Millî Mücadele’den Millî Kimlik İnşasına: Ateşten Gömlek
Millî Mücadele, Türk milletinin, büyük ve güçlü devletler karşısında her türlü yokluk, sıkıntı ve imkânsızlık ile daha önce geçmişte benzeri görülmemiş fedakârlığının ve zaferinin adıdır. Sınırları belirlenmiş vatan topraklarında yaşayan bir insan topluluğunun “millet” vasfını kazanabilmesi için ortak bir kültürü, tarihi/ geçmişi, geleneği ve ülkeyi paylaşmaları gerekir. Aynı toprak parçasında yaşayan insanların millî kimliğini oluşturan unsurlardan en fazla önem arz edeni “vatan” kavramıdır. Bunun için vatan sınırları içerisinde yaşayan insanların toprağa, millete ve bayrağa olan sadakatlerini güçlendirmek, zamanı geldiğinde sahibi olduğu vatan topraklarının engin bir cesaret ve inançla savunmasını yapacak bireyler yetiştirmek için millî kimlik bilincinin gelecek nesillere kazandırılması gerekir. Bir topluluğun mensubu olan bireylere millî kimlik kazandırmak için kullanılan en önemli araçlardan biri ise edebiyattır. Millî Mücadele döneminde köylü-şehirli, memur-aydın, çocuk-yaşlı ve kadın-erkek fark etmeksizin bağımsızlık savaşı için emek sarf eden kişiler vardır. Bunlardan birisi de topluma millet vasfı kazandırmak için edebiyatı kullanan, vatanın kurtuluşunun ve milletin istiklâlinin temini için mücadele veren, cesur ve inançlı bir Türk kadını olan Halide Edib Adıvar’dır. Adıvar’ın Ateşten Gömlek isimli romanı Türk ruhunun yeniden alevlendirilmesi ve millî kimlik inşası oluşturması açısından Türk edebiyatı için önemli bir rol oynamaktadır. Dolayısıyla çalışmada, savaşı cephede bütün acılarıyla yaşamış biri olarak Adıvar’ın kaleme almış olduğu ve Kurtuluş Savaşı romanlarının ilki olan Ateşten Gömlek, millî kimlik inşası bağlamında irdelenmiş ve roman kişilerinden yola çıkılarak incelenmiştir.
From National Struggle to National Identity Construction: Ateşten Gömlek
National Struggle is the name given to the Turkish nation's sacrifice and triumph, a struggle the like of which which had never been seen before, with all manner of poverty, distress and impossibility against big and powerful states. In order for a community of people living within the borders of their homeland to be qualified as a nation, they must share a common culture, history, tradition and country. The most important factor that constitutes the national identity of the people living in the same land is the concept of “homeland”. In order to strengthen the loyalty of the people living within the borders of the homeland to the land, nation and flag, and to raise individuals who will defend their home territory with great courage and faith when the time comes, the awareness of national identity must be transferred to future generations. Literature is one of the most important tools used to give national identity to individuals belonging to a community. In the period of the National Struggle, there were people who worked for the war of independence regardless of whether they were peasants or city dwellers, civil servants or intellectuals, children or elderly, women or men. One of these is Halide Edib Adıvar, a brave and faithful Turkish woman who used literature to give society the character of a nation, and to impart awareness of the struggles for the liberation of the homeland and the independence of the nation. Adivar's novel, Ateşten Gömlek, plays an important role in Turkish literature in terms of re-igniting the Turkish spirit and building national identity. Therefore, in this study, Adivar, who experienced the war with all its pain on the front, and the first of her War of Independence novels, Ateşten Gömlek, are examined in the context of the construction of national identity.
National identity includes the common value judgments of a nation as well as finding one’s roots and supporting the nation’s struggle to exist. Therefore, national identity is needed for the formation of national consciousness. The highest identity on the social ground is national identity. Our national identity, like our gender, is natural. Although we do not have a chance to choose it later, it is possible that we voluntarily become citizens of another country. But this is not national identity, but citizenship identity. Therefore, people are born as members of a nation. Turkish parents are born from Turkish parents, Arab parents are born from Arab. Therefore, it is not wrong to say that the first element constituting national identity is the parents. Even though there are interventions, our parents, who gave birth to us belong to a certain nation.1 Within a rapidly changing world, it is possible for individuals to survive in a comfortable and peaceful manner within their own states or societies without falling into the search for identity, but only through the state administration and awareness-raising policies which follow a traditional social structure. Such awareness-raising movements are sometimes made by calling for political law, sometimes by means of ideology and ideological devices, but often all together in cases where the historical and political situation is not suitable for the ideal type. Thus, the construction of national identity, in which ”we” is made more evident against the “others” and individuals become more conservative, is started.2 While a mass devoid of national identity consciousness cannot go beyond the community, those who have this consciousness have gained the qualification of being a nation. Thus, the love, respect and loyalty of individuals to the homeland and the flag is strengthened.
It is possible to extend the mental limits of a nation and to give its people identity through cultural identities to be imposed on individuals. At this point, the greatest role falls to literature. A person embraces the nation by embracing the common ties with other members of the society he/she is a member of, and is strengthened by the stories formed by the literature that is seen as a mirror of the society. Thus, thanks to fictional works, an environment where readers can evaluate themselves without being subjected to any social pressure is created. The reader begins to see his/her environmen,t, and therefore the world, through the eyes of fictional heroes, and starts to hear his/her own life story. As he/she gets to know the fictional hero, he/she detects the similarities and differences between that hero and him/herself. So he/ she identifies him/herself with the hero or with others.3 In the light of this, Halide Edib Adıvar tries in her works to transfer to future generations the problematic process that the Turkish people have experienced by means of fictional heroes created by starting from real people. For this reason, the heroes of the author, both in her stories and in her novels, are of great importance in terms of contributing to the national conscience of future generations. Halide Edib, when we consider her childhood, learnt national and religious culture at home through private teachers and became the first Muslim Turkish student of the American Girls College. The solid culture she received from home gave her a comparative mentality, and she was never affected by the various cultures she later encountered. She did not feel inferior in the face of the superior powers that came before her because of her comparative mind structure. As a person who always knew the values of her nation and the courage to defend them, she has been revered both in Turkey and abroad.
What makes Halide Edib such a great author is that she is able to express and write her thoughts clearly. For this reason she has frequently been mentioned since the 1910’s. Halide Edib has participated in many associations’ activities, especially in Turkish Quarries, and has given conferences. From May 1919 to January 1920, she gave speeches at the Istanbul Rallies, especially the Sultanahmet Rally, under threat, and went to Anatolia to join the National Struggle.5 (Argunşah) As a result, people who lead society by leading the public, especially through fictional works, heroic fighting against the enemy to defend the nation, exhibit their attitude towards everyone around the country and are full of love; by transferring the heroes who do not hesitate to take lives and take lives for the sake of their values with a great national consciousness to the next generations, they became an example for the generations that come after them to gain a national consciousness, thus forming the new / modern human types of the period. Halide Edib shaped the heroes she created in her fictional works in this direction and influenced her readers with the same understanding in terms of the construction of national identity.
