19th century ottoman society and printed Turkish literature: Interactions, exchanges, and diversity

This dissertation is built on the proposition that the majority of literary histories hitherto written on 19th century Ottoman Turkish literature reflects a very limited part of the object of investigation, selected generally according to non-literary criteria. Consequently, it is asserted that most of the research and examination relying on these sources is inadequate in comprehending the true nature of Ottoman literary universe.In this study, in order to overcome this problem of short-sightedness about the object of investigation, it is deemed necessary to depict an accurate map of printed literary texts in Turkish and focus on the medium that creates literature. To achieve this, a database is formed comprising bibliographic data on texts printed in Turkish in Arabic, Armenian and Greek letters between the years 1800-1900, and a new method of classification and counting is developed according to the specific needs of the material collected.Afterwards, the chronological trends of literary genres and their production in ratios are revealed. Through this, various tools are created for questioning set periodizations and fixed judgements about the field. By interpreting these tools in tandem with the historical, political and socio-cultural developments of the era, and in comparison to literature in manuscript form, the following main observations and conclusions, among others, are made:First, it is demonstrated that literature is the key field to understanding the modernization venture of the Ottoman Empire. Secondly, it is observed that there had been a closer literary interaction and exchange among the Muslim and non-Muslim communities of the Empire than that is supposed in contemporary assumption. Thirdly, it is found out that the advancements in printing and publishing caused a dramatic shift from oral and written culture to print culture that gave rise to social and literary transformations. Lastly, the effects of this transformation on classical, traditional and modern literary forms are discussed, and fresh areas of research are presented.