Turkish literature () comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Turkish language. The Ottoman form of Turkish, which forms the basis of much of the written corpus, was highly influenced by Persian and Arabic literature, and used the Ottoman Turkish alphabet.
The history of the broader Turkic literature spans a period of nearly 1,300 years. The oldest extant records of written Turkic are the Orhon inscriptions, found in the Orhon River valley in central Mongolia and dating to the 7th century. Subsequent to this period, between the 9th and 11th centuries, there arose among the nomadic Turkic peoples of Central Asia a tradition of oral epics, such as the Book of Dede Korkut of the Oghuz Turksâ ancestors of the modern Turkish peopleâÂÂand the Epic of Manas of the Kyrgyz people.
Beginning with the victory of the Seljuks at the Battle of Manzikert in the late 11th century, the Oghuz Turks began to settle in Anatolia, and in addition to the earlier oral traditions there arose a written literary tradition issuing largelyâÂÂin terms of themes, genres, and stylesâÂÂfrom Arabic and Persian literature. For the next 900 years, until shortly before the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1922, the oral and written traditions would remain largely separate from one another. With the founding of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, the two traditions came together for the first time.
The earliest known examples of Turkic poetry date to sometime in the 6th century AD and were composed in the Uyghur language. Some of the earliest verses attributed to Uyghur Turkic writers are only available in Chinese language translations. During the era of oral poetry, the earliest Turkic verses were intended as songs and their recitation a part of the community's social life and entertainment. For example, in the shamanistic and animistic culture of the pre-Islamic Turkic peoples verses of poetry were performed at religious gatherings in ceremonies before a hunt (sñÃÂñr), at communal feasts following a hunt (à Âölen). Poetry was also sung at solemn times and elegy called sagu were recited at yuàfunerals and other commemorations of the dead.
Of the long epics, only the OÃÂuzname has survived in its entirety. The Book of Dede Korkut may have had its origins in the poetry of the 10th century but remained an oral tradition until the 15th century. The earlier written works Kutadgu Bilig and DëwÃÂn LughÃÂt al-Turk date to the second half of the 11th century and are the earliest known examples of Turkish literature with few exceptions.
One of the most important figures of early Turkish literature was the 13th century Sufi poet Yunus Emre. The golden age of Ottoman literature lasted from the 15th century until the 18th century and included mostly divan poetry but also some prose works, most notably the 10-volume Seyahatnâme (Book of Travels) written by Evliya ÃÂelebi.
The periodization of Turkic literature is debated and scholars have floated different proposals to classify the stages of Turkic literary development. One proposal divides Turkic literature into early literature (8th to 19th c.) and modern (19th to 21st c.). Other systems of classification have divided the literature into three periods either pre-Islamic/Islamic/modern or pre-Ottoman/Ottoman/modern. Yet another more complex approach suggests a 5-stage division including both pre-Islamic (until the 11th century) and pre-Ottoman Islamic (between the 11th and 13th centuries). The 5-stage approach further divides modern literature into a transitional period from the 1850s to the 1920s and finally a modern period reaching into the present day.
Throughout most of its history, Turkish literature has been rather sharply divided into two different traditions, neither of which exercised much influence upon the other until the 19th century. The first of these two traditions is Turkish folk literature, and the second is Turkish written literature.
For most of the history of Turkish literature, the salient difference between the folk and the written traditions has been the variety of language employed. The folk tradition, by and large, was an oral tradition carried on by minstrels and remained free of the influence of Persian and Arabic literature, and consequently of those literatures' respective languages. In folk poetryâÂÂwhich is by far the tradition's dominant genreâÂÂthis basic fact led to two major consequences in terms of poetic style:
Furthermore, Turkish folk poetry has always had an intimate connection with songâÂÂmost of the poetry was, in fact, expressly composed so as to be sungâÂÂand so became to a great extent inseparable from the tradition of Turkish folk music.
In contrast to the tradition of Turkish folk literature, Turkish written literatureâÂÂprior to the founding of the Republic of Turkey in 1923âÂÂtended to embrace the influence of Persian and Arabic literature. To some extent, this can be seen as far back as the Seljuk period in the late 11th to early 14th centuries, where official business was conducted in the Persian language, rather than in Turkish, and where a court poet such as DehhanîâÂÂwho served under the 13th century sultan Ala ad-Din Kay Qubadh IâÂÂwrote in a language highly inflected with Persian.
