SUBJECT: 21ST CENTURY LITERATURE OF THE WORLD

QUARTER II

ASIAN LITERATURE

Asian literature refers to the literature that was written over a period of
thousands of years, in a variety of countries in Asia.

I. East Asian literature

1. Chinese literature
2. Japanese literature
3. Korean literature

II. South Asian literature

4. Indian literature
5. Pakistani literature
6. Bangladeshi folk literature
7. Sri Lankan literature

III. Southeast Asian literature

8. Thai literature
9. Philippine literature
10. Malaysian literature
11. Indonesian literature
12. Burmese literature
13. Vietnamese literature

IV. West Asian literature

14. Persian literature
15. Arabic literature
16. Jewish literature
17. Turkish literature
18. Classical Indian literature

TOPIC 01: East Asian literature

1. Chinese Literature

Chinese literature extends thousands of years, from the earliest

recorded dynastic court archives to the mature vernacular fiction novels
that arose during the Ming Dynasty to entertain the masses of literate
Chinese. INthe Tang Dynasty (618–907) and the invention of movable
type printing by Bi Sheng (990–1051) during the Song Dynasty (960–
1279) rapidly spread written knowledge throughout China. In more
modern times, the author Lu Xun (1881–1936) is considered the founder
of baihua literature in China.

CHINESE CLASSIC POETRY ABOUT THE MOON

望月怀远 wànɡ yuè huái yuǎn –

Looking At The Moon And Thinking Of One Far Away

海上生明月，hǎi shànɡ shēnɡ mínɡ yuè The moon, grown full

now
over the sea,
天涯共此时。tiān yá ɡònɡ cǐ shí Brightening the whole of
heaven,
情人怨遥夜，qínɡ rén yuàn yáo yè Brings to separated
hearts
竟夕起相思。jìnɡ xī qǐ xiānɡ sī The long thoughtfulness of
night….
灭烛怜光满，miè zhú lián ɡuānɡ mǎn It is no darker though I
blow out my candle.
披衣觉露滋。pī yī jué lù zī It is no warmer though I
put on my coat.
不堪盈手赠，bù kān yínɡ shǒu zènɡ So I leave my message
with
the moon
还寝梦佳期。huán qǐn mènɡ jiā qī And turn to my bed,
hoping for dreams

2. Japanese literature

Early works of Japanese literature were heavily influenced by cultural

contact with China and Chinese literature, often written in Classical
Chinese. Indian literature also had an influence through the Diffusion of
Buddhism in Japan. Eventually, Japanese literature developed into a
separate style in its own right as Japanese writers began writing their
own works about Japan, although the influence of Chinese literature and
Classical Chinese remained until the end of the Edo period. Since Japan
reopened its ports to Western trading and diplomacy in the 19th
century, Western and Eastern literature have strongly affected each
other and continue to do so.
Japanese Literature can be divided into three main periods: ancient,
classical, medieval.
MEDIEVAL JAPANESE FABLE
The Two Frogs

Once upon a time in the country of Japan there lived two frogs, one
of whom made his home in a ditch near the town of Osaka, on the sea
coast, while the other dwelt in a clear little stream which ran through
the city of Kyoto. At such a great distance apart, they had never even
heard of each other; but, funnily enough, the idea came into both their
heads at once that they should like to see a little of the world, and the
frog who lived at Kyoto wanted to visit Osaka, and the frog who lived at
Osaka wished to go to Kyoto, where the great Mikado had his palace.
So one fine morning in the spring they both set out along the road
that led from Kyoto to Osaka, one from one end and the other from the
other. The journey was more tiring than they expected, for they did not
know much about traveling, and halfway between the two towns there
arose a mountain which had to be climbed. It took them a long time and
a great many hops to reach the top, but there they were at last, and
what was the surprise of each to see another frog before him!

They looked at each other for a moment without speaking, and then
fell into conversation, explaining the cause of their meeting so far from
their homes. It was delightful to find that they both felt the same wish--
to learn a little more of their native country--and as there was no sort of
hurry they stretched themselves out in a cool, damp place, and agreed
that they would have a good rest before they parted to go their ways.

"What a pity we are not bigger," said the Osaka frog; "for then we
could see both towns from here, and tell if it is worth our while going
on."

"Oh, that is easily managed," returned the Kyoto frog. "We have only
got to stand up on our hind legs, and hold onto each other, and then we
can each look at the town he is traveling to."

This idea pleased the Osaka frog so much that he at once jumped up
and put his front paws on the shoulder of his friend, who had risen also.
There they both stood, stretching themselves as high as they could, and
holding each other tightly, so that they might not fall down. The Kyoto
frog turned his nose towards Osaka, and the Osaka frog turned his nose
towards Kyoto; but the foolish things forgot that when they stood up
their great eyes lay in the backs of their heads, and that though their
noses might point to the places to which they wanted to go, their eyes
beheld the places from which they had come.

"Dear me!" cried the Osaka frog, "Kyoto is exactly like Osaka. It is
certainly not worth such a long journey. I shall go home!"

"If I had had any idea that Osaka was only a copy of Kyoto I should
never have traveled all this way," exclaimed the frog from Kyoto, and as
he spoke he took his hands from his friend's shoulders, and they both
fell down on the grass. Then they took a polite farewell of each other,
and set off for home again, and to the end of their lives they believed
that Osaka and Kyoto, which are as different to look at as two towns can
be, but were as alike as two leaves of a flower.

SUMMARY :
 CLIMAX

CONFLICT
PLOT SOLUTION

GOAL
PLACE

CHARAC- REALI-
TER ZATION

TIME SYMBOL

THEME MORAL
LESSON

TITLE

3. Korean Literature

Korean prose literature can be divided into narratives, fiction, and

literary miscellany. Narratives include myths, legends, and folktales
found in the written records. The principal sources of these narratives
are the two great historical records compiled in Classical Chinese during
the Koryo era: Samguk sagi (1146; "Historical Record of the Three
Kingdoms") and Samguk yusa (1285; "Memorabilia of the Three
Kingdoms"). The most important myths are those concerning the Sun
and the Moon, the founding of Korea by Tangun, and the lives of the
ancient kings. The legends touch on place and personal names and
natural phenomena. The folktales include stories about animals; ogres,
goblins, and other supernatural beings; kindness rewarded and evil
punished; and cleverness and stupidity. Because the compiler of the
Samguk yusa was a Zen master, his collection includes the lives of
Buddhist saints; the origin of monasteries, stupas, and bells; accounts
of miracles performed by Buddhas and bodhisattvas; and other tales
rich in shamanist and Buddhist elements. It also includes the 14
hyangga mentioned above. Korean fiction can be classified in various
ways. First, there is Korean fiction written in Chinese and that written in
Korean. Second, there are the short works of one volume, "medium"
works of about 10 volumes, and long works of more than 10 volumes.
Third, there are works of yangban writers and those of common writers.

FILM REVIEW/ANALYSIS:

TITLE?

CHARACTERS?
SETTING? CONFLICT
?

CLIMAX?

SYMBOL? THEME?

SOLUTION/ MORAL
END? LESSON?

II. South Asian literature

4. Indian literature

Indian literature refers to the literature produced on the Indian subcontinent until 1947 and
in the Republic of India thereafter. The Republic of India has 22 officially recognized
languages. , but are contested. European scholars from the 18th century onwards estimated
dates of various texts based on methods that Indian scholars consider arbitrary. The earliest
works of Indian literature were orally transmitted. Sanskrit literature begins with the oral
literature of the Rig Veda a collection of sacred hymns dating to the period 1500–1200 BCE. The
Sanskrit epics Ramayana and Mahabharata appeared towards the end of the first millennium
BCE. Classical Sanskrit literature developed rapidly during the first few centuries of the first
millennium BCE,[1] as did the Tamil Sangam literature, and the Pāli Canon. In the medieval
period, literature in Kannada and Telugu appeared in the 9th and 11th centuries respectively.[2]
Later, literature in Marathi, Odia, Bengali, various dialects of Hindi, Persian and Urdu began to
appear as well. Early in the 20th century, Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore became India's
first Nobel laureate. In contemporary Indian literature, there are two major literary awards;
these are the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship and the Jnanpith Award. Eight Jnanpith Awards each
have been awarded in Hindi and Kannada, followed by five in Bengali and Malayalam, four in
Odia, three in Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu and Urdu,[3][4] two each in Assamese and Tamil, and
one in Sanskrit.

