Özet:

One of the most distinguished names of Turkish cultural life, Mehmet Fuat Köprülü produced numerous works that provided identity to many fields, from literature to history, art to politics, sociology to religion and Sufism. Köprülü holds an especially valuable status for Turkish literature. It was Köprülü to have Turkish literature acquire methodology and discipline by means of initiating literary historiography. Among his many works, the discussions deemed crucial in literary history, those which are also the topic of this study, and the opinions he put forth about literary personages on the one side of these discussions are highly significant. As important as his criticism on the polemics he witnessed, Köprülü’s being personally involved in and a side to these debates due to being a member of the Fecr-i Âti community renders his criticisms and evaluations invaluable. The debate over the “old-new,” one which occupied the Turkish literary agenda for a long time and one that was kept alive by the members of the Fecr-i Âti community, is among the issues brought up by Köprülü. Furthermore, being in the focus of the “old-new” debate, Muallim Nâci is also the target of the author’s criticisms. Being an advocate of the “new” and demonstrating a completely negative stance towards Muallim Nâci and the group that supported the “old,” Köprülü wrote five articles pertaining to the person and the debates mentioned. This study aims to analytically approach Köprülü’s criticisms on and evaluations of Muallim Nâci and the “old-new” debate in accordance with the period’s literary inclinations.

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