When the Ottoman Empire arose early in the 14th century, in northwestern Anatolia, it continued this tradition. The standard poetic formsâÂÂfor poetry was as much the dominant genre in the written tradition as in the folk traditionâÂÂwere derived either directly from the Persian literary tradition (the gazel úòÃÂ; the mesnevî àëÃÂÃÂÃÂ), or indirectly through Persian from the Arabic (the kasîde ÃÂõÃÂïÃÂ). However, the decision to adopt these poetic forms wholesale led to two important further consequences:
Out of this confluence of choices, the Ottoman Turkish languageâÂÂwhich was always highly distinct from spoken TurkishâÂÂwas effectively born. This style of writing under Persian and Arabic influence came to be known as "Divan literature" (Turkish: divan edebiyatñ), dîvân (ïÃÂÃÂçÃÂ) being the Ottoman Turkish word referring to the collected works of a poet.
Just as Turkish folk poetry was intimately bound up with Turkish folk music, so did Ottoman Divan poetry develop a strong connection with Turkish classical music, with the poems of the Divan poets often being taken up to serve as song lyrics.
Turkish folk literature is an oral tradition deeply rooted, in its form, in Central Asian nomadic traditions. However, in its themes, Turkish folk literature reflects the problems peculiar to a settled (or settling) people who have abandoned the nomadic lifestyle. One example of this is the series of folktales surrounding the figure of KeloÃÂlan, a young boy beset with the difficulties of finding a wife, helping his mother to keep the family house intact, and dealing with the problems caused by his neighbors. Another example is the rather mysterious figure of Nasreddin, a trickster who often plays jokes, of a sort, on his neighbors.
Nasreddin also reflects another significant change that had occurred between the days when the Turkish people were nomadic and the days when they had largely become settled in Anatolia; namely, Nasreddin is a Muslim Imam. The Turkic peoples had first become Islamized sometime around the 9th or 10th century, as is evidenced from the clear Islamic influence on the 11th century Karakhanid work the Kutadgu Bilig ("Wisdom of Royal Glory"), written by Yusuf Has Hajib. The religion henceforth came to exercise an enormous influence on Turkish society and literature, particularly the heavily mystically oriented Sufi and Shi'a varieties of Islam. The Sufi influence, for instance, can be seen clearly not only in the tales concerning Nasreddin but also in the works of Yunus Emre, a towering figure in Turkish literature and a poet who lived at the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th century, probably in the Karamanid state in south-central Anatolia. The Shi'a influence, on the other hand, can be seen extensively in the tradition of the aà Âñks, or ozans, who are roughly akin to medieval European minstrels and who traditionally have had a strong connection with the Alevi faith, which can be seen as something of a homegrown Turkish variety of Shi'a Islam. It is, however, important to note that in Turkish culture, such a neat division into Sufi and Shi'a is scarcely possible: for instance, Yunus Emre is considered by some to have been an Alevi, while the entire Turkish aà Âñk/ozan tradition is permeated with the thought of the Bektashi Sufi order, which is itself a blending of Shi'a and Sufi concepts. The word aà Âñk (literally, "lover") is in fact the term used for first-level members of the Bektashi order.
Because the Turkish folk literature tradition extends in a more or less unbroken line from about the 10th or 11th century to today, it is perhaps best to consider the tradition from the perspective of genre. There are three basic genres in the tradition: epic; folk poetry; and folklore.
The Turkish epic has its roots in the Central Asian epic tradition that gave rise to the Book of Dede Korkut; written in the Azerbaijani language â and recognizably similar to modern Istanbul Turkish â the form developed from the oral traditions of the Oghuz Turks (a branch of the Turkic peoples which migrated towards western Asia and eastern Europe through Transoxiana, beginning in the 9th century). The Book of Dede Korkut endured in the oral tradition of the Oghuz Turks after settling in Anatolia. Alpamysh is an earlier epic, still preserved in the literature of various Turkic peoples of Central Asia in addition to its important place in the Anatolian tradition.
The Book of Dede Korkut was the primary element of the AzerbaijaniâÂÂTurkish epic tradition in the Caucasus and Anatolia for several centuries. Concurrent to the Book of Dede Korkut was the so-called Epic of KöroÃÂlu, which concerns the adventures of Rüà Âen Ali ("KöroÃÂlu", or "son of the blind man") as he exacted revenge for the blinding of his father. The origins of this epic are somewhat more mysterious than those of the Book of Dede Korkut: many believe it to have arisen in Anatolia sometime between the 15th and 17th centuries; more reliable testimony, though, seems to indicate that the story is nearly as old as that of the Book of Dede Korkut, dating from around the dawn of the 11th century. Complicating matters somewhat is the fact that KöroÃÂlu is also the name of a poet of the aà Âñk/ozan tradition.
The epic tradition in modern Turkish literature may be seen in the Epic of Shaykh Bedreddin (à Âeyh Bedreddin Destanñ), published in 1936 by the poet Nâzñm Hikmet Ran (1901âÂÂ1963). This long poem â which concerns an Anatolian shaykh's rebellion against the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed I â is a modern epic, yet draws upon the same independent-minded traditions of the Anatolian people as depicted in the Epic of KöroÃÂlu. Many of the works of the 20th-century novelist Yaà Âar Kemal (1923âÂÂ2015 ), such as the 1955 novel Memed, My Hawk (ðnce Memed), can be considered modern prose epics continuing this long tradition.
