Social themes in Mustafa Lutfî el-Menfelûtî and Ahmet Hashim: A comparative study

The Ottoman State, which had been under the influence of the West since the seventeenth century, began a number of modernization movements in the political, social and cultural fields, primarily with state institutions. Innovations that were initially given a start to meet the needs in institutional areas have slowly spread to the social sphere and turned into a social and cultural phenomenon. Western modern ideas and discourses have been reflected in art and literature together with the educated intellectual group that received Western-style education. Since many of them were employed in important positions in the state, they have dealt with problems originating from language and contributed to the development of poetry and writing. Under the influence of Western writers they encountered in schools, they have made efforts to bring new literary genres to their own literature and to localize them. Thus, while on the one hand New Turkish Literature was trying to find its color in Anatolia, on the other hand, Modern Arabic Literature in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon developed by feeding from Western sources. The new literature attracted attention everywhere with the publishing activity facilitated by the printing press. Newspapers and magazines took on more than journalism and pioneered the recognition of new literary genres. The intellectual movements formed by poets and writers coming together brought new movements to literature. In Egypt, the Ihya movement and the Divanists, in Turkey the Tanzimatists and the Servet-i Fünûnists met with the readers with the claim of achieving firsts in literature. A great number of writers were raised around the movements accepted as the voice of innovation. While Mustafa Lutfî el-Menfelûtî ensured the transition of the short story and novel genres to Arabic literature in the modern sense in Egypt, Ahmet Haşim brought symbolism to the new Turkish literature with his poetry in Turkey and also gave local examples of the essay, memoir and article genres. The writers who lived in close periods witnessed the last century of the Ottoman Empire and wrote articles documenting the agenda of the period. In these articles, they addressed political, religious, social and cultural themes that were in question in daily life and within this scope, they dealt with justice, freedom, morality, education, suicide, working conditions and male-female relations in the social environment. The author's articles published in the newspapers and later compiled into books were examined by the subject of comparisons. According to this, it was determined that Menfeluti and Hashim showed similarities in social and cultural themes and sometimes they were similarly and sometimes they differed in religious and political themes. Keywords Comparative Literature, Modern Arabic Literature, New Turkish Literature, Mustafa Lutfi al-Menfaluti, Ahmet Hashim, Social Themes.