Cumhuriyet’in İkinci Yüzyılında Klasik Türk Edebiyatı Araştırmalarının Geleceği: Meseleler, Konular, Vazifeler
Mücahit KaçarTürkiye Cumhuriyeti’nin kuruluşunun yüzüncü yılı kutlamaları bağlamında, farklı disiplinlerden araştırmacıların geçen yüzyılda kendi uzmanlık alanlarıyla ilgili çalışmaları değerlendirdikleri, bunlardan hareketle sonraki süreçte nelerin yapılması gerektiği konusunda biraz da muhasebe türünden çalışmalar kaleme aldıkları görülmektedir. Bu çalışmada da gelecekte klasik edebiyat araştırmacılarını bekleyen muhtemel araştırma konularına ve meselelerine değinilerek bu alanda yapılacak işlere, ele alınması gereken problemlere, tamamlanacak eksikliklere ve düzeltilecek yanlışlıklara işaret edilecektir. Çalışmanın ilk bölümünde klasik edebiyat araştırmacılarının sahip olması gereken nitelikler, edebiyat tarihi yazımıyla ilgili meseleler, nüsha tespiti ve metin neşri, diliçi çeviri, metin inceleme ve bağlamsal sözlük çalışmaları ele alınmıştır. İkinci bölümde ise “Tematik Çalışmalar” başlığı altında poetik ve estetik meseleler, tasavvufî edebiyat, edebî tarz, üslup ve eda, Osmanlı tercüme geleneği, Türkçenin belâgati, edebî himaye ve kitap kültürü, mukayeseli çalışmalar, edebî türleri tespit ve tasnif meselesi ile Çağatay Türkçesi metinleri üzerine yapılacak çalışmalarla ilgili tespitler ve öneriler sunulmaktadır. Çalışmanın sonunda ise klasik Türk edebiyatı araştırmacılarının teknolojik gelişmelere ayak uydurarak dijital çalışmalara yönelmesi gerektiğine işaret edilmiştir. Ele alınan meselelerde doğrudan problemin kaynağına işaret etmek ve araştırmacıların dikkatini söz konusu hususla ilgili tespit ve önerilere çekmek amacıyla ana metinde konunun tartışılması ve kaynakların sunulmasından kaçınılmış, dipnotlarda ise önerilere uygun örnek çalışmalara işaret edilmiştir.
The Future of Classical Turkish Literature Studies in the Second Century of the Republic of Türkiye: Issues, Topics, and Duties
Mücahit KaçarIn the context of the centenary celebrations of the founding of the Republic of Türkiye, researchers from different disciplines are seen to have evaluated studies related to their fields of expertise over the last century and to have written some accounting-type studies on what should be done in the future based on these. This study will touch on the possible research topics and issues that await classical literature researchers in the next century and point out the problems that need to be addressed in this field, the deficiencies to be filled, the mistakes to be corrected, and the work to be done. The study presents findings and suggestions on the following topics: The qualifications classical literature researchers should have, text identification and publication, intralingual translation, text analysis, the use of dictionaries in text commentaries, Turkish rhetoric, Sufi literature, literary genres, poetic studies, the Ottoman translation tradition, comparative studies, Chagatai Turkish texts, literary patronage, book culture and the importance of digital studies. The main text has avoided discussion of the subject and presentation of sources and pointed out sample studies suitable for suggestions in footnotes in order to directly point to the source of the problem regarding the issues being discussed and to draw researchers’ attention to findings and suggestions regarding these issues.
Within the scope of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Türkiye, studies are seen to have been carried out to evaluate the work that has been done or not done in almost every field over the last hundred years through many events and activities. This article has been written for classical literature researchers, at least for emerging researchers, and the article’s purpose is to make general recommendations as simply and clearly as possible regarding the problems that need to be solved and the work that needs to be done in the field of classical literature in order to write a complete and accurate history of Turkish literature.
Important texts in Turkish literature were largely published in the first 100 years of the Republic. However, especially since 2000 in the last quarter of the first 100 years of the Republic, digital images and copy information on the works in domestic and foreign libraries are seen to have been made available to readers through the rapid developments in technology. After pointing out the tasks awaiting classical literature researchers regarding text publication in the second century of the Republic, this article can summarize its suggestions on this issue as follows: Many valuable works can be identified when the works themselves are regularly and persistently reviewed instead of the catalogues of the works whose digital images are easily accessible in manuscript libraries. Special readings should be made to identify texts based on studies on the lives and works of authors whose works have been previously published or based on bibliographic sources, and the texts should be pursued based on regularly recorded notes. While publishing previously published works that are important for Turkish literature with newly found copies is important, so is publishing them with a good linguistic translation and analysis. Correctly reading a text that is to be published for the first time, connecting it to its related field, and examining it thoroughly are more important than knowing whether it is in verse or prose or how important it is for Turkish literature.
As mentioned above, the texts to be published in the second century of the Republic need to be handled with intralingual translations and analysis. Likewise, reexamining the texts that had been published in the first century but that were not translated into other languages or properly examined should be pointed at as being valuable, and just as valuable as works on this subject.
From one of Türkiye’s first text commentary teachers Ali Nihad Tarlan to those in the present day, classical literature researchers have given particular importance to the commentaries of ghazals to close this gap and to making the Ottoman poetry world understood by new generations. In this respect, although considerable new and current commentary literature has emerged, they have certain problems. To fully understand the odes and ghazals written in a language consisting of words with more than one meaning and connotation, the meanings of these words that have fallen out of use over time need to be known. The fact that some polysemous words used in classical Turkish literature are frequently used with a single meaning today causes the meanings and dreams in poems based on their different meanings to be incomprehensible today. Terms from different branches of science were used in the Ottoman poetry tradition, as well as references to information that would be possible by knowing these scientific branches. Turkish poets of the past had created a rich poetic language filled with connotations by referring to the meaning of a word as a term when the words used in daily life had been used as terms in a branch of science. In this case, to understand the poetry texts discussed in modern commentary studies, basic books on the branches of science that have fed classical Turkish poetry should be consulted, and researchers should conduct studies on how the terms and information contained in these branches of science have been used in classical poetry.
One should note that classical literature research in the first century of the Republic had been generally based on text publications. These mostly involved the publication of verse texts always occupying a more important place than prose texts in the minds of researchers, and classical Turkish prose works, both large and small, are also in our libraries waiting to be published. These texts must be published and analyzed correctly rather than worrying what they are about.
Up to this point, the article is believed to have sufficiently touched upon the work that needs to be done in the field of text publication in the second century of the Republic. The next section of the article will focus on the need for classical literature researchers to continue their work on text publication within the framework mentioned here into the next century by carrying out more thematic studies. This means making detailed studies on the rhetoric of Turkish, the Sufi literature, the literary genres, poetics, the Ottoman translation tradition, comparative studies, the Chagatai Turkish texts, literary patronage, and written culture.
As can be seen in this article, which has pointed out some of the requirements for a complete and accurate presentation of the history of Turkish Literature, the duties that classical literature researchers must perform in the next century can be summarized as follows: Find and publish works that are mentioned in Turkish historical sources that have no available copies, and publish the works whose copies are available. Publish complete and intact texts with their intralingual translations through other copies. Try to determine the truth without repeating any of the incorrect information that was recorded in the early periods when Turkish literary history was written. Accurately determine the scope of the literature in a field by reading and annotating published classical Turkish texts correctly. Determine data about the different fields in these texts. Lastly, make more accurate determinations and comments about Turkish poets and writers and the periods in which they lived based on both their works as well as on information from different sources.
