Social life in the 19th Centurybased on divans

Social life, briefly described as "the history of ordinary people", indicates a very wide vital area whose boundaries cannot be clearly drawn. Social life, which is the expression of the totality of actions and relations developed individually and socially, has great importance in the formation of social order. In addition to containing all the material and spiritual cultural elements, it is a broad memory that records the individual's instant reflexes, situational behaviors, intuitive movements and many other characteristics. This memory embodies every detail of human life, from eating and drinking to clothing, from entertainment to architecture, from traditions and beliefs to sports, from literature to music, in a section of history depending on the variables of time and place. Therefore, social life, which has an influential power in the artistic activities of the society, has a structure that both shapes art and is shaped by art. In this context, it is necessary to talk about a mutual influence between literature and social life, and even to state that literature has a documentary value that can provide serious data about social life. As a matter of fact, it is not possible for an artist who grows up within the framework of social value judgments and cultural acceptances to carry out his artistic activities independently of these. There is no doubt that classical Turkish literature, which produced its products in such an environment, is one of the main reference sources for research on the social life of its period. Social life studies in divan poetry, which started as a section in analytical studies, has now become an independent field of research and has put an end to the criticisms that this literature was disconnected from social life and far from the life of the period since the Tanzimat period. This thesis, which is a continuation of the aforementioned studies, has been prepared with the aim of identifying the elements of social life in 19th century divan poetry. Thirty divans that were able to represent their era in terms of social life were selected and scanned; the data obtained were classified and evaluated in ten sections: settlement centers, transportation and communication, food and beverage, clothing, entertainment and festivals, sports activities, musical culture, architecture, traditions and beliefs and health. After presenting the relevant book information under each heading, sample texts are presented for the benefit of the scientific community, including their explanations.