Development of urban imagery in Turkey: Western city in Early-Republican texts

The aim of this study is a reading of the travel notes of Turkish early-Republican intellectuals, who have traveled to the West, regarding their glance/look to the city, city life, citizenship, modernisation, and the ?West?. This view is to be worthy of studying upon, because the identity of this figure, as ?Turkish traveler? corresponds to the early-Republican intellectual who is also a modernizer as well as a politics figure of the young Republic. He represents the period, and plays an active role in the forming of the future Turkish city, in means of urban planning and architecture. The study consists of six chapters. In the introduction, the grounds and significance of travel and travel texts were discussed with the aim of describing the context in which the early- Republican Turkish traveler appeared and information about the travel books, used in this study, was given. In the second chapter, a short history of the Ottoman-Turkish travel literature was introduced, with the same purpose. In the third chapter, observations of the Turkish traveler, within the city and urban life of the Western world were discussed, through examination and interpretation of the quotations from the travel books, subject to this study. The information and observations narrated in the texts were reviewed, according to themes such as historical consciousness, publicity in the context of public, private and urban space, open space, buildings, city transportation, social affairs, etc. Relevant discussion and comments were placed both throughout the study and in the conclusion. In the fourth chapter, short biographies of the authors of the travel books, information about their education and knowledge sources, the circumstances and goals of their journey to the West, and their common identity, beyond the period and the intention of the journeys were explored. The identification was assessed as a data that this traveler figure, visiting the Western world, also represents, the elite bureaucrats and politicians of the young Rebuplic. In the fifth chapter, the concepts, `West?, `East? and the `Other? were discussed and defined as they are stated in the post-colonial and psychoanalytic language. These concepts were attempted to interrelate with the images formed and with the images that already existed in the mind of Turkish traveler, regarding his perception of the Western city. The Turkish traveler figure was discussed together and in comparison with other observers of the modern city. The conclusion and assessment of the study, were demonstrated partly in the section, where the data of the study, namely the observations of the city were narrated , moreover in the fifth and sixth chapters where the figure of `Turkish observer? and his techniques of seeing were discussed, regarding the reflections of the city. Key Words: City, citizen, space, public space, private space, identity, east/west, the other, post-colonial, visuality, Turkey, modernity,urban planning, representation, orientalism, flaneur