Tanzimat authors' concept of child earing

Increasing relations between the Ottoman and the West in the Tanzimat period, caused major changes in the Ottoman society. One of these important changes is seen in concept of childhood and child rearing culture. Because how to raise a new generation determines what kind of society to build. This study, which focuses on traditional and modern childhood understanding and rearing culture seen in the Ottoman society in the Tanzimat period, consists of two parts. It aims to examine the view of Tanzimat novelists, who are the intellectuals of their time, to the issue. In the First Chapter, with reference to the idea that childhood is a social category, the course of change of childhood understanding in the West and the Ottoman is discussed under three headings: traditional, modern and postmodern. It is pointed out that the understanding of childhood has changed with the economic, political and cultural environment. The subject is tried to be examined around factors such as the establishment of nation states by the disappearance of empires, the birth of the middle class, technological developments and globalization. Subsequently, four basic approaches (psychological, sociological, biological, anthroplogical) addressing concept of adolesence mentioned. Finally, reasons for the emergence of adolescence and related problems are assess by using anthroplogical approach. In the Second Chapter, Ahmet Midhat, Namık Kemal, Recaizade Mahmud Ekrem, Şemseddin Sami, Samipaşazade Sezai, Fatma Aliye and Mehmed Murad's opinions about sociohistorical change of childhood understanding and rearing culture are worked through both their novels and non-fiction works. Envisagements of the authors on the Tanzimat generation, which they see as the future of Ottoman society, are examined. Each author is examined under separate titles and so their opinions and suggestions are intended to be addressed in accordance with their own-particulars.