The reading world of The Last Ottoman children

This thesis compiles and analyzes the individual reading experiences of children who lived in the Ottoman lands from the Tanzimat Period to the foundation of the Republic (1839-1923) based on their own memories. This study aims to determine the relationship, change and continuity between the childhood reading experiences of individuals who lived in the late Ottoman period and the individualization processes. The hypothesis of the thesis is that there is a cause-effect relationship between the writing of memoirs and individualization. This thesis covers the entire Ottoman lands in terms of space and the period from the Tanzimat to the declaration of the Republic in terms of time. However, the memoirists are concentrated in Istanbul. The literary genre that forms the basis of the thesis is mostly memoirs/autobiographies. No indirect narratives about individuals' reading experiences were included in the assessment. Memoirs that shed light on the subject of the thesis were identified as direct statements belonging to 54 different individuals. The direct statements of these 54 different individuals constituted the sample of the thesis. Document scanning method was used in the data collection process. In the evaluation of the obtained data, "descriptive analysis" and "ethnomethodical analysis", which are included in the qualitative data analysis methods, were used together. The general conclusion drawn from the obtained findings is that readings in childhood contributed to the individualization process of individuals. The hypothesis of the thesis was confirmed. However, individualization did not lead to a large-scale social transformation, did not prevent the collective reading that dominated Ottoman culture, and education was not shaped in this direction. By expanding the sample covered by the thesis to include non-Muslims who were Ottoman citizens and examples from Eastern and Western societies during the same period, the relationship between childhood reading experiences and individualization can be revealed more comprehensively.