5. Pakistani literature

Pakistan literature is a distinct literature that gradually came to be defined after Pakistan
gained nationhood status in 1947, emerging out of literary traditions of the South Asia.[1] The
shared tradition of Urdu literature and English literature of British India was inherited by the
new state. Over a period a body of literature unique to Pakistan has emerged in nearly all major
Pakistani languages, including Urdu, English, Punjabi, Seraiki, Balochi, Pushto and Sindhi.[2]
The nature of Pakistani literature soon after independence aroused controversy among
writers due to its being centred heavily on the negative events related to the independence
movement.[1] According to Gilani Kamran (GC University), Pakistani literature was expected to
take a new direction along with the new state of Pakistan at this point, but did not immediately
meet this expectation.[1]

Saadat Hassan Manto (1912–1955), a prominent writer of short stories of the South Asia,
produced great literature out of the events relating to the India-Pakistan independence. His
literature is considered to be progressive in its tone and spirit. According to several critics it had
not only evolved its own identity, but also had played a significant role in documenting the
hardships and hopes of Pakistan in the latter part of the 20th century.[1]

Today, Pakistani literature has taken a shape of its own by depicting the complex class
system and common man. It also has evolved in merging Urdu literary forms and English
literature leading to experimentation. Many writers of fiction borrow from English and vice
versa.

Pakistani literature's main official platform is the Pakistan Academy of Letters, whose work
is overseen by a Board of Governors.
6. Thai literature

Thai literature was traditionally heavily influenced by Indian culture from the 13th
century. Thailand's national epic is a version of the Ramayana called the
Ramakien. A number of versions of the epic were lost in the destruction of
Ayutthaya in 1767. Three versions currently exist. One of these was prepared
under the supervision (and partly written by) King Rama I. His son, Rama II,
rewrote some parts for khon drama. The main differences from the original are an
extended role for the monkey god Hanuman and the addition of a happy ending.

The most important poet in Thai literature was Sunthorn Phu, who is best known
for his romantic adventure story Phra Aphai Mani and for nine travel pieces called
Nirats.

Kings Rama V and Rama VI were also writers, mainly of non-fiction works as part
of their programme to combine Western knowledge with traditional Thai culture.
The story Lilit Phra Lo (ลลิลลิตพระลอ) was voted the best lilit work by King Rama VI's
royal literary club in 1916. Based on the tragic end of King Phra Lo, who died
together with the two women he loved, Phra Phuean and Phra Phaeng, the
daughters of the ruler of the city of Song, it originated in a tale of Thai folklore
and later became part of Thai literature.

7. Indonesian literature

Indonesian literature, is a term grouping various genres of South-East Asian

literature.

Indonesian Literature can refer to literature produced in the Indonesian

archipelago. It is also used to refer more broadly to literature produced in areas
with common language roots based on the Malay language (of which Indonesian
is one scion). This would extend the reach to the Maritime Southeast Asia,
including Indonesia, but also other nations with a common language such as
Malaysia and Brunei, as well as population within other nations such as the Malay
people living in Singapore.

There are also works written in and about Indonesia in unrelated languages.
There are several languages and several distinct but related literary traditions
within the geographical boundaries of the modern nation of Indonesia. For
example, the island of Java has its own Javanese pre-national cultural and literary
history. There are also Sundanese, Balinese, and Batak or Madurese traditions.
Indonesia also has a colonial history of Dutch, British and Japanese occupation, as
well as a history of Islamic influence that brought its own texts, linguistic and
literary influences. There is also an oral literature tradition in the area.

The phrase Indonesian literature is used in this article to refer to Indonesian as

written in the nation of Indonesia, but also covers literature written in an earlier
form of the Indonesian language i.e. Malay language written in the Dutch East
Indies.

8. Burmese literature

The literature of Burma (or Myanmar) spans over a millennium. Burmese

literature was historically influenced by Indian and Thai cultures, as seen in many
works, such as the Ramayana. The Burmese language, unlike other Southeast
Asian languages (e.g. Thai, Khmer), adopted words primarily from Pāli rather than
from Sanskrit. In addition, Burmese literature tends to reflect local folklore and
culture.

Burmese literature has historically been a very important aspect of Burmese life
steeped in the Pali Canon of Buddhism. Traditionally, Burmese children were
educated by monks in monasteries in towns and villages. During British colonial
rule, instruction was formalised and unified, and often bilingual, in both English
and Burmese known as Anglo-Vernacular. Burmese literature played a key role in
disseminating nationalism among the Burmese during the colonial era, with
writers such as Thakin Kodaw Hmaing, an outspoken critic of British colonialism in
Burma.

Beginning soon after self-rule, government censorship in Burma has been heavy,

9. Vietnamese literature

Vietnamese literature is literature, both oral and written, created largely by

Vietnamese-speaking people, although Francophone Vietnamese and English-
speaking Vietnamese authors in Australia and the United States are counted by
many critics as part of the national tradition. For a millennium before the 11th
century, Vietnam was dominated by China and as a result much of the written
work during this period was in Classical Chinese. Chữ nôm, created around the
10th century, allowed writers to compose in Vietnamese using modified Chinese
characters. Although regarded as inferior to Chinese, it gradually grew in
prestige. It flourished in the 18th century when many notable Vietnamese writers
and poets composed their works in chữ nôm and when it briefly became the
official written script. While the quốc ngữ script was created in the 17th century, it
did not become popular outside of missionary groups until the early 20th century,
when the French colonial administration mandated its use in French Indochina. By
the mid-20th century, virtually all Vietnamese works of literature were composed
in quốc ngữ.

10. Persian literature

Persian literature (Persian: ‫ )ادبیات فارسی‬is one of the world's oldest literatures. It
spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been
lost. Its sources have been within Greater Iran including present-day Iran, Iraq,
the Caucasus, and Turkey, regions of Central and South Asia where the Persian
language has historically been either the native or official language. For instance,
Rumi, one of best-loved Persian poets, born in Balkh or Vakhsh (in what is now
Afghanistan), wrote in Persian, and lived in Konya, then the capital of the Seljuks
in Anatolia. The Ghaznavids conquered large territories in Central and South Asia
and adopted Persian as their court language. There is thus Persian literature from
Iran, Mesopotamia, Azerbaijan, the wider Caucasus, Turkey, western parts of
Pakistan, India, Tajikistan and other parts of Central Asia. Not all Persian literature
is written in Persian, as some consider works written by ethnic Persians in other
languages, such as Greek and Arabic, to be included. At the same time, not all
literature written in Persian is written by ethnic Persians or Iranians, as Turkic,
Caucasian, and Indic poets and writers have also used the Persian language in
the environment of Persianate cultures.

Described as one of the great literatures of humanity,[1] including Goethe's

assessment of it as one of the four main bodies of world literature,[2] Persian
literature has its roots in surviving works of Middle Persian and Old Persian, the
latter of which date back as far as 522 BCE, the date of the earliest surviving
Achaemenid inscription, the Behistun Inscription. The bulk of surviving Persian
literature, however, comes from the times following the Islamic conquest of Iran
c. 650 CE. After the Abbasids came to power (750 CE), the Iranians became the
scribes and bureaucrats of the Islamic empire and, increasingly, also its writers
and poets. The New Persian literature arose and flourished in Khorasan and
Transoxiana because of political reasons——the early Iranian dynasties such as
Tahirids and Samanids were based in Khorasan.[3]

11. Arabic literature

Arabic literature (Arabic: ‫ الدب العربي‬/ ALA-LC: al-Adab al-‘Arabī) is the writing, both
prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word
used for literature is "Adab", which is derived from a meaning of etiquette, and
which implies politeness, culture and enrichment.

Arabic literature emerged in the 5th century with only fragments of the written
language appearing before then. The Qur'an, widely regarded by people as the
finest piece of literature in the Arabic language,[1] would have the greatest
lasting effect on Arabic culture and its literature. Arabic literature flourished
during the Islamic Golden Age, but has remained vibrant to the present day, with
poets and prose-writers across the Arab world achieving increasing success.

The Qur'an was one of the first major works of Arabic literature and definitely the
most influential.
The Qur'an had a significant influence on the Arab language. The language used
in it is called classical Arabic, and while modern Arabic is very similar, the
classical has social prestige. Not only is the Qur'an the first work of any
significant length written in the language it also has a far more complicated
structure than the earlier literary works with its 114 suras (chapters) which
contain 6,236 ayat (verses). It contains injunctions, narratives, homilies,
parables, direct addresses from God, instructions and even comments on itself on
how it will be received and understood. It is also, paradoxically, admired for its
layers of metaphor as well as its clarity, a feature it mentions itself in sura
16:103.

The word Qur'an means 'recitation', and in early times the text was transmitted
orally. The first attempt at an authentic written version was during the reign of
the third 'Rightly Guided Caliph', Uthman (576-656).

Although it contains elements of both prose and poetry, and therefore is closest
to Saj or rhymed prose, the Qur'an is regarded as entirely apart from these
classifications. The text is believed to be divine revelation and is seen by Muslims
as being eternal or 'uncreated'. This leads to the doctrine of i'jaz or inimitability of
the Qur'an which implies that nobody can copy the work's style.

