Textual ambivalence in Ahmet Mithat Efendi?s novels

This thesis, following an analysis of Ahmet Mithat Efendi?s novels Felâtun Bey ile Râkım Efendi, Dürdâne Hanım, Taaffüf, Mesâil-i Muğlâka and Jön Türk, will discuss the textual gaps, contradictions, and ?ambivalences? that arise in these texts as regards societal order, religion, justice, slavery, and the social status of women. To this end, the thesis will expose the ideological background that underlies these narratives by following a ?narrator?-focused approach in accordance with the work of Gérard Genette, and by simultaneously asking not just the ?primary questions?, but also the ?secondary questions?, as proposed by Pierre Macherey, in such a way as to demonstrate the ?textual ambivalence? that these texts conceal.Ultimately, the thesis will demonstrate that?contrary to what has been assumed in previous studies on Ahmet Mithat Efendi?the ?narrator? of the texts in question cannot be immediately read as ?singular?, ?dominant?, and ?authorial?, and that the heretofore undealt-with ?textual ambivalences? that arise from Ahmet Mithat Efendi?s narratives in such contexts reveal the ethical and epistemological contradiction that is determinant of the Tanzimat period.