The folk poetry tradition in Turkish literature, as indicated above, was strongly influenced by the Islamic Sufi and Shi'a traditions. Furthermore, as partly evidenced by the prevalence of the still existent aà Âñk/ozan tradition, the dominant element in Turkish folk poetry has always been song. The development of folk poetry in TurkishâÂÂwhich began to emerge in the 13th century with such important writers as Yunus Emre, Sultan Veled, and à Âeyyâd HamzaâÂÂwas given a great boost when, on 13 May 1277, KaramanoÃÂlu Mehmet Bey declared Turkish the official state language of Anatolia's powerful Karamanid state; subsequently, many of the tradition's greatest poets would continue to emerge from this region.
There are, broadly speaking, two traditions (or schools) of Turkish folk poetry:
Much of the poetry and song of the aà Âñk/ozan tradition, being almost exclusively oral until the 19th century, remains anonymous. There are, however, a few well-known aà Âñks from before that time whose names have survived together with their works: the aforementioned KöroÃÂlu (16th century); KaracaoÃÂlan (1606?âÂÂ1689?), who may be the best-known of the pre-19th century aà Âñks; DadaloÃÂlu (1785?âÂÂ1868?), who was one of the last of the great aà Âñks before the tradition began to dwindle somewhat in the late 19th century; and several others. The aà Âñks were essentially minstrels who travelled through Anatolia performing their songs on the baÃÂlama, a mandolin-like instrument whose paired strings are considered to have a symbolic religious significance in Alevi/Bektashi culture. Despite the decline of the aà Âñk/ozan tradition in the 19th century, it experienced a significant revival in the 20th century thanks to such outstanding figures as Aà Âñk Veysel à ÂatñroÃÂlu (1894âÂÂ1973), Aà Âñk Mahzuni à Âerif (1938âÂÂ2002), Neà Âet Ertaà  (1938âÂÂ2012), and many others.
The explicitly religious folk tradition of tekke literature shared a similar basis with the aà Âñk/ozan tradition in that the poems were generally intended to be sung, generally in religious gatherings, making them somewhat akin to Western hymns (Turkish ilahi). One major difference from the aà Âñk/ozan tradition, however, is thatâÂÂfrom the very beginningâÂÂthe poems of the tekke tradition were written down. This was because they were produced by revered religious figures in the literate environment of the tekke, as opposed to the milieu of the aà Âñk/ozan tradition, where the majority could not read or write. The major figures in the tradition of tekke literature are: Yunus Emre (1240?âÂÂ1320?), who is one of the most important figures in all of Turkish literature; Süleyman ÃÂelebi (?âÂÂ1422), who wrote a highly popular long poem called Vesîletü'n-Necât (ÃÂóÃÂÃÂé çÃÂÃÂìçé "The Means of Salvation", but more commonly known as the Mevlid), concerning the birth of the Islamic prophet Muhammad; Kaygusuz Abdal (1397âÂÂ?), who is widely considered the founder of Alevi/Bektashi literature; and Pir Sultan Abdal (?âÂÂ1560), whom many consider to be the pinnacle of that literature.
The two primary streams of Ottoman written literature are poetry and prose. Of the two, poetryâÂÂspecifically, Divan poetryâÂÂwas by far the dominant stream. Moreover, until the 19th century, Ottoman prose did not contain any examples of fiction; that is, there were no counterparts to, for instance, the European romance, short story, or novel (though analogous genres did, to some extent, exist in both the Turkish folk tradition and in Divan poetry).
Ottoman Divan poetry was a highly ritualized and symbolic art form. From the Persian poetry that largely inspired it, it inherited a wealth of symbols whose meanings and interrelationshipsâÂÂboth of similitude (àñçùçê ÃÂøÃÂñ mura'ât-i nazîr / êÃÂçóè tenâsüb) and opposition (êöçï tezâd)âÂÂwere more or less prescribed. Examples of prevalent symbols that, to some extent, oppose one another include, among others:
As the opposition of "the ascetic" and "the dervish" suggests, Divan poetryâÂÂmuch like Turkish folk poetryâÂÂwas heavily influenced by Sufi thought. One of the primary characteristics of Divan poetry, howeverâÂÂas of the Persian poetry before itâÂÂwas its mingling of the mystical Sufi element with a profane and even erotic element. Thus, the pairing of "the nightingale" and "the rose" simultaneously suggests two different relationships:
Similarly, "the world" refers simultaneously to the physical world and to this physical world considered as the abode of sorrow and impermanence, while "the rosegarden" refers simultaneously to a literal garden and to the garden of Paradise. "The nightingale", or suffering lover, is often seen as situatedâÂÂboth literally and figurativelyâÂÂin "the world", while "the rose", or beloved, is seen as being in "the rosegarden".