12. Jewish literature

Jewish literature includes works written by Jews on Jewish themes, literary works
written in Jewish languages on various themes, and literary works in any
language written by Jewish writers.[1] Ancient Jewish literature includes Biblical
literature and rabbinic literature. Medieval Jewish literature includes not only
rabbinic literature but also ethical literature, philosophical literature, mystical
literature, various other forms of prose including history and fiction, and various
forms of poetry of both religious and secular varieties.[1] The production of
Jewish literature has flowered with the modern emergence of secular Jewish
culture. Modern Jewish literature has included Yiddish literature, Ladino literature,
Hebrew literature (especially Israeli literature), and Jewish American literature.

The modern era also saw the creation of what is generally known as "modern
Jewish literature," discussed here. Modern Jewish literature emerged with the
Hebrew literature of the Haskalah and broke with religious traditions about
literature. Therefore, it can be distinguished from rabbinic literature which is
distinctly religious in character.[4] Modern Jewish literature was a unique Jewish
literature which often also contributed to the national literatures of many of the
countries in which Jews lived.

Eighteenth-century Hebrew literature

It was with Moses Hayyim Luzzatto (1707–1746) that Hebrew poetry shook off the
medieval fetters which hindered its free development. His allegorical drama "La-
Yesharim Tehillah" (1743), which may be regarded as the first product of modern
Hebrew literature, has been described as "a poem that in its classic perfection of
style is second only to the Bible."[5] In Amsterdam, Luzzatto's pupil, David Franco
Mendes (1713–92), in his imitations of Jean Racine ("Gemul 'Atalyah") and of
Metastasio ("Yehudit"), continued his master's work, though his works are not as
respected as were Luzzatto's. In Germany, the leader of the Haskalah movement
Naphtali Hartwig Wessely (1725–1805) has been regarded as the "poet laureate"
of his era.[5] Luzzatto and Wessely also wrote works of ethical musar literature,
and Luzzatto's Mesillat Yesharim gained particular prominence.

13. Israeli literature

Among Israeli writers, Shmuel Yosef Agnon achieved particular reknowon after
winning the Nobel Prize for Literature for novels and short stories that employ a
unique blend of biblical, Talmudic and modern Hebrew. Other Israeli authors
whose works have been translated into other languages and who have attained
international recognition include Ephraim Kishon, Yaakov Shabtai, A. B. Yehoshua,
Amos Oz, Irit Linur, Etgar Keret and Yehoshua Sobol.

14. Yiddish literature

Main article: Yiddish literature
Modern Yiddish literature is generally dated to the publication in 1864 of Sholem
Yankev Abramovitsh’s novel Dos kleyne mentshele (“The Little Person”). The
most important of the early writers to follow Abramovitsh were Sholem
Rabinovitsh, popularly known by his alter-ego, Sholem Aleichem, and I. L. Peretz.
Later Yiddish writers of note include Abraham Sutzkever, Isaac Bashevis Singer,
who won the Nobel Prize in 1978, and Chaim Grade.

15. American Jewish literature

Main article: Jewish American literature
American Jewish literature written in English includes the works of Gertrude Stein,
Henry Roth, Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, Bernard Malamud, Chaim Potok, and
Philip Roth. The poetry of Allen Ginsberg often touches on Jewish themes (notably
the early autobiographical works such as Howl and Kaddish). Recent Jewish-
American literature includes the writings of Paul Auster, Michael Chabon,
Jonathan Safran Foer and Art Spiegelman.

16. German Jewish literature

Jewish authors who wrote in German and made outstanding contributions to
world literature include the German poet Heinrich Heine and the Bohemian
novelist Franz Kafka.

Other significant German-Jewish poets and essayists include Berthold Auerbach,

Else Lasker-Schüler, Ernst Lissauer, Jacob Raphael Fürstenthal, Siegfried Einstein,
Nelly Sachs, Karl Kraus, Egon Friedell, and Erich Mühsam.

German-Jewish novelists include Lion Feuchtwanger, Edgar Hilsenrath, Alfred

Döblin, Arthur Schnitzler, Anna Seghers, Hermann Broch, Franz Werfel, Joseph
Roth, Jakob Wassermann, and Stefan Zweig.

Russian-language Jewish literature Edit

Isaak Babel (1894–1940) was a Soviet journalist, playwright, and short story
writer acclaimed as "the greatest prose writer of Russian Jewry."[7] Other Russian
writers of Jewish descent include Boris Pasternak (who never wrote on Jewish
themes); Joseph Brodsky, a poet who won the Nobel Prize in 1987; Osip
Mandelstam, another famous poet, wooer of Akhmatova, and victim of the
Soviets. Vassily Grossman's experiences in WWII provide the main material for his
novels.
Ladino Literature Edit
The primary forms of modern Ladino literature have been fables and folktales.[8]
Ladino fables and folktales often have Jewish themes, with biblical figures and
legendary characters, and many of them feature the folk character "Ejoha" (also
"Joha"). In 2001, the Jewish Publication Society published the first English
translation of Ladino folk tales, collected by Matilda Koén-Sarano, Folktales of
Joha, Jewish Trickster: The Misadventures of the Guileful Sephardic Prankster.

Modern Ladino poets include Margalit Matityahu, Avner Peretz, Victor Perera, Rita
Gabbai Simantov, and Sara Benveniste Benrey.

References Edit

^ a b c "Literature, Jewish". Retrieved 13 July 2015.

^ "AKERMAN, RACHEL - JewishEncyclopedia.com". Retrieved 13 July 2015.
^ Israel Zinberg, Old Yiddish Literature from Its Origins to the Haskalah Period
(KTAV, 1975), p. 51ff.
^ "LITERATURE, MODERN HEBREW - JewishEncyclopedia.com". Retrieved 13 July
2015.
^ a b "LITERATURE, MODERN HEBREW - JewishEncyclopedia.com". Retrieved 13
July 2015.
^ a b c "LITERATURE, MODERN HEBREW - JewishEncyclopedia.com". Retrieved 13
July 2015.
^ Neither and Both; anthology. Joshua Cohen. The Forward Arts & Culture; Pg. B2.
July 6, 2007
^ "Ladino Literature". My Jewish Learning. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:
Richard Gottheil, N. Slouschz (1901–1906). "LITERATURE, MODERN HEBREW". In
Singer, Isidore; et al. Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.
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Turkish literature

A page from the Dîvân-ı Fuzûlî, the collected poems of the 16th-century
Azerbaijani poet Fuzûlî.
Turkish literature (Turkish: Türk edebiyatı) comprises oral compositions and
written texts in the Turkish language, either in its Ottoman and Azerbaijani or in
less exclusively literary forms, such as that spoken in Turkey today. The Ottoman
and Azeri forms of Turkish, which forms the basis of much of the written corpus,
are highly influenced by Persian and Arabic literature,[1] and used the Ottoman
Turkish alphabet.

The history of the broader Turkic literature spans a period of nearly 1,300 years.
[2] The oldest extant records of written Turkic are the Orhon inscriptions, found in
the Orhon River valley in central Mongolia and dating to the 7th century.
Subsequent to this period, between the 9th and 11th centuries, there arose
among the nomadic Turkic peoples of Central Asia a tradition of oral epics, such
as the Book of Dede Korkut of the Oghuz Turks—the linguistic and cultural
ancestors of the modern Turkish people—and the Manas epic of the Kyrgyz
people.

Beginning with the victory of the Seljuks at the Battle of Manzikert in the late
11th century, the Oghuz Turks began to settle in Anatolia, and in addition to the
earlier oral traditions there arose a written literary tradition issuing largely—in
terms of themes, genres, and styles—from Arabic and Persian literature. For the
next 900 years, until shortly before the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1922, the
oral and written traditions would remain largely separate from one another. With
the founding of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, the two traditions came together
for the first time.

The two traditions of Turkish literature Edit

Throughout most of its history, Turkish literature has been rather sharply divided
into two rather different traditions, neither of which exercised much influence
upon the other until the 19th century. The first of these two traditions is Turkish
folk literature, and the second is Turkish written literature.

For most of the history of Turkish literature, the salient difference between the
folk and the written traditions has been the variety of language employed. The
folk tradition, by and large, was oral and remained free of the influence of Persian
and Arabic literature, and consequently of those literatures' respective
languages. In folk poetry—which is by far the tradition's dominant genre—this
basic fact led to two major consequences in terms of poetic style:

the poetic meters employed in the folk poetic tradition were different, being
quantitative (i.e., syllabic) verse, as opposed to the qualitative verse employed in
the written poetic tradition;
the basic structural unit of folk poetry became the quatrain (Turkish: dörtlük)
rather than the couplets (Turkish: beyit) more commonly employed in written
poetry.
Furthermore, Turkish folk poetry has always had an intimate connection with song
—most of the poetry was, in fact, expressly composed so as to be sung—and so
became to a great extent inseparable from the tradition of Turkish folk music.

