Abstract:

The history of the 19th century Turkish literature is also a history of modernization. This modernization movement also shows itself within the language and literary movement. In this period, when the Western norms are presented as a prescription of liberation against the traditional by the pioneering names of the renewal, old-new comparisons and conflicts occur in many areas. Particularly the old-new discussions in the context of poetry divide the literaries of the time in a polarization degree. The “new” of Western literature; the Divan literature, the classical poem perception and the world of thought that forms this poem, and the norms that form the Eastern culture are defined as “old” in these discussions, the boundaries are quite moderate. It is sufficient to mention it with praise from the Divan poem once and once to be perceived as "new" opposition. In these discussions there are also two friend poets, Muallim Naci and Sheikh Vasfî Efendi, named as the defenders of the "old" names. The work, which consists of the two poets' mutual letters, is a very important source in terms of the view of the literary debates of the period by Muallim Naci and Sheikh Vasfî. The work consists of 12 letters that show that the two poets know the tradition very well and that they are very open to development and innovation. In this study, in the light of such letters, the old-new discussions of Muallim Naci and Sheikh Vasfi have been studied in literature and poetry. The study found that the two poets did not break their bonds from the tradition they raised in, but they were not closed to innovation and modernity, and they looked at the literary work with a perception of beauty far from the Eastern-West context.

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Abstract:

The history of 19th century Turkish literature is also a history of modernization. This modernization movement also shows itself in the language and literature movement. In this period when Western norms are presented as a prescription for salvation against the traditional by the pioneers of innovation, old-new comparisons and conflicts are experienced in many areas. Especially in the context of poetry, the old-new debates differentiate the literati of the period to the degree of polarization. In these literary debates, Divan literature, Classical poetry perception and the world of thought forming this poem are targeted. The “new” of Western literature in the French literature; The boundaries are very sharp in these debates, where the norms that constitute the Eastern corpus in the Divan literature are defined as "old". The praise of Divan poetry just once is enough to be perceived as the opposite of "new". In these discussions, there are also two friendly poets Muallim Naci and Şeyh Vasfî Efendi, whose names are known as the advocates of the "ancient". The work named Şöyle Böyle, which consists of the mutual correspondence of two poets, is very important in terms of revealing their perspective on literature within the literary discussions of the period. The work consists of 12 letters showing that both poets know the tradition very well and internalize it, as well as being very open to development and innovation. In this study, in the light of such letters, Muallim Naci and Şeyh Vasfi's perspectives on literature and poetry in the old-new discussions were examined. As a result of the investigations, it was concluded that both poets did not break their ties with the tradition in which they grew up, but they were not caught up in innovation and modernity, and they viewed the work with a perception of beauty away from the East-West context.