Özet
IDENTITY OF BALKANITE IN TURKISH LITERATURE AND LEGITIMATION VALUES
Balkan Wars had traumatic effects on the society during the period of dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Nationalism had been on the rise for a long time. It grew into source of motivation for gaining independence among Balkanite states. Before the inversion of independence desire into physical conflict, each of the those states had tried to create a unique identity. Against this identity there is “Ottoman” and “Turkish” as an “other”. Tensed approaches between those two counterpowers had an extensive coverage in Ottoman and Turkish literature especially under the nationalism discourses. Both of the opposite poles questioned the legitimacy and justice of the “other”. One of the outstanding efforts is the stories by Ömer Seyfettin about the period. Sometimes, author holds up the efforts for independence by Balkanite states as an example to Turkish society and other times tres to prove incorrectness of these movements on the level of fiction. For this reason Balkanite identity in these stories has bears of the characteristics of the “other”. While Ömer Seyfettin legitimizes Turkish identity and Turkish nationalism he naturally delegitimizes “other” and opposite nationalism movements. Analyzing the methods of delegitimization is important in terms of revealing mind map of him and nationalist thought. In this paper, by looking at this presupposition, counter values in short stories will be studied. For this, one of the important scholars of ideology theory, Teun van Dijk’s discourse modes will be used that allows discourse analysis. According to this each ideology stresses weakness of the “other” in order to strengthe its own values and statement. “Values”, “way of living” and “opinions” of the counter one of the “other” delegitimized. In that way good sides of “us” become more distinct. For this reason apart from other discourse chances legitimization modes of nationalist stories are often get attention in the short stories of Ömer Seyfettin. Evaluation of his general identity discourse in this way will enable us to see the point of view and conception between these two poles and also the map of the relations until today on the literary field will be clarified.
Anahtar Kelimeler
Turkish literature, Balkanite identity, Ömer Seyfettin, nationalism, discourse analysis.