Divan poetry was composed through the constant juxtaposition of many such images within a strict metrical framework, thus allowing numerous potential meanings to emerge. A brief example is the following line of verse, or mñsra (àõñçù), by the 18th-century judge and poet Hayatî Efendi:
Here, the nightingale is only implied (as being the poet/lover), while the rose, or beloved, is shown to be capable of inflicting pain with its thorns (îçñ hâr). The world, as a result, is seen as having both positive aspects (it is a rosegarden, and thus analogous to the garden of Paradise) and negative aspects (it is a rosegarden full of thorns, and thus different from the garden of Paradise).
As for the development of Divan poetry over the more than 500 years of its existence, that isâÂÂas the Ottomanist Walter G. Andrews points outâÂÂa study still in its infancy; clearly defined movements and periods have not yet been decided upon. Early in the history of the tradition, the Persian influence was very strong, but this was mitigated somewhat through the influence of poets such as the Azerbaijani Nesîmî (?âÂÂ1417?) and the Uzbek Ali à Âîr Nevâî (1441âÂÂ1501), both of whom offered strong arguments for the poetic status of the Turkic languages as against the much-venerated Persian. Partly as a result of such arguments, Divan poetry in its strongest periodâÂÂfrom the 16th to the 18th centuriesâÂÂcame to display a unique balance of Persian and Turkish elements.
Although Turkish poets (Ottoman and Chagatay) had been inspired and influenced by classical Persian poetry, it would be a superficial judgment to consider the former as blind imitators of the latter, as is often done. A limited vocabulary and common technique, and the same world of imagery and subject matter based mainly on Islamic sources, were shared by all poets of Islamic literature.
Despite the lack of certainty regarding the stylistic movements and periods of Divan poetry, however, certain highly different styles are clear enough, and can perhaps be seen as exemplified by certain poets:
The vast majority of Divan poetry was lyric in nature: either gazels (which make up the greatest part of the repertoire of the tradition), or kasîdes. There were, however, other common genres, most particularly the mesnevî, a kind of verse romance and thus a variety of narrative poetry; the two most notable examples of this form are the Leylî vü Mecnun (ÃÂÃÂÃÂàààìÃÂÃÂÃÂ) of Fuzûlî and the Hüsn ü Aà Âk (ÃÂóààùôÃÂ; "Beauty and Love") of à Âeyh Gâlib.
Until the 19th century, Ottoman prose never managed to develop to the extent that contemporary Divan poetry did. A large part of the reason for this was that much prose was expected to adhere to the rules of sec (óìù, also transliterated as seci), or rhymed prose, a type of writing descended from the Arabic saj' and which prescribed that between each adjective and noun in a sentence, there must be a rhyme.
Nevertheless, there was a tradition of prose in the literature of the time. This tradition was exclusively nonfictional in natureâÂÂthe fiction tradition was limited to narrative poetry. A number of such nonfictional prose genres developed:
By the early 19th century, the Ottoman Empire had become moribund. Attempts to right this situation had begun during the reign of Sultan Selim III, from 1789 to 1807, but were continuously thwarted by the powerful Janissary corps. As a result, only after Sultan Mahmud II had abolished the Janissary corps in 1826 was the way paved for truly effective reforms (Ottoman Turkish: êÃÂøÃÂàçê tanzîmât).
These reforms finally came to the empire during the Tanzimat period of 1839âÂÂ1876, when much of the Ottoman system was reorganized along largely French lines. The Tanzimat reforms "were designed both to modernize the empire and to forestall foreign intervention".
