Eurocentrism in Tanpınar's criticism of poetry

Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar (1901-62), who was one of the most original writersof modern Turkish literature, especially with his novels and poems, had alsocontributed to Turkish literary studies by various articles, essays, and his well-knownhistory of the nineteenth-century Turkish literature. In his articles and essays,Tanpınar placed special emphasis on the genre of poetry and interpreted thedevelopment of Turkish literature by putting poetry in the center.This thesis aims to analyze Tanpınar?s writings about poetry in general, andOttoman poetry and Yahya Kemal Beyatlı (1884-1958) in particular, and to explorehis conception of fine arts and his Eurocentric approach.In the first part, entitled ?An Overview of Tanpınar?s Criticism of Poetry?, abrief chronological outline of the body of his writings about ?Criticism?, ?Poetry?,?Ottoman poetry?, and ?Yahya Kemal? is provided.The second part of the thesis, entitled ?Elements of Tanpınar?s Criticism ofPoetry?, consists of two subsections: ?Critical Interpretation According to Fine Arts?and ?Constructing Continuity in Poetic Language: Selectivity?. The first subsectionexplores Tanpınar?s understanding of poetry as a fine art and his definition of it interms of the characteristics of the fine arts. The second subsection discussesTanpınar?s re-construction of a ?classical? tradition by an intentional selection ofpoets from Yunus Emre to Yahya Kemal in the context of poetic language and hisEurocentric perspective.Tanpınar re-constructs this line of continuity by selecting verses, couplets,and poems according to European literatures, especially French literary norms, whilevaluing them with the conceptions of European arts, and finally making thementioned line ?Europeanized?. At the same time, he ?orientalizes? the Ottomanpoetic tradition and makes modern Turkish poetry subordinate to it, with theexception of Yahya Kemal.Key Words: poetry, fine arts, tradition, Eurocentrism