Debate (Munazara) in classical Turkish literature

This dissertation examines literary debates in classical Turkish literature produced during the period XI-XIXth centuries. In the first chapter, the theoretical framework of the subject is tried to be drawn. For this purpose, the meaning of the debate/munazara in lexicon as well as in logic and literature is examined. Besides, the problematic of its being genre or form was argued. To shed light on the latter issue, features of the both were explained. In the second chapter, explaining the term "debate/munazara" as one of the oldest literary genres, we discuss how Turkish literature was incorporated into this tradition, and debates in world literatures were illuminated. Within this scope, we examine certain debate works in Sumerian, Akkadian, Ancient Egypt, Greek, Syriac, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Latin, English, French and German literatures. In the third chapter, after the classification of Turkish debates by their protagonists, they were put in chronological order. Each of them was analyzed and summarized. At the end of each category, they were comparated. Additionally, studies related to the debate works were explained as much as sources allow. In the last chapter, in the light of the information provided in the previous chapter, the features of Turkish debate works were determined and classified according to various aspects and some texts that were known as a debate but were not so, were identified. Besides, the general features of the debate works in Turkish folk literature was referred to briefly. At the end, I add to the thesis as a sample work, a hitherto unstudied Ottoman Turkish debate text by providing its transcription and modern Turkish translation.