Along with reforms to the Ottoman system, serious reforms were also undertaken in the literature, which had become nearly as moribund as the empire itself. Broadly, these literary reforms can be grouped into two areas:
The reforms to the literary language were undertaken because the Ottoman Turkish language was thought by the reformists to have effectively lost its way. It had become more divorced than ever from its original basis in Turkish, with writers using more and more words and even grammatical structures derived from Persian and Arabic, rather than Turkish. Meanwhile, however, the Turkish folk literature tradition of Anatolia, away from the capital Constantinople, came to be seen as an ideal. Accordingly, many of the reformists called for written literature to turn away from the Divan tradition and towards the folk tradition; this call for change can be seen, for example, in a famous statement by the poet and reformist Ziya Pasha (1829âÂÂ1880):
<blockquote>Our language is not Ottoman; it is Turkish. What makes up our poetic canon is not gazels and kasîdes, but rather kayabaà Âñs, üçlemes, and çöÃÂürs', which some of our poets dislike, thinking them crude. But just let those with the ability exert the effort on this road [of change], and what powerful personalities will soon be born!</blockquote> At the same time as this callâÂÂwhich reveals something of a burgeoning national consciousnessâÂÂwas being made, new literary genres were being introduced into Ottoman literature, primarily the novel and the short story. This trend began in 1861, with the translation into Ottoman Turkish of François Fénelon's 1699 novel Les aventures de Télémaque, by Hüseyin Avni Pasha, to Sultan Abdülaziz. What is widely recognized as the first Turkish novel, Taaà Âuk-u Tal'at ve Fitnat (êùôà÷ÃÂùê àÃÂ÷ÃÂê; "Tal'at and Fitnat in Love") by à Âemsettin Sami (also known as Sami Frashëri) (1850âÂÂ1904), was published just ten years later, in 1872. However, there had actually been, according to Gonca Gökalp, five other earlier or contemporaneous works of fiction that were clearly distinct from earlier prose traditions in both Divan and folk literature, and that approximate novelistic form. Among these five works is the Muhayyelât of Ali Aziz Efendi, cited above. Another, 1851's Akabi Hikâyesi ("Akabi's Story"), written by the Armenian Vartan Pasha (Hovsep Vartanian) using the Armenian script and for an Armenian audience was, according to Andreas Tietze, "the first genuine modern novel written and published in Turkey". The introduction of such new genres into Turkish literature can be seen as part of a trend towards Westernization that continues to be felt in Turkey to this day.
Due to historically close ties with FranceâÂÂstrengthened during the Crimean War of 1854âÂÂ1856âÂÂit was French literature that came to constitute the major Western influence on Turkish literature throughout the latter half of the 19th century. As a result, many of the same movements prevalent in France during this period also had their equivalents in the Ottoman Empire: in the developing Ottoman prose tradition, for instance, the influence of Romanticism can be seen during the Tanzimat period, and that of the Realist and Naturalist movements in subsequent periods; in the poetic tradition, on the other hand, it was the influence of the Symbolist and Parnassian movements that became paramount.
Many of the writers in the Tanzimat period wrote in several different genres simultaneously: for instance, the poet Namñk Kemal (1840âÂÂ1888) also wrote the important 1876 novel ðntibâh (çÃÂêèçÃÂ; "Awakening"), while the journalist ðbrahim à Âinasi (1826âÂÂ1871) is noted for writing, in 1860, the first modern Turkish play, the one-act comedy "à Âair Evlenmesi" (ôçùñ çÃÂÃÂÃÂàóÃÂ; "The Poet's Marriage"). In a similar vein, the novelist Ahmed Midhat Efendi (1844âÂÂ1912) wrote important novels in each of the major movements: Romanticism (ÃÂóààÃÂçàÃÂçîÃÂï óñ çÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂïàçóñçñ Hasan Mellâh yâhud Sñrr ðçinde Esrâr, 1873; "Hasan the Sailor, or The Mystery Within the Mystery"), Realism (ÃÂﻨﻮò çÃÂàÃÂïàÃÂôéïàHenüz On Yedi Yaà Âñnda, 1881; "Just Seventeen Years Old"), and Naturalism (àôçÃÂïçê Müà Ââhedât, 1891; "Observations"). This diversity was, in part, due to the Tanzimat writers' wish to disseminate as much of the new literature as possible, in the hopes that it would contribute to a revitalization of Ottoman social structure.
Most of the roots of modern Turkish literature were formed between the years 1896âÂÂwhen the first collective literary movement aroseâÂÂand 1923, when the Republic of Turkey was officially founded. Broadly, there were three primary literary movements during this period:
The Edebiyyât-ñ Cedîde, or "New Literature", movement began with the founding in 1891 of the magazine Servet-i Fünûn (ïºÂﺮÃÂê ï»ÂﻨﻮÃÂ; "Scientific Wealth"), which was largely devoted to progressâÂÂboth intellectual and scientificâÂÂalong the Western model. Accordingly, the magazine's literary ventures, under the direction of the poet Tevfik Fikret (1867âÂÂ1915), were geared towards creating a Western-style "high art" in Turkey. The poetry of the groupâÂÂof which Tevfik Fikret and Cenâb à Âehâbeddîn (1870âÂÂ1934) were the most influential proponentsâÂÂwas heavily influenced by the French Parnassian movement and the so-called "Decadent" poets. The group's prose writers, on the other handâÂÂparticularly Halit Ziya Uà Âaklñgil (1867âÂÂ1945)âÂÂwere primarily influenced by Realism, although the writer Mehmed Rauf (1875âÂÂ1931) did write the first Turkish example of a psychological novel, 1901's Eylül (çÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ; "September"). The language of the Edebiyyât-ñ Cedîde movement remained strongly influenced by Ottoman Turkish.