In contrast to the tradition of Turkish folk literature, Turkish written literature—

prior to the founding of the Republic of Turkey in 1923—tended to embrace the
influence of Persian and Arabic literature. To some extent, this can be seen as far
back as the Seljuk period in the late 11th to early 14th centuries, where official
business was conducted in the Persian language, rather than in Turkish, and
where a court poet such as Dehhanî—who served under the 13th century sultan
Ala ad-Din Kay Qubadh I—wrote in a language highly inflected with Persian.

When the Ottoman Empire arose early in the 14th century, in northwestern
Anatolia, it continued this tradition. The standard poetic forms—for poetry was as
much the dominant genre in the written tradition as in the folk tradition—were
derived either directly from the Persian literary tradition (the gazel ‫ ;غغغزل‬the
mesnevî ‫)مثنوی‬, or indirectly through Persian from the Arabic (the kasîde ‫)قصغیده‬.
However, the decision to adopt these poetic forms wholesale led to two important
further consequences:[3]

the poetic meters (Turkish: aruz) of Persian poetry were adopted;

Persian- and Arabic-based words were brought into the Turkish language in great
numbers, as Turkish words rarely worked well within the system of Persian poetic
meter.
Out of this confluence of choices, the Ottoman Turkish language—which was
always highly distinct from standard Turkish—was effectively born. This style of
writing under Persian and Arabic influence came to be known as "Divan
literature" (Turkish: divan edebiyatı), dîvân (‫ )ديوان‬being the Ottoman Turkish word
referring to the collected works of a poet.

Just as Turkish folk poetry was intimately bound up with Turkish folk music, so did
Ottoman Divan poetry develop a strong connection with Turkish classical music,
with the poems of the Divan poets often being taken up to serve as song lyrics.

Folk literatureEdit

Main article: Turkish Folk Literature

Turkish folk literature is an oral tradition deeply rooted, in its form, in Central
Asian nomadic traditions. However, in its themes, Turkish folk literature reflects
the problems peculiar to a settling (or settled) people who have abandoned the
nomadic lifestyle. One example of this is the series of folktales surrounding the
figure of Keloğlan, a young boy beset with the difficulties of finding a wife, helping
his mother to keep the family house intact, and dealing with the problems caused
by his neighbors. Another example is the rather mysterious figure of Nasreddin, a
trickster who often plays jokes, of a sort, on his neighbors.

An aşık performing in Anatolia, from an 18th-century Western engraving

Nasreddin also reflects another significant change that had occurred between the
days when the Turkish people were nomadic and the days when they had largely
become settled in Anatolia; namely, Nasreddin is a Muslim imam. The Turkic
peoples had first become an Islamic people sometime around the 9th or 10th
century, as is evidenced from the clear Islamic influence on the 11th century
Karakhanid work the Kutadgu Bilig ("Wisdom of Royal Glory"), written by Yusuf
Has Hajib. The religion henceforth came to exercise an enormous influence on
Turkish society and literature, particularly the heavily mystically oriented Sufi and
Shi'a varieties of Islam. The Sufi influence, for instance, can be seen clearly not
only in the tales concerning Nasreddin but also in the works of Yunus Emre, a
towering figure in Turkish literature and a poet who lived at the end of the 13th
and beginning of the 14th century, probably in the Karamanid state in south-
central Anatolia. The Shi'a influence, on the other hand, can be seen extensively
in the tradition of the aşıks, or ozans,[4] who are roughly akin to medieval
European minstrels and who traditionally have had a strong connection with the
Alevi faith, which can be seen as something of a homegrown Turkish variety of
Shi'a Islam. It is, however, important to note that in Turkish culture, such a neat
division into Sufi and Shi'a is scarcely possible: for instance, Yunus Emre is
considered by some to have been an Alevi, while the entire Turkish aşık/ozan
tradition is permeated with the thought of the Bektashi Sufi order, which is itself
a blending of Shi'a and Sufi concepts. The word aşık (literally, "lover") is in fact
the term used for first-level members of the Bektashi order.

Because the Turkish folk literature tradition extends in a more or less unbroken
line from about the 10th or 11th century to today, it is perhaps best to consider
the tradition from the perspective of genre. There are three basic genres in the
tradition: epic; folk poetry; and folklore.

The epic tradition Edit

The Turkish epic has its roots in the Central Asian epic tradition that gave rise to
the Book of Dede Korkut; written in Azerbaijani language - and recognizably
similar to modern Istanbul Turkish - the form developed from the oral traditions of
the Oghuz Turks (a branch of the Turkic peoples which migrated towards western
Asia and eastern Europe through Transoxiana, beginning in the 9th century). The
Book of Dede Korkut endured in the oral tradition of the Oghuz Turks after settling
in Anatolia.[citation needed]. Alpamysh is an earlier epic, translated into English
and available online.[5]

The Book of Dede Korkut was the primary element of the Azerbaijani–Turkish epic
tradition in the Caucasus and Anatolia for several centuries[when?]. Concurrent
to the Book of Dede Korkut was the so-called Epic of Köroğlu, which concerns the
adventures of Rüşen Ali ("Köroğlu", or "son of the blind man") as he exacted
revenge for the blinding of his father. The origins of this epic are somewhat more
mysterious than those of the Book of Dede Korkut: many believe it to have arisen
in Anatolia sometime between the 15th and 17th centuries; more reliable
testimony,[6] though, seems to indicate that the story is nearly as old as that of
the Book of Dede Korkut, dating from around the dawn of the 11th century.
Complicating matters somewhat is the fact that Köroğlu is also the name of a
poet of the aşık/ozan tradition.

The epic tradition in modern Turkish literature may be seen in the Epic of Shaykh
Bedreddin (Şeyh Bedreddin Destanı), published in 1936 by the poet Nâzım
Hikmet Ran (1901–1963). This long poem — which concerns an Anatolian
shaykh's rebellion against the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed I — is a modern epic, yet
draws upon the same independent-minded traditions of the Anatolian people as
depicted in the Epic of Köroğlu. Many of the works of the 20th-century novelist
Yaşar Kemal (1923– ), such as the 1955 novel Memed, My Hawk (İnce Memed),
can be considered modern prose epics.

Folk poetry Edit

The folk poetry tradition in Turkish literature, as indicated above, was strongly
influenced by the Islamic Sufi and Shi'a traditions. Furthermore, as partly
evidenced by the prevalence of the still existent aşık/ozan tradition, the dominant
element in Turkish folk poetry has always been song. The development of folk
poetry in Turkish—which began to emerge in the 13th century with such
important writers as Yunus Emre, Sultan Veled, and Şeyyâd Hamza—was given a
great boost when, on 13 May 1277, Karamanoğlu Mehmet Bey declared Turkish
the official state language of Anatolia's powerful Karamanid state;[7]
subsequently, many of the tradition's greatest poets would continue to emerge
from this region.

There are, broadly speaking, two traditions of Turkish folk poetry:

the aşık/ozan tradition, which—although much influenced by religion, as

mentioned above—was for the most part a secular tradition;
the explicitly religious tradition, which emerged from the gathering places
(tekkes) of the Sufi religious orders and Shi'a groups.
Much of the poetry and song of the aşık/ozan tradition, being almost exclusively
oral until the 19th century, remains anonymous. There are, however, a few well-
known aşıks from before that time whose names have survived together with
their works: the aforementioned Köroğlu (16th century); Karacaoğlan (1606?–
1689?), who may be the best-known of the pre-19th century aşıks; Dadaloğlu
(1785?–1868?), who was one of the last of the great aşıks before the tradition
began to dwindle somewhat in the late 19th century; and several others. The
aşıks were essentially minstrels who travelled through Anatolia performing their
songs on the bağlama, a mandolin-like instrument whose paired strings are
considered to have a symbolic religious significance in Alevi/Bektashi culture.
Despite the decline of the aşık/ozan tradition in the 19th century, it experienced a
significant revival in the 20th century thanks to such outstanding figures as Aşık
Veysel Şatıroğlu (1894–1973), Aşık Mahzuni Şerif (1938–2002), Neşet Ertaş (1938–
2012), and many others.

Kaygusuz Abdal
The explicitly religious folk tradition of tekke literature shared a similar basis with
the aşık/ozan tradition in that the poems were generally intended to be sung,
generally in religious gatherings, making them somewhat akin to Western hymns
(Turkish ilahi). One major difference from the aşık/ozan tradition, however, is that
—from the very beginning—the poems of the tekke tradition were written down.
This was because they were produced by revered religious figures in the literate
environment of the tekke, as opposed to the milieu of the aşık/ozan tradition,
where the majority could not read or write. The major figures in the tradition of
tekke literature are: Yunus Emre (1240?–1320?), who is one of the most important
figures in all of Turkish literature; Süleyman Çelebi (?–1422), who wrote a highly
popular long poem called Vesîletü'n-Necât ( ‫" وسیلة النجاة‬The Means of Salvation", but
more commonly known as the Mevlid), concerning the birth of the Islamic prophet
Muhammad; Kaygusuz Abdal (1397–?), who is widely considered the founder of
Alevi/Bektashi literature; and Pir Sultan Abdal (?–1560), whom many consider to
be the pinnacle of that literature.

