Tanzimat Period In Turkish Literature

Zevce , written by Hovsep Maruş, are analyzed narratologically. In the first section of the study, different basic terms and approaches related to narratology are examined. In the second and third sections of the study, the novels are discussed in terms of narrator(s),

(https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/ottoman-culture-and-the-project-of-modernity-reform-and-translation-in-the-tanzimat-novel/ch12-the-tanzimat-period-and-its-diverse-cultures-of-translation-towards-new-thinking-in-comparative-literature). 

With increasing attention to world literature and transnational literary studies, scholars have been looking for new avenues to locate networks of circulations and translations beyond national borders. The nineteenth-century as the age of global canonization, in this respect, plays a significant role in the historiography of world literature, which associates the non-European literatures of the epoch with the universal imitation of Western literary forms and norms. This essay defines the nineteenth-century Ottoman literary field as a complex multilingual literary system and shows that the Tanzimat authors and translators formed networks of dissemination and circulation that is incompatible with center-periphery cartographies of world literature. By foregrounding examples of regionally marked translational concepts, practices and institutions, this essay embeds Tanzimat literary translation practices in questions that move the field of Comparative Literature today. It proposes the Tanzimat novel as a new model for thinking about literary comparativism outside of national and universalist paradigms.

Ahmet Midhat Efendi’s famous 1875 novel Felâtun Bey and Râkim Efendi takes place in late nineteenth-century Istanbul and follows the lives of two young men who come from radically different backgrounds. Râkim Efendi is an erudite, self-made man, one who is ambitious and cultivated enough to mingle with a European crowd. In contrast, Felâtun Bey is a spendthrift who lacks intellectual curiosity and a strong work ethic. Squandering his wealth and education, he leads a life of decadence.

The novel traces Râkim and Felâtun’s relationships with multiple characters, charting their romances and passions, as well as their foibles and amusing mishaps as they struggle to find and follow their own path through the many temptations and traps of European culture. The author creates a rich portrait of stratified Ottoman life through a diverse and colorful cast of characters—from a French piano teacher and an Arab nanny, to a Circassian slave girl—each deftly navigating the shifting mores of their social class. Written during the Ottoman Empire’s uneasy transition to modernity, the novel’s protagonists embody both the best and worst elements of two worlds, European and Ottoman. The novel provides readers with an elegant yet powerful appeal for progressive reforms and individual freedoms. Levi and Ringer’s fluid translation of this Ottoman classic stands as a landmark in the history of Turkish literature in translation.