“Öztürkçeciliğin” Edebî Eserlere Yansıması

Abstract

Literature is not immune to the changes brought about by social events. The same holds for the main literary genres, novel and stage play. One can detect the effects of the social, political, cultural atmosphere and the dominant ideology of the period in many works of literature. On the other hand literature plays key roles in shaping and transforming society. In the early years of the Turkish Republic in 1930s, cultural studies were considered of vital importance. These cultural studies were centered around ‘’Turkish History’’ and ‘’Turkish Language’’. These studies led to many different perspectives and discussions. One of the hot topics had been the creation of an ‘’Öztürkçe’’ vocabulary and literature. The social, cultural and political practices of the early Republic found their way in works of literature. The Republican Revolution put novel and stage-plays in the service of legitimating and propagating its ideology. Va-nu’s Savaştan Barışa is the first and only novel penned with ‘’Öztürkçe’’ vocabulary. Münir Hayri (Egeli)’s stage plays Bir Ülkü Yolu, Taş Bebek and Bayönder also made use of ‘’Öztürkçe’’ vocabulary. In this article we examined how the hot topic of 1930s namely ‘’Öztürkçe’’ had its echoes in certain literary works of that period.