A look over the first novels of Turkish Republican era through secular criticism and "laic" law

In this thesis, I have focused on the long-run development of the "laic" law making process in the Turkish-Ottoman Empire, which would culminate in, epitomize around and strongly root by the declaration of the Turkish Republic. This historical background study serves, for the purpose of the thesis, to describe the effect of the laic system of law on the social and private transformation of the new republicans and their representations in the early republican period novels. I have resorted to the ideas in the "secular criticism" of Edward Said, for the analysis of how a conscious mind should act versus systemic and dogmatic challenges presented by cultural structures; and through Charles Taylor's definition of "secular", as described in its book "Secular Age", on the possibilities of a societal structure that allows individuals to find their own "completeness" through life experiences devoid of all religious calls. I have reflected Said and Taylor's approaches on Feride Müfit Tek's novel "Pervaneler", Suat Derviş' novel "Bu Roman Olan Şeylerin Romanıdır" and Musa Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı's (Halikarnas Balıkçısı) novel "Aganta Burina Burinata", in which education system, nature-human relations and labour and exploitation issues are questioned. The narration and characters are explored, in connection with the legal codifications and developments of their time, to find out whether the cultural implications of the society's developing secular identity, leads, in return, to individual secular transformations. The novels are examined through realist and social realist literature theories to follow the era's general climate.