not impair the communicative function of language. Another aspect of the present study is that Yahya Kemal’s poems are interpreted by means of a text-bound method to reveal the feelings of “ressentiment” aroused by unexpressed desires, and also the constituents of a secular worldview. This study also attempts to demonstrate how “metered and unmetered sound patterns” reinforce the content of the poems in their function as linguistic devices. The thesis also places emphasis on the predominance of “metonymy” rather than “metaphor” in the figural pattern of Yahya Kemal’s poems.
Open Access
İmparatorluk ve roman : Ermeni harfli Türkçe romanları Osmanlı
(Bilkent University, 2010) Cankara, Murat; Mignon, Laurent
In this dissertation the early Turkish novels in the Armenian script are focused on. These novels are Hovsep Vartanyan’s Akabi Hikâyesi (1851), Hovhannes H. Balıkçıyan’s Karnig, Gülünya ve Dikran’ın Dehşetlü Vefatleri (1863) and Hovsep Maruş’s Bir Sefil Zevce (1868). Being written by Ottoman Armenians and published in Istanbul, all three appeared before the early Turkish novels in the Arabic script. The following are the primary aims of the dissertaion: 1) An evaluation and critique of the Ottoman/Turkish and Armenian literary historiographies both of which have overlooked or looked down upon the texts in question; 2) a contribution to and a theoretical and conceptual analysis of the cultural encounter between Ottoman Muslim/Turks and Armenians supported by new empirical evidence; 3) a comparison of early Turkish novels in the Arabic and Armenian scripts and, through this comparison, a questioning of the existing approaches to the latter which have also been called the “Tanzimat novel” and a contribution to the debate on to what extent the literatures produced by Ottoman millets had or could have common features. These are among the major findings that have been emphasized throughout the dissertation: 1) As far as literature is in question, the cultural encounter between Ottoman Muslim/Turks and Armenians should not only be discussed through a limited number of canonic literary texts but also by taking into account non-literary and non-textual means of encounter; 2) the authors of the early Turkish novels in Armenian and Arabic scripts appropriated different and at times conflicting features of European romanticism.
Open Access
Melodram ve komedi : Osmanlı'da Türkçe ve Ermenice modern dramatik edebiyatlar
(Bilkent University, 2011) Uslu, Mehmet Fatih; Mignon, Laurent
Modern theater in the Ottoman Empire had a spectacular development, lead by Ottoman Armenians, in the 19th century and it drew a large audience. At the same time many Ottoman intellectuals became playwrights and they produced a great number of plays. This thesis tries to understand the political and social implications of dramatic literature by comparatively analyzing plays written in Ottoman Turkish and Armenian in the period. The thesis has two main arguments: First, I claim that we can analyze the whole dramatic-literary area in three genres (melodrama, historical drama, comedy) and every different generic area discloses and represents a main dynamic in the empire. Melodramas represent dominant political-moralistic tendencies, historical dramas show the search for national identity, and comedies disclose developing market relations and changing economy. Second, by reading texts in Turkish and Armenian together and comparatively, I endeavor to understand mutual relations between Ottoman subjects and negotiationconflict paths these three genres demonstrated. In this perspective, I claim that melodramas and historical dramas on the side of conflict and comedies on the side of negotiation disclose an inexorable struggle. This struggle is the evidence of the empire’s future collapse and the possibility of a peaceful solution at the same time.