Tanzimat Romanının Karakteristiği ve Kültürel Bocalamanın İki Aktörü: Felâtun Bey ve Bihruz Bey
Tanzimat Dönemi, Osmanlı Devletinin yüzünü Batı’ya döndüğü, dolayısıyla yüz yıllardır “öteki” olarak tanımladığı bir dünyaya öykünmeye başladığı dönemin adıdır. Bu öykünmenin doğru anlaşılması, Batılılaşmanın epistemolojik ve ideolojik temellerinin de doğru anlaşılmasına bağlıdır. Bu bağlamda, Batılılaşmayı konu edinen dönem romanlarının da aynı kriterler göz önünde bulundurularak değerlendirilmesi, genelde Türk edebiyatının Batılılaşma serüveninin, özelde de Türk romanının doğuş macerasının doğru anlaşılmasına katkı sağlayacaktır. Ahmet Mithat Efendi’nin Felâtun Bey ile Râkım Efendi romanının kahramanlarından Felâtun Bey ve Recaizade Mahmut Ekrem’in Araba Sevdası romanının kahramanı Bihruz Bey, dönemin psikolojik, ideolojik ve epistemolojik durumunu yansıtan iki kahramandır. Her iki kahraman da öteden beri yanlış Batılılaşmanın temsilcisi olarak ele alınır. Ancak iki kahraman da aynı zamanda yanlış Doğuludurlar. Felâtun Bey ve Bihruz Bey’in en karakteristik özelliği bu iki kültür ve medeniyet dairesinden birine ait olamamalarıdır. Bu gerçeğin arka planında aslında Tanzimat dönemi aydınlarının yaşadığı düalite/ikilem yatmaktadır. Osmanlı kültür ve medeniyet dünyasına doğmak, ötesi bu kültür ve medeniyet dünyasının içinde büyümek ama sonunda kendisinin karşıtı olan bir dünyanın değerlerini benimsemek zorunda kalmak ya da bunu tercih etmek gibi bir durum vardır. Yaptığımız bu çalışmada, söz konusu iki kahramanın yaşadığı kültürel bocalama/düalite dönemin epistemolojik ve psikolojik şartları göz önünde bulundurularak irdelenecektir.
Characteristics of the Tanzimat Novel and Two Actors of Cultural Ambivalence: Felâtun Bey and Bihruz Bey
During the period called Tanzimat, the Ottoman Empire turned its face to the West and began to emulate a world that it had defined as “the other” for hundreds of years. The correct understanding of this emulation depends on an accurate understanding of the epistemological and ideological background of westernization. In this context, evaluating period novels as the product of westernization will contribute to understanding the westernization adventure of Turkish literature in general, and in particular, the advent of the Turkish novel. Felâtun Bey, the protagonist of Ahmet Mithat Efendi's Felâtun Bey ile Râkım Efendi, and Bihruz Bey, the protagonist of Recaizade Mahmut Ekrem's Araba Sevdası, are two heroes who reflect the psychological, ideological, and epistemological status of the period. Both heroes are treated as representatives of false westernization. The most characteristic feature of Felâtun Bey and Bihruz Bey is that they cannot belong to both Turkish and western culture and civilization circles. Behind this fact lies the duality/dilemma of the Tanzimat-era intellectuals. This is the experience of being born into the world of Ottoman culture and civilization. In this study, we will examine the epistemological and psychological conditions of the period in which the two heroes live.
The novels of the Tanzimat period are among the main sources for understanding how Turkish modernization is initially reflected in life and literature. The period novels are also important in terms of understanding the ideological, psychological, and epistemological conditions of their authors. Understanding the attitudes of the writers of the Tanzimat period will contribute to the evaluation of the literature of the period. In addition, it is important to correctly determine the conditions of the Tanzimat period. In Turkish novels, the West is not the genre of thriving through a similar process. There are westernization efforts behind the entry of this genre into our literature. Accordingly, our first novels are not entirely the result of a social reality but are created entirely by imitation. It is important to keep in mind that translations play an important role in the rise of the Turkish novel. Through these translations, the Turkish writer was acquiring information about the genre, in a way beginning to take steps toward becoming a novelist while the Turkish reader was introduced to the novel and grew up as a reader. Therefore, it is certain that these translations determined the direction and frame of the first Turkish novels. Two important writers of the Tanzimat novel, Ahmet Mithat Efendi and Recaizade Mahmut Ekrem, depicted westernization as a main problem in their works. Ahmet Mithat Efendi created the character Felâtun Bey in the novel Felâtun Bey ile Râkım Efendi, and Recaizade Mahmut Ekrem used the character Bihruz Bey to discuss westernization in Araba Sevdası. In both novels, the heroes, who are the representatives of false westernization, that is, the alafranga dandyism, are often described by the authors using negative adjectives. It is true that neither writer has witnessed the pressures of social life, the ideology, epistemology, and psychology of the period. The main shortcoming of both writers' attitudes toward the heroes of the novels is that Felâtun Bey and Bihruz Bey are not only flawed westernized characters but also flawed Oriental characters. This is due to the fact that in the process of westernization, society and the individuals are tied to their own cultural resources. The ideological attitudes of the writers of this period are quite sophisticated . Tanzimat intellectuals also have a share in the birth of the type of protagonists represented by Felâtun Bey and Bihruz Bey. Therefore, western dandyism is a natural consequence of the ideological, epistemological, and psychological environment that the state's apparatuses and intellectuals have prepared together. As we can see in the examples of Felâtun Bey and Bihruz Bey, the protagonists criticized in the novels of this period have some common characteristics. The members of this type of group are rich, spendthrift, lazy, and wannabe. They try to speak French and claim to know the language but they cannot speak it properly. They do not read books but they always keep a book with them and they have the appearance of readers. They have completely misunderstood westernization. Their perceptions and inferences are superficial and their mental development is not directly proportional to their age. In fact, they are extremely naive. The members of this type of group live superficially in the East-West duality. They do not have enough hardware for the values of two civilizations. However, this is understandable given the conditions of the period. In spite of all this, the two novels we have mentioned are important in that they are the first works in which the alafranga dandyism, negative westernization, and the East-West conflict are discussed. The heroes of the two novels are representatives of the superficial characteristics of the East-West conflict. These characteristics will gain depth depending on the culture recorded by the Turkish novels in the future.
