New Openings in the Turkish Novel
Novel attains a function far from its traditional features in times of increased social and political conflict and the regression of values. As such, its social function outgrows its essential aim. The novel of the Second Constitutional Era, exhibiting these features, is unique in terms of its novel-reader relations, plot, subject matter and especially structure. In general, the novel of the Second Constitutional Era has an open message, is engaged in the social and political events, and it is imbued with many conflicts from social values to administration, from the conflict between the old-new to the clash between the East-West propelled by westernization, from transforming values to the conflict of mentality and finally to the utopian fantasies of the political and social structures. The political activities developing against the administration before 1908 direct the conflicts in novels. Accordingly, there is both the depression of a certain generation and the political, economic and moral disintegration of a society behind these conflicts. In this regard, novels that aim to question the administration and society, on one hand, try to reflect the corruption in the traditional values of the Turkish society on its way to westernization and the extent this disintegration has reached on an individual and social level. On the other hand, they seek a way out of this corruption through the depiction of their idealistic characters. In conclusion, the novel of the Second Constitutional Era is the novel of a search despite its technical deficiencies. The subjects studied in the novels/short novels/long stories of this period would later be continued by the novelists of the Republican period in both a richer and a more detailed way.
OSMAN GÜNDÜZ
