Literary criticism in Turkey between 1960s and 1970s

My PhD thesis titled as "Literary Criticism in Turkey between 1960s and 1970s" explores and examines the contributions of literary criticism done in Turkish literature between the mentioned dates. The thesis consists of three sections titled as (i) "Conceptual and Historical Background of Criticism", (ii) "Criticism in Turkish Literature (1960-1970)", (iii) "The Bibliography of Literary Criticism between 1960 and 1970". Criticism from the conceptual point of view, the attempts of its interpretation that are reflected in dictionaries, and its position in the philosophical and scientific history are the main objectives discussed in the section "Conceptual and Historical Background of Criticism". It is observed that the roots of the word „criticism‟, its synonyms, and its translations in other languages are dealt in dictionaries and encyclopedias together with explaining the strong relations of the word criticism with other concepts and disciplines. The central section of the thesis is the section of "Criticism in Turkish Literature (1960-1970)". After 1960s, Turkish literature maintained its evolution and development with the influence of previous periods and also with embracing new tendencies. In this period, albeit they pursue composing poetry, Ġkinci Yeni group lost its function of being a new stream in the literature. The existentialist approach, which paved the way for surfacing the problems of content and form in poetry, and constituting the philosophical roots of Ġkinci Yeni, influenced the story literature. There are some teachers of literature writing novels, as also poetry and story, who have no relationship with any streams. One of the main thoughts that have great influences on works in literature is social realism. The various understandings of literary criticism written after 1960s in Turkey are explored by analyzing around 3.000 writings in 20 important journals of literature and 70 books. These all constitute "The Bibliography of Literary Criticism between 1960 and 1970". It is possible to analyze post-1960 understandings of critical literary under four categories: (i) scientific-objective criticism, (ii) subjective-impressionist criticism, (iii) historicist criticism, and (iv) artist criticism. It is observed that the critiques that we considered under these categories developed different understandings. Keywords: Literary criticism, Literary theory, Literary history