Folklore Edit
Main article: Turkish Folklore
Nasreddin Hoca
The tradition of folklore—folktales, jokes, legends, and the like—in the Turkish
language is very rich. Perhaps the most popular figure in the tradition is the
aforementioned Nasreddin (known as Nasreddin Hoca, or "teacher Nasreddin", in
Turkish), who is the central character of thousands of jokes. He generally appears
as a person who, though seeming somewhat stupid to those who must deal with
him, actually proves to have a special wisdom all his own:

One day, Nasreddin's neighbor asked him, "Teacher, do you have any forty-year-
old vinegar?"—"Yes, I do," answered Nasreddin.—"Can I have some?" asked the
neighbor. "I need some to make an ointment with."—"No, you can't have any,"
answered Nasreddin. "If I gave my forty-year-old vinegar to whoever wanted
some, I wouldn't have had it for forty years, would I?"

Karagöz and Hacivat

Similar to the Nasreddin jokes, and arising from a similar religious milieu, are the
Bektashi jokes, in which the members of the Bektashi religious order—
represented through a character simply named Bektaşi—are depicted as having
an unusual and unorthodox wisdom, one that often challenges the values of Islam
and of society.

Another popular element of Turkish folklore is the shadow theater centered

around the two characters of Karagöz and Hacivat, who both represent stock
characters: Karagöz—who hails from a small village—is something of a country
bumpkin, while Hacivat is a more sophisticated city-dweller. Popular legend has it
that the two characters are actually based on two real persons who worked either
for Osman I—the founder of the Ottoman dynasty—or for his successor Orhan I, in
the construction of a palace or possibly a mosque at Bursa in the early 14th
century. The two workers supposedly spent much of their time entertaining the
other workers, and were so funny and popular that they interfered with work on
the palace, and were subsequently beheaded. Supposedly, however, their bodies
then picked up their severed heads and walked away.

Ottoman literature Edit

The two primary streams of Ottoman written literature are poetry and prose. Of
the two, poetry—specifically, Divan poetry—was by far the dominant stream.
Moreover, it should be noted that, until the 19th century, Ottoman prose did not
contain any examples of fiction; that is, there were no counterparts to, for
instance, the European romance, short story, or novel (though analogous genres
did, to some extent, exist in both the Turkish folk tradition and in Divan poetry).

Divan poetry Edit

Further information: Poetry of the Ottoman Empire
An Ottoman garden party, with poet, guest, and winebearer; from the 16th-
century Dîvân-ı Bâkî
Ottoman Divan poetry was a highly ritualized and symbolic art form. From the
Persian poetry that largely inspired it, it inherited a wealth of symbols whose
meanings and interrelationships—both of similitude ( ‫ مراع ات نظیغر‬mura'ât-i nazîr /
‫ تناسغغغب‬tenâsüb) and opposition (‫ تضغغغاد‬tezâd)—were more or less prescribed.
Examples of prevalent symbols that, to some extent, oppose one another include,
among others:

the nightingale (‫ بلبل‬bülbül) — the rose (‫ ﮔل‬gül)

the world (‫ جهان‬cihan; ‫‘ عالم‬âlem) — the rosegarden (‫ ﮔلﺴﺘان‬gülistan; ‫ ﮔلﺸﻦ‬gülşen)
the ascetic (‫ زاهد‬zâhid) — the dervish (‫ درويش‬derviş)
As the opposition of "the ascetic" and "the dervish" suggests, Divan poetry—
much like Turkish folk poetry—was heavily influenced by Sufi thought. One of the
primary characteristics of Divan poetry, however—as of the Persian poetry before
it—was its mingling of the mystical Sufi element with a profane and even erotic
element. Thus, the pairing of "the nightingale" and "the rose" simultaneously
suggests two different relationships:

the relationship between the fervent lover ("the nightingale") and the inconstant
beloved ("the rose")
the relationship between the individual Sufi practitioner (who is often
characterized in Sufism as a lover) and God (who is considered the ultimate
source and object of love)
Similarly, "the world" refers simultaneously to the physical world and to this
physical world considered as the abode of sorrow and impermanence, while "the
rosegarden" refers simultaneously to a literal garden and to the garden of
Paradise. "The nightingale", or suffering lover, is often seen as situated—both
literally and figuratively—in "the world", while "the rose", or beloved, is seen as
being in "the rosegarden".

Divan poetry was composed through the constant juxtaposition of many such
images within a strict metrical framework, thus allowing numerous potential
meanings to emerge. A brief example is the following line of verse, or mısra (
‫)مصراع‬, by the 18th-century judge and poet Hayatî Efendi:

‫بر ﮔل مى وار بو ﮔلﺸﻦ عالمدﻪ خارسز‬

Bir gül mü var bu gülşen-i ‘âlemde hârsız[8]
("Does any rose, in this rosegarden world, lack thorns?")
A page from Nava'i's diwan. From the library of Suleiman the Magnificent.
Here, the nightingale is only implied (as being the poet/lover), while the rose, or
beloved, is shown to be capable of inflicting pain with its thorns (‫ خار‬hâr). The
world, as a result, is seen as having both positive aspects (it is a rosegarden, and
thus analogous to the garden of Paradise) and negative aspects (it is a
rosegarden full of thorns, and thus different from the garden of Paradise).

As for the development of Divan poetry over the more than 500 years of its
existence, that is—as the Ottomanist Walter G. Andrews points out—a study still
in its infancy;[9] clearly defined movements and periods have not yet been
decided upon. Early in the history of the tradition, the Persian influence was very
strong, but this was mitigated somewhat through the influence of poets such as
the Azerbaijani Nesîmî (?–1417?) and the Uyghur Ali Şîr Nevâî (1441–1501), both
of whom offered strong arguments for the poetic status of the Turkic languages
as against the much-venerated Persian. Partly as a result of such arguments,
Divan poetry in its strongest period—from the 16th to the 18th centuries—came
to display a unique balance of Persian and Turkish elements, until the Persian
influence began to predominate again in the early 19th century.

Turkish poets,(Ottoman and Chagatay), although they had been inspired and
influenced by classical Persian poetry, it would be a superficial judgment to
consider the former as blind imitators of the latters, as is often done. A limited
vocabulary and common technique, and the same world of imagery and subject
matter based mainly on Islamic sources were shared by all poets of Islamic
literature.[10]

Despite the lack of certainty regarding the stylistic movements and periods of
Divan poetry, however, certain highly different styles are clear enough, and can
perhaps be seen as exemplified by certain poets:

Fuzûlî (1483?–1556), a Divan poet of Azerbaijani origin

Fuzûlî (1483?–1556); a unique poet who wrote with equal skill in Azerbaijani,
Persian, and Arabic, and who came to be as influential in Persian as in Divan
poetry
Bâkî (1526–1600); a poet of great rhetorical power and linguistic subtlety whose
skill in using the pre-established tropes of the Divan tradition is quite
representative of the poetry in the time of Süleyman the Magnificent
Nef‘î (1570?–1635); a poet considered the master of the kasîde (a kind of
panegyric), as well as being known for his harshly satirical poems, which led to
his execution
Nâbî (1642–1712); a poet who wrote a number of socially oriented poems critical
of the stagnation period of Ottoman history
Nedîm (1681?–1730); a revolutionary poet of the Tulip Era of Ottoman history,
who infused the rather élite and abstruse language of Divan poetry with
numerous simpler, populist elements
Şeyh Gâlib (1757–1799); a poet of the Mevlevî Sufi order whose work is
considered the culmination of the highly complex so-called "Indian style" ( ‫سبك هندى‬
sebk-i hindî)
The vast majority of Divan poetry was lyric in nature: either gazels (which make
up the greatest part of the repertoire of the tradition), or kasîdes. There were,
however, other common genres, most particularly the mesnevî, a kind of verse
romance and thus a variety of narrative poetry; the two most notable examples
of this form are the Leylî vü Mecnun (‫ )لیلى و مجنون‬of Fuzûlî and the Hüsn ü Aşk (‫حﺴﻦ و‬
‫" ;عﺸق‬Beauty and Love") of Şeyh Gâlib.

Early Ottoman prose Edit

Further information: Prose of the Ottoman Empire
Until the 19th century, Ottoman prose never managed to develop to the extent
that contemporary Divan poetry did. A large part of the reason for this was that
much prose was expected to adhere to the rules of sec' (‫سجع‬, also transliterated
as seci), or rhymed prose,[11] a type of writing descended from the Arabic saj'
and which prescribed that between each adjective and noun in a sentence, there
must be a rhyme.