In 1901, as a result of the article "Edebiyyât ve Hukuk" (çïèÃÂçê àﺣï»Âï»®ÃÂ; "Literature and Law"), translated from French and published in Servet-i Fünûn, the pressure of censorship was brought to bear and the magazine was closed down by the government of the Ottoman sultan Abdülhamid II. Though it was closed for only six months, the group's writers each went their own way in the meantime, and the Edebiyyât-ñ Cedîde movement came to an end.
In the 24 February 1909 edition of the Servet-i Fünûn magazine, a gathering of young writersâÂÂsoon to be known as the Fecr-i ÃÂtî ("Dawn of the Future") groupâÂÂreleased a manifesto in which they declared their opposition to the Edebiyyât-ñ Cedîde movement and their adherence to the credo, "Sanat à Âahsî ve muhteremdir" (õÃÂùê ôîõàààÃÂêñàïñ; "Art is personal and sacred"). Though this credo was little more than a variation of the French writer Théophile Gautier's doctrine of "l'art pour l'art", or "art for art's sake", the group was nonetheless opposed to the blanket importation of Western forms and styles, and essentially sought to create a recognizably Turkish literature. The Fecr-i ÃÂtî group, however, never made a clear and unequivocal declaration of its goals and principles, and so lasted only a few years before its adherents each went their own individual way. The two outstanding figures to emerge from the movement were, in poetry, Ahmed Hâà Âim (1884âÂÂ1933), and in prose, Yakup Kadri KaraosmanoÃÂlu (1889âÂÂ1974).
In 1908, Sultan Abdülhamid II had been forced to allow a re-established constitutional government, and the parliament subsequently elected was composed almost entirely of members of the Committee of Union and Progress (also known as the "Young Turks"). The Young Turks (ÃÂÃÂàêÃÂñéÃÂñ Jön Türkler) had opposed themselves to the increasingly authoritarian Ottoman government, and soon came to identify themselves with a specifically Turkish national identity. Along with this notion developed the idea of a Turkish and even pan-Turkish nation (Turkish: millet), and so the literature of this period came to be known as "National Literature" (Turkish: millî edebiyyât). It was during this period that the Persian- and Arabic-inflected Ottoman Turkish language was definitively turned away from as a vehicle for written literature, and that literature began to assert itself as being specifically Turkish, rather than Ottoman.
At first, this movement crystallized around the magazine Genç Kalemler (éÃÂì ÃÂÃÂàÃÂñ; "Young Pens"), which was begun in the city of Selânik in 1911 by the three writers who were most representative of the movement: Ziya Gökalp (1876âÂÂ1924), a sociologist and thinker; ÃÂmer Seyfettin (1884âÂÂ1920), a short-story writer; and Ali Canip Yöntem (1887âÂÂ1967), a poet. In Genç Kalemlers first issue, an article entitled "New Language" (Turkish: "Yeni Lisan") pointed out that Turkish literature had previously looked for inspiration either to the East as in the Ottoman Divan tradition, or to the West as in the Edebiyyât-ñ Cedîde and Fecr-i ÃÂtî movements, without ever turning to Turkey itself. This latter was the National Literature movement's primary aim.
The intrinsically nationalistic character of Genç Kalemler, however, quickly took a decidedly chauvinistic turn, and other writersâÂÂmany of whom, like Yakup Kadri KaraosmanoÃÂlu, had been a part of the Fecr-i ÃÂtî movementâÂÂbegan to emerge from within the matrix of the National Literature movement to counter this trend. Some of the more influential writers to come out of this less far-rightist branch of the National Literature movement were the poet Mehmet Emin Yurdakul (1869âÂÂ1944), the early feminist novelist Halide Edib Adñvar (1884âÂÂ1964), and the short-story writer and novelist Reà Âat Nuri Güntekin (1889âÂÂ1956).
Following the Ottoman Empire's defeat in the First World War of 1914âÂÂ1918, the victorious Entente Powers began the process of carving up the empire's lands and placing them under their own spheres of influence. In opposition to this process, the military leader Mustafa Kemal (1881âÂÂ1938), in command of the growing Turkish National Movement whose roots lay partly in the Young Turks, organized the 1919âÂÂ1923 Turkish War of Independence. This war ended with the official ending of the Ottoman Empire, the expulsion of the Entente Powers, and the founding of the Republic of Turkey.
The literature of the new republic emerged largely from the pre-independence National Literature movement, with its roots simultaneously in the Turkish folk tradition and in the Western notion of progress. One important change to Turkish literature was enacted in 1928, when Mustafa Kemal initiated the creation and dissemination of a modified version of the Latin alphabet to replace the Arabic-based Ottoman script. Over time, this changeâÂÂtogether with changes in Turkey's system of educationâÂÂwould lead to more widespread literacy in the country.
