User:Gokcenurgokce/Novel in the Turkish Literature

Novel in Turkish literature is a type of writing that emerged in the 19th century. The novel entered Turkish literature as a part of the westernization process that started with the Tanzimat, and the first Turkish examples, especially those from French literature, were observed in translated works. Although Şemseddin Sâmi's Taaşşuk-ı Talat ve Fitnat is often called the "first Turkish novel", there are other novels written before. The first Ottoman novels, which were influenced by the French romanticism movement and mainly dealt with the subjects of love and "false westernization", were generally quite weak and the characters were superficially processed and produced caricature-like types. Novel, as a genre, started to develop in the period of Servet-i Fünûn.

The first novels of the Republic period formed the nationalism movement, and were followed by "village novel". With the growing leftist tendencies after 1960 socialist novels began to be written. The influence of the realist movement lasted until the 1980 Turkish coup d'état. The post-coup intellectual stagnation continued for a long time, but more original novels began to emerge in the 1990s.

Translated Works
As a part of the westernization process that started with the Tanzimat, the novel entered Turkish literature not as a natural result of cultural accumulation, but as a kind of import of art. The emergence of the novel as a genre in Turkish literature was with Terceme-i Telemak, a translation of Fenelon's Telemak which was made by Yusuf Kamil Pasha from its Arabic translation. Later, an unknown translator translated the famous novel Les Misérables (The Miserables) by Victor Hugo. The influence of French novel comes to the fore since the Ottoman Empire was in close politcal and cultural relations with France in this period. As a matter of fact, the word novel passed directly from French to Turkish. Thus, translations and adaptations of French novels were read for a while and the groundwork was prepared for the writing of similar examples. Especially the period between 1860 and1880 was the time of intensive translations were made.

First Turkish Works
Published serialized in a journal between the years 1872-1873, and published as a book in 1975, but this characterization is controversial. It was named as the first Turkish novel in Hayal-i Celâl, which was published by Recaizade Mahmud Ekrem's older brother Recaizade Mehmet Celâl between 1873 and 1874. In support of this idea, the fact that the novel was not serialized unlike Taaşşuk-ı Talat ve Fitnat, that it was the first example in which the author described his work as a novel, and that it was published as a book before Taaşşuk-ı Talat ve Fitnat is shown. On the other hand, Taaşşuk-ı Talat ve Fitnat are closer to Western novels in terms of their characteristics.

In addition, there are older works written in the Turkish language by the minorities living in the Ottoman Empire, but in which minority alphabets were used instead of the Arabic letters used to write Turkish in the Ottoman Empire. Akabi Story, written by Vartan Pasha in 1851 in Turkish in Armenian letters, was written about 20 years earlier than Şemseddin Sâmi's work and is classified as the "first Turkish novel" (and "first Armenian novel") by some scholars. Similarly, Temaşa-i Dünya ve Cefakar u Cefakeş, written in Greek letters in 1871 by Misailidis Efendi using Karamanlı Turkish, the language of Karamanlis/Cappadocia Greeks speaking Anatolian Turkish, is another novel published before Taaşşuk-ı Talat ve Fitnat.

The first novels written by Ottoman authors are generally quite weak. The fact that the novel is taken from the west as a genre has a great share in this. Turkish writers, who do not have this kind of prose tradition, remained superficial about creating characters and created caricature-like types. The first novels written can be seen as imitations of western examples, sometimes almost exactly. These early period writers mostly took the French Romanticism as an example. These early period writers mostly took the French Romanticism as an example. According to Taner Timur, one of the primary reasons for this is the Naturalism movement, which was influential in the French novel in this period, and the novels written in line with this trend tended to reflect the most corrupt and worst form of society. For this reason, the Ottomans did not like the stories told in these novels and did not consider them appropriate. Instead of the pessimistic determinism of writers like Émile Zola, they preferred topics that appealed more to the changing Ottoman society of the period. This situation is mentioned in Taner Timur's quote from Ahmet Mithat Efendi: "If we look at the natural novelists of this time, it would seem that there should not be any trace of the humane virtues in the world, especially in the part of the world called France, and especially in the part of France called Paris." For this reason, romantic love and false westernization come to the fore as the main themes in the novels of the period. Some notable novels of the period are: Recaizade Mahmut Ekrem's Araba Sevdası (1896), Namık Kemal's İntibah (1878), and Ahmet Mithat Efendi's Felatun Bey'le Rakım Efendi (1875).

Ahmet Mithat Efendi's novel Yeniçeriler (1871) can be considered as the first attempt of historical novel in Turkish literature. The first historical Turkish novel in the western sense is Namık Kemal's Cezmi, one of the writers of Tanzimat Literature. It was first published in 1880. The novel is the first historical novel of Turkish literature. Although it is written at the end of the novel that it is the end of volume 1, the book does not have a second volume.

In the period of Servet-i Fünûn literature, the first master novels and master writers showed themselves. These writers, who defended the thesis that "art is for art", covered topics such as love and pity. Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil is considered the most important novelist of this period. Uşaklıgil's novel Aşk-ı Memnu (1925) is still considered one of the most successful Turkish novels today.

After 1910, with the predominance of national feelings, the Turkism movement developed around Genç Kalemler magazine. The writing of national novels began in this period. Halide Edip Adıvar's Vurun Kahpeye and Reşat Nuri Güntekin's Çalıkuşu are examples of this period.

Republican Period
The first novels of the Republican period formed the nationalism movement. These first examples of novels, mostly about the Turkish War of Independence, were followed by the "village novel" with the influence of the national modernization movement. After 1960, with the increase of leftist tendencies, socialist novels began to be written. The effect of the realistic movement continued until the September 12 Coup. The effect of intellectual stagnation continued for a long time after 1980, but in the 1990s more original novels began to emerge.