Faces of Republican Turkey: Beyond the Modernization Hypothesis

EnglishTürkçe

BÖLÜM


DOI :10.26650/B/SS30.2020.004.02   IUP :10.26650/B/SS30.2020.004.02    Tam Metin (PDF)

Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu and The Republican Imagination: the Novels Yaban and Ankara

Mehmet Arısan

The paper deals with a particular literary representation of the republican transformation in Turkey that mainly focuses on its first decades. Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu can be defined as one of the most ardent supporters of Turkish Republicanism, however his literary narrative is by no means in clear support for it. For the most part, it gives away the contradictory and self-negating aspects of Turkish (Kemalist) Republican discourse that claims to be a thoroughly modernist one. In the novels that he wrote about the war of independence and the foundation of the new republic, he surprisingly reflects a sense of radical disappointment rather than a sense of glory. It is a narrative of “complaint, frustration and discontent” rather than a celebration of Turkish republicanism and nationalism. As it can be discerned from a careful analysis of his novels, what marks this frustration and discontent is a strong desire for a somewhat transcendental and all-encompassing power, which he could never define or name properly.

Being accepted as an intellectual and political forerunner of the Turkish Republican transformation as well as being a leading figure of the secular western oriented modernizing elite, his elusiveness in articulating a proper and well-defined modern nationalist identity and a clear republican-revolutionary ideology marks Yakup Kadri Karaosmaoğlu as one of the most significant examples in detecting the internal paradoxes and vague points in the making of a modern nationalist identity. Furthermore his narrative constitutes a very good example of how the western oriented intelligentsia at the time of the demise of the Ottoman Empire and the early republican era was haunted by the fantasy of an imperial glory. This may well be related to a transcendental and all-encompassing perception of political power, which can be defined as the most enduring and effective remains of the Imperial imagination that still continues to haunt the Turkish “Republic” in various ways. 


Anahtar Kelimeler: Kemalism, Turkey, Modernization, Yakup Kadri Karaosmaoğlu, Yaban, Ankara, Alienation, Negation.

Referanslar

  • Akı, N. (2001). Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoglu, İstanbul: İletişim Publications. Ayvazoğlu, B. “Osmanlı’dan Cumhuriyete Geçerken Türk Aydınları”, In Türk Aydını ve Kimlik Sorunu, ed. Sabahattin Şen, 289-294. Istanbul: Bağlam, 1995, p.292. google scholar
  • Berkes, N. (1998). The Development of Secularism in Turkey, London & New York: Routledge. google scholar
  • Berktay, F. (2002) Doğu ile Batının Birleştiği Yer: Kadın İmgesinin Kurgulanışı. In Modern Türkiye’de Siyasi Düşünce, Vol.3:Modernleşme ve Batıcılık, ed. Tanıl Bora and Murat Gültekingil, 275-284. Istanbul: İletişim. google scholar
  • Çeçen, A. (1990). Halkevleri, [The People’s Houses], Ankara: Gündoğan Yayınları. google scholar
  • Coşkun, Z. (2003).‘Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu, ‘Yaban’, ‘Ankara’ and ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’. In (ed.) Türk Romanında Kurtuluş Savaşı, ed. M. Balabanlılar, 94-113. Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları. google scholar
  • Kaplan, R. (1997). Cumhuriyet Dönemi Türk Romanında Köy, Ankara: Akçağ Yayınları google scholar
  • Karaosmanoğlu, Y. K. (1998). Yaban, İstanbul: İletişim, (First Published in 1932, Muallim Ahmet Halit Kütüphanesi). google scholar
  • Karaosmanoğlu, Y. K. (1983), Ankara, İstanbul: İletişim. (First Published in 1934, Ankara: Akba) google scholar
  • Karaömerlioğlu, A. (1999).‘The People’s Houses and the Cult of Peasantry in Turkey’ In Turkey Before and After Ataturk, Internal and External Affairs, ed. S. Kedourie, London: Frank Cass Publishers. google scholar
  • Karaömerlioğlu, A. (2001a). Tek Parti Döneminde Halkçılık. In Modern Türkiye‘de Siyasi Düşünce, Vol. 2: Kemalizm, ed. T. Bora and M.Gültekingil, 272-283 İstanbul: İletişim. google scholar
  • Karaömerlioğlu, A. (2001b). Köy Enstitüleri. In Modern Türkiye‘de Siyasi Düşünce, Vol. 2: Kemalism, ed. T. Bora, and M.Gültekingil, 286-293. İstanbul: İletişim. google scholar
  • Lefort, C. (1988). Democracy and Political Theory, Polity Press, 1988. google scholar
  • Moran, B. (1983). Türk Romanına Eleştirel Bakış [A Critical Review of the Turkish Novel], Volume 1, İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları. google scholar
  • Naci, F. (1980) Yakup Kadri’nin Ankarası, Papirus 1, 1980. Özkırımlı, A. (1998), Önsöz. In Yaban, Karaosmanoğlu, Y.K., Istanbul: İletişim google scholar
  • Talay, B. (2001). Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu. In Modern Türkiye‘de Siyasi Düşünce, Vol.2: Kemalizm, ed. T. Bora, and M. Gültekingil, 430-441. İstanbul: İletişim. google scholar
  • Yücel, H.A., (1989), Edebiyat Tarihimizden, İstanbul: İletişim. google scholar


PAYLAŞ




İstanbul Üniversitesi Yayınları, uluslararası yayıncılık standartları ve etiğine uygun olarak, yüksek kalitede bilimsel dergi ve kitapların yayınlanmasıyla giderek artan bilimsel bilginin yayılmasına katkıda bulunmayı amaçlamaktadır. İstanbul Üniversitesi Yayınları açık erişimli, ticari olmayan, bilimsel yayıncılığı takip etmektedir.