Stylistically, the prose of the early years of the Republic of Turkey was essentially a continuation of the National Literature movement, with Realism and Naturalism predominating. This trend culminated in the 1932 novel Yaban ("The Wilds"), by Yakup Kadri KaraosmanoÃÂlu. This novel can be seen as the precursor to two trends that would soon develop: social realism, and the "village novel" (köy romanñ). ÃÂalñkuà Âu ("The Wren") by Reà Âat Nuri Güntekin addresses a similar theme with the works of KaraosmanoÃÂlu. Güntekin's narrative has a detailed and precise style, with a realistic tone.
The social realist movement is perhaps best represented by the short-story writer Sait Faik Abasñyanñk (1906âÂÂ1954), whose work sensitively and realistically treats the lives of cosmopolitan Istanbul's lower classes and ethnic minorities, subjects which led to some criticism in the contemporary nationalistic atmosphere. The tradition of the "village novel", on the other hand, arose somewhat later. As its name suggests, the "village novel" deals, in a generally realistic manner, with life in the villages and small towns of Turkey. The major writers in this tradition are Kemal Tahir (1910âÂÂ1973), Orhan Kemal (1914âÂÂ1970), and Yaà Âar Kemal (1923[?]âÂÂ2015). Yaà Âar Kemal, in particular, has earned fame outside of Turkey not only for his novelsâÂÂmany of which, such as 1955's ðnce Memed (Memed, My Hawk), elevate local tales to the level of epicâÂÂbut also for his firmly leftist political stance. In a very different tradition, but evincing a similar strong political viewpoint, was the satirical short-story writer Aziz Nesin (1915âÂÂ1995) and Rñfat Ilgaz (1911âÂÂ1993).
Another novelist contemporary to, but outside of, the social realist and "village novel" traditions is Ahmet Hamdi Tanpñnar (1901âÂÂ1962). In addition to being an important essayist and poet, Tanpñnar wrote a number of novelsâÂÂsuch as Huzur ("A Mind at Peace", 1949) and Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü ("The Time Regulation Institute", 1961)âÂÂwhich dramatize the clash between East and West in modern Turkish culture and society. Similar problems are explored by the novelist and short-story writer OÃÂuz Atay (1934âÂÂ1977). Unlike Tanpñnar, however, AtayâÂÂin such works as his long novel Tutunamayanlar ("The Good for Nothing", 1971âÂÂ1972) and his short story "Beyaz Mantolu Adam" ("Man in a White Coat", 1975)âÂÂwrote in a more modernist and existentialist vein. On the other hand, Onat Kutlar's ðshak ("Isaac", 1959), composed of nine short stories which are written mainly from a child's point of view and are often surrealistic and mystical, represent a very early example of magic realism.
The tradition of literary modernism also informs the work of female novelist Adalet AÃÂaoÃÂlu (1929â ). Her trilogy of novels collectively entitled Dar Zamanlar ("Tight Times", 1973âÂÂ1987), for instance, examines the changes that occurred in Turkish society between the 1930s and the 1980s in a formally and technically innovative style. Orhan Pamuk (1952â ), winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, is another such innovative novelist, though his worksâÂÂsuch as 1990's Beyaz Kale ("The White Castle") and Kara Kitap ("The Black Book") and 1998's Benim Adñm Kñrmñzñ ("My Name is Red")âÂÂare influenced more by postmodernism than by modernism. This is true also of Latife Tekin (1957â ), whose first novel Sevgili Arsñz ÃÂlüm ("Dear Shameless Death", 1983) shows the influence not only of postmodernism, but also of magic realism. Elif à Âafak has been one of the most outstanding authors of Turkish literature which has new tendencies in language and theme in 2000s. à Âafak was distinguished first by her use of extensive vocabulary and then became one of the pioneers in Turkish literature in international scope as a bilingual author who writes both in Turkish and in English.
A recent study by Can and Patton provides a quantitative analysis of twentieth century Turkish literature using forty novels of forty authors ranging from Mehmet Rauf's (1875âÂÂ1931) Eylül (1901) to Ahmet Altan's (1950âÂÂ) Kñlñç Yarasñ Gibi (1998). They show using statistical analysis that, as time passes, words, in terms of both tokens (in text) and types (in vocabulary), have become longer. They indicate that the increase in word lengths with time can be attributed to the government-initiated language reform of the 20th century. This reform aimed at replacing foreign words used in Turkish, especially Arabic- and Persian-based words (since they were in majority when the reform was initiated in the early 1930s), with newly coined pure Turkish neologisms created by adding suffixes to Turkish word stems. Can and Patton; based on their observations of the change of a specific word use (more specifically in newer works the preference of "ama" over "fakat", both borrowed from Arabic and meaning 'but', and their inverse usage correlation is statistically significant); also speculate that the word length increase can influence the common word choice preferences of authors.