Nevertheless, there was a tradition of prose in the literature of the time. This
tradition was exclusively nonfictional in nature—the fiction tradition was limited
to narrative poetry.[12] A number of such nonfictional prose genres developed:

the târih (‫)تاريخ‬, or history, a tradition in which there are many notable writers,
including the 15th-century historian Aşıkpaşazâde and the 17th-century historians
Kâtib Çelebi and Naîmâ
the seyâhatnâme (‫)سیاحت نامﻪ‬, or travelogue, of which the outstanding example is
the 17th-century Seyahâtnâme of Evliya Çelebi
the sefâretnâme (‫)سغغغفارت نغغغامﻪ‬, a related genre specific to the journeys and
experiences of an Ottoman ambassador, and which is best exemplified by the
1718–1720 Paris Sefâretnâmesi of Yirmisekiz Mehmed Çelebi, ambassador to the
court of Louis XV of France
the siyâsetnâme (‫)سیاست نامﻪ‬, a kind of political treatise describing the functionings
of state and offering advice for rulers, an early Seljuk example of which is the
11th-century Siyāsatnāma, written in Persian by Nizam al-Mulk, vizier to the Seljuk
rulers Alp Arslan and Malik Shah I
the tezkîre (‫)تذکره‬, a collection of short biographies of notable figures, some of the
most notable of which were the 16th-century tezkiretü'ş-şuarâs (‫)تغغذكرة الﺸغغعرا‬, or
biographies of poets, by Latîfî and Aşık Çelebi
the münşeât (‫)منﺸغآت‬, a collection of writings and letters similar to the Western
tradition of belles-lettres
the münâzara (‫)منغغغاظره‬, a collection of debates of either a religious or a
philosophical nature
The 19th century and Western influence Edit
Further information: Poetry of the Ottoman Empire, Prose of the Ottoman Empire
Edict of Gülhane was an 1839 proclamation by Ottoman sultan Abdülmecid I that
launched the Tanzimât period of reforms and reorganization in the Ottoman
Empire.
By the early 19th century, the Ottoman Empire had become moribund. Attempts
to right this situation had begun during the reign of Sultan Selim III, from 1789 to
1807, but were continuously thwarted by the powerful Janissary corps. As a
result, only after Sultan Mahmud II had abolished the Janissary corps in 1826 was
the way paved for truly effective reforms (Ottoman Turkish: ‫ تنظیمات‬tanzîmât).

These reforms finally came to the empire during the Tanzimat period of 1839–
1876, when much of the Ottoman system was reorganized along largely French
lines. The Tanzimat reforms "were designed both to modernize the empire and to
forestall foreign intervention".[13]

Along with reforms to the Ottoman system, serious reforms were also undertaken
in the literature, which had become nearly as moribund as the empire itself.
Broadly, these literary reforms can be grouped into two areas:

changes brought to the language of Ottoman written literature;

the introduction into Ottoman literature of previously unknown genres.
Ziya Pasha (1829–1880), Turkish poet and reformist
Namık Kemal (1840-1888), Turkish writer, intellectual, reformer, journalist and
political activist
The reforms to the literary language were undertaken because the Ottoman
Turkish language was thought by the reformists to have effectively lost its way. It
had become more divorced than ever from its original basis in Turkish, with
writers using more and more words and even grammatical structures derived
from Persian and Arabic, rather than Turkish.[14] Meanwhile, however, the Turkish
folk literature tradition of Anatolia, away from the capital Constantinople, came to
be seen as an ideal. Accordingly, many of the reformists called for written
literature to turn away from the Divan tradition and towards the folk tradition;
this call for change can be seen, for example, in a famous statement by the poet
and reformist Ziya Pasha (1829–1880):

Our language is not Ottoman; it is Turkish. What makes up our poetic canon is not
gazels and kasîdes, but rather kayabaşıs, üçlemes, and çöğürs[15], which some of
our poets dislike, thinking them crude. But just let those with the ability exert the
effort on this road [of change], and what powerful personalities will soon be born!
[16]

At the same time as this call—which reveals something of a burgeoning national

consciousness—was being made, new literary genres were being introduced into
Ottoman literature, primarily the novel and the short story. This trend began in
1861, with the translation into Ottoman Turkish of François Fénelon's 1699 novel
Les aventures de Télémaque, by Yusuf Kâmil Pasha, Grand Vizier to Sultan
Abdülaziz. What is widely recognized as the first Turkish novel, Taaşuk-u Tal'at ve
Fitnat (‫" ;تعﺸق طلعت و فطنت‬Tal'at and Fitnat In Love") by Şemsettin Sami (1850–1904),
was published just ten years later, in 1872. However, there had actually been,
according to Gonca Gökalp, five other earlier or contemporaneous works of fiction
that were clearly distinct from earlier prose traditions in both Divan and folk
literature, and that approximate novelistic form. Among these five works is the
Muhayyelât of Ali Aziz Efendi, cited above. Another, 1851's Akabi Hikâyesi
("Akabi's Story"), written by the Armenian Vartan Pasha (Hovsep Vartanian) using
the Armenian script and for an Armenian audience was, according to Andreas
Tietze, "the first genuine modern novel written and published in Turkey". The
introduction of such new genres into Turkish literature can be seen as part of a
trend towards Westernization that continues to be felt in Turkey to this day.

Due to historically close ties with France—strengthened during the Crimean War
of 1854–1856—it was French literature that came to constitute the major Western
influence on Turkish literature throughout the latter half of the 19th century. As a
result, many of the same movements prevalent in France during this period also
had their equivalents in the Ottoman Empire: in the developing Ottoman prose
tradition, for instance, the influence of Romanticism can be seen during the
Tanzimat period, and that of the Realist and Naturalist movements in subsequent
periods; in the poetic tradition, on the other hand, it was the influence of the
Symbolist and Parnassian movements that became paramount.

Many of the writers in the Tanzimat period wrote in several different genres
simultaneously: for instance, the poet Nâmık Kemal (1840–1888) also wrote the
important 1876 novel İntibâh (‫" ;انﺘبغغاه‬Awakening"), while the journalist İbrahim
Şinasi (1826–1871) is noted for writing, in 1860, the first modern Turkish play, the
one-act comedy "Şair Evlenmesi" (‫" ;شغغاعر اولنمﺴغغى‬The Poet's Marriage").[17] In a
similar vein, the novelist Ahmed Midhat Efendi (1844–1912) wrote important
novels in each of the major movements: Romanticism ( ‫حﺴﻦ ملحا ياخود سر ايچیكده اسرار‬
Hasan Mellâh yâhud Sırr İçinde Esrâr, 1873; "Hasan the Sailor, or The Mystery
Within the Mystery"), Realism (‫ هنوز اون يدى يﺸکده‬Henüz On Yedi Yaşında, 1881; "Just
Seventeen Years Old"), and Naturalism (‫ مﺸاهدات‬Müşâhedât, 1891; "Observations").
This diversity was, in part, due to the Tanzimat writers' wish to disseminate as
much of the new literature as possible, in the hopes that it would contribute to a
revitalization of Ottoman social structure.[18]

Early 20th-century Turkish literature Edit

Further information: Poetry of the Ottoman Empire, Prose of the Ottoman Empire
Most of the roots of modern Turkish literature were formed between the years
1896—when the first collective literary movement arose—and 1923, when the
Republic of Turkey was officially founded. Broadly, there were three primary
literary movements during this period:

the Edebiyyât-ı Cedîde (‫" ;ادبیات جديده‬New Literature") movement

the Fecr-i Âtî (‫" ;فجر آتى‬Dawn of the Future") movement
the Millî Edebiyyât (‫" ;ملى ادبیات‬National Literature") movement
The New Literature movement Edit
Tevfik Fikret (1867–1915), poet and editor of Servet-i Fünun
Journal of Servet-i Fünun, edition of 24 April 1908
The Edebiyyât-ı Cedîde, or "New Literature", movement began with the founding
in 1891 of the magazine Servet-i Fünûn ( ‫" ;ﺛروت فنون‬Scientific Wealth"), which was
largely devoted to progress—both intellectual and scientific—along the Western
model. Accordingly, the magazine's literary ventures, under the direction of the
poet Tevfik Fikret (1867–1915), were geared towards creating a Western-style
"high art" in Turkey. The poetry of the group—of which Tevfik Fikret and Cenâb
Şehâbeddîn (1870–1934) were the most influential proponents—was heavily
influenced by the French Parnassian movement and the so-called "Decadent"
poets. The group's prose writers, on the other hand—particularly Halit Ziya
Uşaklıgil (1867–1945)—were primarily influenced by Realism, although the writer
Mehmed Rauf (1875–1931) did write the first Turkish example of a psychological
novel, 1901's Eylül (‫" ;ايلول‬September"). The language of the Edebiyyât-ı Cedîde
movement remained strongly influenced by Ottoman Turkish.

