“Sergüzeşt-i Ali Bey Yahut Sergüzeşt-i Âli-i Osman” Siyasi Bir Roman Olarak İntibah
İromanı, Namık Kemal’in sürgün yıllarında kaleme aldığı ilk yerli roman denemesidir. Namık Kemal, bu romanına konu olarak bütün eserlerinin aksine bir aşk hikâyesi seçmiştir. İnceleme ve edebî eserlerinde tarihî ve siyasi konuları benimseyen Namık Kemal’in bu eserine de siyasi bir zemin oluşturmuş olması ihtimali bu çalışmanın ana çıkış noktasıdır. Buradan hareketle İntibah/uyanış romanı Ali Bey’in hayat karşısında; Ali-i Osman’ın yüzleştiği yeni medeniyet dairesi karşısında uyanışı olarak düşünülmüştür. Romandaki bütün unsurlar Osmanlı tarihinin o dönemki siyasi zemini bağlamında değerlendirilmiştir. Namık Kemal, İntibah romanını Türk dilinin roman yazmaya istidadını ölçmek için yazdığını belirtmiştir. Her ne kadar yazarın eseri yazma amacında belirtmiş olmasa da bu çalışmada Tanzimat aydının aşinası olduğu temsiller/semboller vasıtasıyla eser yazdığı varsayılarak bir bakış açısı geliştirilmiştir. Eserin tamamına aynı bakış açısı ile yaklaşıldığında bütün kurgu unsurlarının çelişkiye düşülmeksizin yerli yerine oturduğu gözlemlenmiştir. Bu türlü okuma romanın anlam yükünü ağırlaştırmakta ve bir misyon romanı hâine getirmektedir.
“Sergüzeşt-i Ali Bey Yahut Sergüzeşt-i Âli-i Osman” Intibah as Political Fiction
Intibah (Awakening), the first novel written by Namık Kemal during his exile, is a love story and a romance contrary to his previous works. This study explores Kemal’s underlying appetite for political change as revealed in the historical and political subjects commonly used in his memoirs and literary works. From this perspective, Intibah reflects the awakening of Ali Bey toward life and Ali-i Osman toward a new civilization. The novel’s political elements occur within a framework of Ottoman history during Kemal’s life. Namık Kemal stated that he wrote Intibah to measure the disposition of Turkish language toward novel writing. This study explores the idea that a new perspective developed, assuming Kemal wrote the novel using representations/symbols familiar to Tanzimat intellectuals, even though he did not explicitly state this purpose in his writing. When the novel is approached from this viewpoint, the fictional elements fall into place without discrepancy. Such reading expands the attributed meaning of the novel to make it a mission novel.
The powerful military and economic might of the Ottoman Empire brought together an irrepressible arrogance against the West. The Ottomans believed the West could never prevail against them. This pride prevented the sultan from understanding the looming threat on the horizon, which would grow slowly and eventually leave him incapacitated. The frivolous precautions taken once the danger was implicit were not enough to keep the country from dire straits. Intellectuals looked to the press and literature as the most effective way to raise public awareness. They realized that the type of literature or genre would be essential to gaining public interest and understanding. The novel, the most influential literary genre on this subject in the West, was also attractive to Turkish intellectuals. Novels became increasingly common after the first trials, which were previously naive and unsubstantial.
In this study, political references and allusions in Namık Kemal’s novel, Intibah, were analyzed within the framework of Ottoman history. Kemal’s previous works contained historical and political themes. Many critics were amazed by the thematic change of Intibah, an ordinary love story, and Namık Kemal’s first attempt at novel writing. Although the novel’s inspiration lies in similar examples in western and Turkish folk stories, the fact that Namık Kemal chose a melodrama was quite a departure from the subject areas of all his other previous works. Another starting point was the assessment of the palace analogy, a significant determination of Tanpınar. The palace and the sultans were traditional centers of literature and all life, around which everything revolved and the focus of all representations. Everything, including literature focused on the sultan and directed all his similitudes to him. Namık Kemal likely wrote with this mentality when he wrote Intibah.
The highly debatable spring depiction at the beginning of the novel represents the beginning of all these representations and is a metaphor for the prosperity and glory of the period of the foundation and ascension of the Ottomans. The novel’s protagonist represents the Ottoman State, namely the Ottoman State authority, based on the interesting similarity in the name of Sir Ali. The novel Intibah (renaissance) represents the revival of the State of Osman to Western civilization. The dilemma between the two civilizations, society and the state after the Ottomans met the West, was observed in all institutions and structures of the period. Ali experiences the same dilemma and conflict, caught between Mahpeyker, representing the West, and Dilasub, representing Eastern civilization. After the spring depiction at the novel’s beginning, Ali is introduced with emphasis on his strength and preciousness, representative of a prince. However, the disappearance of the real, powerful, and wise authority that ruled him and his family is absent, leaving Ali, in the position as the new authority, vulnerable to his new and alien life with his frailties and weaknesses. This predicament necessitated the sharing of authority. The mother, Mr. Mesut and Mr. Atıf, who appear as the intellectual representation in the novel, assume the duty of guiding authority.
Throughout his entire life, Namık Kemal was known for prioritizing nationalist and moral values. According to him, the only power that will enable us to stand up to Western civilization and raise up the state, the wounded lion, is the ore that exists within us and glorified us once before. This ore is woven from moral, religious, and customary values and is dormant in our conscience, folk conscience, and literature. In the novel, the symbol of this ore is Dilaşub. She is wise, moral, obedient (obedient to state as a whole), abstemious, respectable, and honest. At the end of the novel, she is stabbed in the heart because Dilaşub represents both the emotional side of the East and the ore at the heart of civilization. Likewise, Mahpeyker, who represents the West, known for its rational side, is daggered from her brain. One of the most important aspects of the novel that brings to mind a politically-layered reading is the negative emphasis on the nationalities of the two characters. They are Abdullah, who is an Arab, and a Croatian man. In partnership with Mahpeyker who symbolizes the West, these men prepare the end of Ali who represents the Ottoman State. They cannot kill it, but they destroy the ore inside, making it unable to stand again by striking a blow.