In the early years of the Republic of Turkey, there were a number of poetic trends. Authors such as Ahmed Hâà Âim and Yahyâ Kemâl Beyatlñ (1884âÂÂ1958) continued to write important formal verse whose language was, to a great extent, a continuation of the late Ottoman tradition. By far the majority of the poetry of the time, however, was in the tradition of the folk-inspired "syllabist" movement (Beà  Hececiler), which had emerged from the National Literature movement and which tended to express patriotic themes couched in the syllabic meter associated with Turkish folk poetry.
The first radical step away from this trend was taken by Nâzñm Hikmet Ran, whoâÂÂduring his time as a student in the Soviet Union from 1921 to 1924âÂÂwas exposed to the modernist poetry of Vladimir Mayakovsky and others, which inspired him to start writing verse in a less formal style. At this time, he wrote the poem "Açlarñn Gözbebekleri" ("Pupils of the Hungry"), which introduced free verse into the Turkish language for, essentially, the first time. Much of Nâzñm Hikmet's poetry subsequent to this breakthrough would continue to be written in free verse, though his work exerted little influence for some time due largely to censorship of his work owing to his Communist political stance, which also led to his spending several years in prison. Over time, in such books as Simavne Kadñsñ OÃÂlu à Âeyh Bedreddin Destanñ ("The Epic of Shaykh Bedreddin, Son of Judge Simavne", 1936) and Memleketimden ðnsan Manzaralarñ ("Human Landscapes from My Country", 1939), he developed a voice simultaneously proclamatory and subtle.
Another revolution in Turkish poetry came about in 1941 with the publication of a small volume of verse preceded by an essay and entitled Garip ("Strange"). The authors were Orhan Veli Kanñk (1914âÂÂ1950), Melih Cevdet Anday (1915âÂÂ2002), and Oktay Rifat (1914âÂÂ1988). Explicitly opposing themselves to everything that had gone in poetry before, they sought instead to create a popular art, "to explore the people's tastes, to determine them, and to make them reign supreme over art". To this end, and inspired in part by contemporary French poets like Jacques Prévert, they employed not only a variant of the free verse introduced by Nâzñm Hikmet, but also highly colloquial language, and wrote primarily about mundane daily subjects and the ordinary man on the street. The reaction was immediate and polarized: most of the academic establishment and older poets vilified them, while much of the Turkish population embraced them wholeheartedly. Though the movement itself lasted only ten yearsâÂÂuntil Orhan Veli's death in 1950, after which Melih Cevdet Anday and Oktay Rifat moved on to other stylesâÂÂits effect on Turkish poetry continues to be felt today.
Just as the Garip movement was a reaction against earlier poetry, soâÂÂin the 1950s and afterwardsâÂÂwas there a reaction against the Garip movement. The poets of this movement, soon known as ðkinci Yeni ("Second New",) opposed themselves to the social aspects prevalent in the poetry of Nâzñm Hikmet and the Garip poets, and insteadâÂÂpartly inspired by the disruption of language in such Western movements as Dada and SurrealismâÂÂsought to create a more abstract poetry through the use of jarring and unexpected language, complex images, and the association of ideas. To some extent, the movement can be seen as bearing some of the characteristics of postmodern literature. The most well-known poets writing in the "Second New" vein were Turgut Uyar (1927âÂÂ1985), Edip Cansever (1928âÂÂ1986), Cemal Süreya (1931âÂÂ1990), Ece Ayhan (1931âÂÂ2002), Sezai Karakoç (1933â ), ðlhan Berk (1918âÂÂ2008).
Outside of the Garip and "Second New" movements also, a number of significant poets have flourished, such as Fazñl Hüsnü DaÃÂlarca (1914âÂÂ2008), who wrote poems dealing with fundamental concepts like life, death, God, time, and the cosmos; Behçet Necatigil (1916âÂÂ1979), whose somewhat allegorical poems explore the significance of middle-class daily life; Can Yücel (1926âÂÂ1999), whoâÂÂin addition to his own highly colloquial and varied poetryâÂÂwas also a translator into Turkish of a variety of world literature; ðsmet ÃÂzel (1944â ), whose early poetry was highly leftist but whose poetry since the 1970s has shown a strong mystical and even Islamist influence; and Hasan Hüseyin Korkmazgil (1927âÂÂ1984) who wrote collectivist-realist poetry.
30,000 new titles appear yearly, often in small numbers. 9 verso 17 Euro (pro pocket book/hardcover) â at an average earning of less than 600 Euro monthly â are rather unattractive, where illegal copies at bazaars cost two-thirds less. "Official Certificates" for legally published books do not solve the problem, because controlling the illegal book trade remains difficult.
5,000 of 10,000 book shops in Turkey are in Istanbul, including the bookfair and growing licence trading. Turkey was a guest of honour at the Frankfurt Bookfair in 2008.
*Alpamysh, Hasan Bülent Paksoy