In 1901, as a result of the article "Edebiyyât ve Hukuk" ( ‫" ;ادبیات و حﻘوق‬Literature

and Law"), translated from French and published in Servet-i Fünûn, the pressure
of censorship was brought to bear and the magazine was closed down by the
government of the Ottoman sultan Abdülhamid II. Though it was closed for only
six months, the group's writers each went their own way in the meantime, and
the Edebiyyât-ı Cedîde movement came to an end.

The Dawn of the Future movementEdit

In the 24 February 1909 edition of the Servet-i Fünûn magazine, a gathering of
young writers—soon to be known as the Fecr-i Âtî ("Dawn of the Future") group—
released a manifesto in which they declared their opposition to the Edebiyyât-ı
Cedîde movement and their adherence to the credo, "Sanat şahsî ve
muhteremdir" (‫" ;صنعت شخصى و محﺘرمدر‬Art is personal and sacred").[19] Though this
credo was little more than a variation of the French writer Théophile Gautier's
doctrine of "l'art pour l'art", or "art for art's sake", the group was nonetheless
opposed to the blanket importation of Western forms and styles, and essentially
sought to create a recognizably Turkish literature. The Fecr-i Âtî group, however,
never made a clear and unequivocal declaration of its goals and principles, and
so lasted only a few years before its adherents each went their own individual
way. The two outstanding figures to emerge from the movement were, in poetry,
Ahmed Hâşim (1884–1933), and in prose, Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu (1889–
1974).

The National Literature movement Edit

Cover page from an issue of Genç Kalemler
In 1908, Sultan Abdülhamid II had instituted a constitutional government, and the
parliament subsequently elected was composed almost entirely of members of
the Committee of Union and Progress (also known as the "Young Turks"). The
Young Turks (‫ ژون تغغورکلر‬Jön Türkler) had opposed themselves to the increasingly
authoritarian Ottoman government, and soon came to identify themselves with a
specifically Turkish national identity. Along with this notion developed the idea of
a Turkish and even pan-Turkish nation (Turkish: millet), and so the literature of
this period came to be known as "National Literature" (Turkish: millî edebiyyât). It
was during this period that the Persian- and Arabic-inflected Ottoman Turkish
language was definitively turned away from as a vehicle for written literature,
and that literature began to assert itself as being specifically Turkish, rather than
Ottoman.

At first, this movement crystallized around the magazine Genç Kalemler ( ‫;کنج قلملر‬
"Young Pens"), which was begun in the city of Selânik in 1911 by the three writers
who were most representative of the movement: Ziya Gökalp (1876–1924), a
sociologist and thinker; Ömer Seyfettin (1884–1920), a short-story writer; and Ali
Canip Yöntem (1887–1967), a poet. In Genç Kalemler's first issue, an article
entitled "New Language" (Turkish: "Yeni Lisan") pointed out that Turkish literature
had previously looked for inspiration either to the East as in the Ottoman Divan
tradition, or to the West as in the Edebiyyât-ı Cedîde and Fecr-i Âtî movements,
without ever turning to Turkey itself.[20] This latter was the National Literature
movement's primary aim.

The intrinsically nationalistic character of Genç Kalemler, however, quickly took a

decidedly chauvinistic turn,[21] and other writers—many of whom, like Yakup
Kadri Karaosmanoğlu, had been a part of the Fecr-i Âtî movement—began to
emerge from within the matrix of the National Literature movement to counter
this trend. Some of the more influential writers to come out of this less far-rightist
branch of the National Literature movement were the poet Mehmet Emin
Yurdakul (1869–1944), the early feminist novelist Halide Edip Adıvar (1884–1964),
and the short-story writer and novelist Reşat Nuri Güntekin (1889–1956).

Republican literatureEdit

Following the Ottoman Empire's defeat in the First World War of 1914–1918, the
victorious Entente Powers began the process of carving up the empire's lands
and placing them under their own spheres of influence. In opposition to this
process, the military leader Mustafa Kemal (1881–1938), in command of the
growing Turkish national movement whose roots lay partly in the Young Turks,
organized the 1919–1923 Turkish War of Independence. This war ended with the
official ending of the Ottoman Empire, the expulsion of the Entente Powers, and
the founding of the Republic of Turkey.

The literature of the new republic emerged largely from the pre-independence
National Literature movement, with its roots simultaneously in the Turkish folk
tradition and in the Western notion of progress. One important change to Turkish
literature was enacted in 1928, when Mustafa Kemal initiated the creation and
dissemination of a modified version of the Latin alphabet to replace the Arabic-
based Ottoman script. Over time, this change—together with changes in Turkey's
system of education—would lead to more widespread literacy in the country [22]
albeit the access of new generations was broken off with immense corpus of
written culture of 1000 years.

Prose Edit
Main article: Prose of the Republic of Turkey
Memed, My Hawk
(1955), by Yaşar Kemal Tutunamayanlar
(1972), by Oğuz Atay
Stylistically, the prose of the early years of the Republic of Turkey was essentially
a continuation of the National Literature movement, with Realism and Naturalism
predominating. This trend culminated in the 1932 novel Yaban ("The Wilds"), by
Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu. This novel can be seen as the precursor to two
trends that would soon develop:[23] social realism, and the "village novel" (köy
romanı). Çalıkuşu ("The Wren") by Reşat Nuri Güntekin addresses a similar theme
with the works of Karaosmanoğlu. Güntekin's narrative has a detailed and precise
style, with a realistic tone.

The social realist movement is perhaps best represented by the short-story writer
Sait Faik Abasıyanık (1906–1954), whose work sensitively and realistically treats
the lives of cosmopolitan Istanbul's lower classes and ethnic minorities, subjects
which led to some criticism in the contemporary nationalistic atmosphere.[24]
The tradition of the "village novel", on the other hand, arose somewhat later. As
its name suggests, the "village novel" deals, in a generally realistic manner, with
life in the villages and small towns of Turkey. The major writers in this tradition
are Kemal Tahir (1910–1973), Orhan Kemal (1914–1970), and Yaşar Kemal
(1923[?]–2015). Yaşar Kemal, in particular, has earned fame outside of Turkey not
only for his novels—many of which, such as 1955's İnce Memed (Memed, My
Hawk), elevate local tales to the level of epic—but also for his firmly leftist
political stance. In a very different tradition, but evincing a similar strong political
viewpoint, was the satirical short-story writer Aziz Nesin (1915–1995) and Rıfat
Ilgaz(1911–1993).

Another novelist contemporary to, but outside of, the social realist and "village
novel" traditions is Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar (1901–1962). In addition to being an
important essayist and poet, Tanpınar wrote a number of novels—such as Huzur
("A Mind at Peace", 1949) and Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü ("The Time Regulation
Institute", 1961)—which dramatize the clash between East and West in modern
Turkish culture and society. Similar problems are explored by the novelist and
short-story writer Oğuz Atay (1934–1977). Unlike Tanpınar, however, Atay—in
such works as his long novel Tutunamayanlar ("The Good for Nothing", 1971–
1972) and his short story "Beyaz Mantolu Adam" ("Man in a White Coat", 1975)—
wrote in a more modernist and existentialist vein. On the other hand, Onat
Kutlar's İshak ("Isaac", 1959), composed of nine short stories which are written
mainly from a child's point of view and are often surrealistic and mystical,
represent a very early example of magic realism.

Orhan Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature

The tradition of literary modernism also informs the work of female novelist
Adalet Ağaoğlu (1929– ). Her trilogy of novels collectively entitled Dar Zamanlar
("Tight Times", 1973–1987), for instance, examines the changes that occurred in
Turkish society between the 1930s and the 1980s in a formally and technically
innovative style. Orhan Pamuk (1952– ), winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in
Literature, is another such innovative novelist, though his works—such as 1990's
Beyaz Kale ("The White Castle") and Kara Kitap ("The Black Book") and 1998's
Benim Adım Kırmızı ("My Name is Red")—are influenced more by postmodernism
than by modernism. This is true also of Latife Tekin (1957– ), whose first novel
Sevgili Arsız Ölüm ("Dear Shameless Death", 1983) shows the influence not only
of postmodernism, but also of magic realism.

The Republican establishment and later corporate sponsors strictly controlled the
literary environment by employing poets and writers as bureaucrats, providing
subsidies to journals, arranging publishing opportunities for the works of the
favored names. Many of the names above were favored by the Kemalist
establishment by making them deputies, advisors and public servants.

