The sacular-sacred dilemma in novel characters in early Republican Era

This dissertation aims to discuss the phenomenon of modernization which is one of the most important issues in the novels that were published in between 1920 and 1950 when rapid social transformations were prevalent, by means of the secular/sacred controversy. The mentioned period, which started when the First Assembly was established during the Turkish War of Indepence and lasted until the end of the One-Party era, was an active period of significant political and sociological developments for Turkish history. The adoption of a modernization project accelerated the efforts for westernization that were present since the 18th century and consequently, society was secularized both at the institutional and civillian levels. The reflections of this rapid intellectual transformation can be followed by analyzing the novel characters of this period which were build on the dichotomies of old/new, traditional/modern, East/West, and sacred/secular. The most important factor that plays a role in these dichotomies is religion, which is itself affected maximally by the modernization processes. The importation of the Western modernity in which the movements of the Enlightenment and the Reform played sifnificant roles to Turkish society which did not essentially experience western intellectual tranformations, placed the percepiton of religion to an ambigous position between the traditional and the secular. It is important to analyze the roles that are played by the novel characters in this controversy in order to shed light on the sociological foundations of Turkish fiction. Keywords: Modernity, Secularization, Religion, Literary Theory, Turkish Fiction, Early Republican Era