Today similar biased tendency still persists. Most of the names quoted above
have secular and pro-western ideology. Yet there have been and still are
traditional and religious literary figures with huge following who have been kept
out the literary circles. The zealous poet and polemicist Necip Fazıl Kısakürek is
known for his lifelong struggle against the one party rule and Kemalism and spent
years in prison as a result. Nuri Pakdil, Cahit Zarifoğlu, Erdem Bayazıt, Mehmet
Akif İnan are other notable poets in the way of Muslim-traditional lineage. In the
short story field, Rasim Özdenören, Mustafa Kutlu and Ramazan Dikmen have
become prominent.

Only recently the secular, pro-establishment authors and poets began to utilize
traditional and native imagery partly as a result of the western curiosity towards
an exotic "Orient", mysticism and Sufism. Pamuk's novels exemplify this tendency
a lot.

The effect of the cultural change especially thanks to alphabet change impacted
vastly imagery and style of the Turkish Republican literature.

A recent study by Can and Patton[25] provides a quantitative analysis of

twentieth century Turkish literature using forty novels of forty authors ranging
from Mehmet Rauf's (1875-1931) Eylül (1901) to Ahmet Altan's (1950-) Kılıç
Yarası Gibi (1998). They show using statistical analysis that, as time passes,
words, in terms of both tokens (in text) and types (in vocabulary), have become
longer. They indicate that the increase in word lengths with time can be
attributed to the government-initiated language reform of the 20th century.[26]
This reform aimed at replacing foreign words used in Turkish, especially Arabic-
and Persian-based words (since they were in majority when the reform was
initiated in the early 1930s), with newly coined pure Turkish neologisms created
by adding suffixes to Turkish word stems. Can and Patton;[25] based on their
observations of the change of a specific word use (more specifically in newer
works the preference of "ama" over "fakat", both borrowed from Arabic and
meaning 'but', and their inverse usage correlation is statistically significant); also
speculate that the word length increase can influence the common word choice
preferences of authors.
Poetry Edit
Main article: Poetry of the Republic of Turkey
Nazım Hikmet (1902–1963) introduced the free verse style into Turkish poetry.
In the early years of the Republic of Turkey, there were a number of poetic trends.
Authors such as Ahmed Hâşim and Yahyâ Kemâl Beyatlı (1884–1958) continued to
write important formal verse whose language was, to a great extent, a
continuation of the late Ottoman tradition. By far the majority of the poetry of the
time, however, was in the tradition of the folk-inspired "syllabist" movement (Beş
Hececiler), which had emerged from the National Literature movement and which
tended to express patriotic themes couched in the syllabic meter associated with
Turkish folk poetry.

The first radical step away from this trend was taken by Nâzım Hikmet Ran, who
—during his time as a student in the Soviet Union from 1921 to 1924—was
exposed to the modernist poetry of Vladimir Mayakovsky and others, which
inspired him to start writing verse in a less formal style. At this time, he wrote the
poem "Açların Gözbebekleri" ("Pupils of the Hungry"), which introduced free verse
into the Turkish language for, essentially, the first time.[27] Much of Nâzım
Hikmet's poetry subsequent to this breakthrough would continue to be written in
free verse, though his work exerted little influence for some time due largely to
censorship of his work owing to his Communist political stance, which also led to
his spending several years in prison. Over time, in such books as Simavne Kadısı
Oğlu Şeyh Bedreddin Destanı ("The Epic of Shaykh Bedreddin, Son of Judge
Simavne", 1936) and Memleketimden İnsan Manzaraları ("Human Landscapes
from My Country", 1939), he developed a voice simultaneously proclamatory and
subtle.

Orhan Veli Kanık (1914-1950) was the founder of the Garip Movement in Turkish
poetry.
Another revolution in Turkish poetry came about in 1941 with the publication of a
small volume of verse preceded by an essay and entitled Garip ("Strange"). The
authors were Orhan Veli Kanık (1914–1950), Melih Cevdet Anday (1915–2002),
and Oktay Rifat (1914–1988). Explicitly opposing themselves to everything that
had gone in poetry before, they sought instead to create a popular art, "to
explore the people's tastes, to determine them, and to make them reign supreme
over art".[28] To this end, and inspired in part by contemporary French poets like
Jacques Prévert, they employed not only a variant of the free verse introduced by
Nâzım Hikmet, but also highly colloquial language, and wrote primarily about
mundane daily subjects and the ordinary man on the street. The reaction was
immediate and polarized: most of the academic establishment and older poets
vilified them, while much of the Turkish population embraced them
wholeheartedly. Though the movement itself lasted only ten years—until Orhan
Veli's death in 1950, after which Melih Cevdet Anday and Oktay Rifat moved on to
other styles—its effect on Turkish poetry continues to be felt today.

Just as the Garip movement was a reaction against earlier poetry, so—in the
1950s and afterwards—was there a reaction against the Garip movement. The
poets of this movement, soon known as İkinci Yeni ("Second New",[29]) opposed
themselves to the social aspects prevalent in the poetry of Nâzım Hikmet and the
Garip poets, and instead—partly inspired by the disruption of language in such
Western movements as Dada and Surrealism—sought to create a more abstract
poetry through the use of jarring and unexpected language, complex images, and
the association of ideas. To some extent, the movement can be seen as bearing
some of the characteristics of postmodern literature. The most well-known poets
writing in the "Second New" vein were Turgut Uyar (1927–1985), Edip Cansever
(1928–1986), Cemal Süreya (1931–1990), Ece Ayhan (1931–2002), Sezai Karakoç
(1933- ), İlhan Berk (1918–2008).

Outside of the Garip and "Second New" movements also, a number of significant
poets have flourished, such as Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca (1914–2008), who wrote
poems dealing with fundamental concepts like life, death, God, time, and the
cosmos; Behçet Necatigil (1916–1979), whose somewhat allegorical poems
explore the significance of middle-class daily life; Can Yücel (1926–1999), who—in
addition to his own highly colloquial and varied poetry—was also a translator into
Turkish of a variety of world literature; İsmet Özel (1944– ), whose early poetry
was highly leftist but whose poetry since the 1970s has shown a strong mystical
and even Islamist influence; and Hasan Hüseyin Korkmazgil (1927-1984) who
wrote collectivist-realist poetry.

Book Trade Edit

30,000 new titles appear yearly, often in small numbers. 9 verso 17 Euro (pro
pocket book/hardcover) - at an average earning of less than 600 Euro monthly -
are rather unattractive, where illegal copies at bazaars cost two thirds less.
"Official Certificates" for legally published books do not solve the problem,
because controlling the illegal book trade remains difficult.

5,000 of 10,000 book shops in Turkey are in Istanbul, including the bookfair and
growing licence trading. Turkey was a guest of honour at the Frankfurt Bookfair in
2008.[30]

Important works of fiction: 1860–present Edit

İbrahim Şinasi
Halide Edip Adıvar
Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil
Sabahattin Ali
Tarık Buğra
Oğuz Atay
Füruzan
Halikarnas Balıkçısı
1860 Şair Evlenmesi İbrahim Şinasi
1873 Vatan Yahut Silistre Namık Kemal
1900 Aşk-ı Memnu Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil
1919 Memleket Hikayeleri Refik Halit Karay
1922 Çalıkuşu Reşat Nuri Güntekin
1930 Dokuzuncu Hariciye Koğuşu Peyami Safa
1932 Yaban Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu
1936 Sinekli Bakkal Halide Edip Adıvar
1938 Üç İstanbul Mithat Cemal Kuntay
1941 Fahim Bey ve Biz Abdülhak Şinasi Hisar
1943 Kürk Mantolu Madonna Sabahattin Ali
1944 Aganta Burina Burinata Halikarnas Balıkçısı
1949 Huzur Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar
1952 Dost Vüs'at O. Bener
1954 Alemdağda Var Bir Yılan Sait Faik Abasıyanık
1954 Bereketli Topraklar Üzerinde Orhan Kemal
1955 İnce Memet Yaşar Kemal
1956 Esir Şehrin İnsanları Kemal Tahir
1959 Yılanların Öcü Fakir Baykurt
1959 Aylak Adam Yusuf Atılgan
1960 Ortadirek Yaşar Kemal
1962 Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar
1964 Küçük Ağa Tarık Buğra
1966 Memleketimden İnsan Manzaraları Nâzım Hikmet
1971 Tutunamayanlar Oğuz Atay
1973 Parasız Yatılı Füruzan
1973 Anayurt Oteli Yusuf Atılgan
1979 Bir Düğün Gecesi Adalet Ağaoğlu
1982 Cevdet Bey ve Oğulları Orhan Pamuk
1983 Sevgili Arsız Ölüm Latife Tekin
1985 Gece Bilge Karasu
1990 Kara Kitap Orhan Pamuk
1995 Puslu Kıtalar Atlası İhsan Oktay Anar
1998 Benim Adım Kırmızı Orhan Pamuk
2002 Tol Murat Uyurkulak
2005 Uykuların Doğusu Hasan Ali Toptaş
See also Edit

Contemporary Turkish literature

Azerbaijani literature
Chagatai language
Codex Cumanicus