A Millennium of Turkish Literature: A Concise History

Foreword: A Time-Honored Literature

vii foreword A Time-Honored Literature Talat S. Halman rom Orhon inscriptions to Orhan Pamuk: that could serve as a definition of the life story of Turkish literature from the eighth century a.d. to the present day. A geographic span from Outer Mongolia and the environs of China through Inner Asia, the Caucasus, the Middle East and North Africa, the Balkans and Europe all the way to North America. An amalgam of cultural and literary orientations that has embraced such traditions and influences as Chinese, Indian, Turkic, Mongolian, Uyghur, Russian , Arabo-Persian, Islamic, Sufi, Judaeo-Christian, Greek, Mesopotamian, Roman, Byzantine, European and Mediterranean, Scandinavian, Germanic and British, French and Spanish, North American, and Latin American. Always receptive to the nurturing values, aesthetic tastes, and literary penchants from diverse civilizations, Turkish culture succeeded in evolving a sui generis personality. It clung to its own established traits, yet it was flexible enough to welcome innovations—or even revolutionary change. Among living literatures that preceded Turkish literature, one can cite the Hebrew, Chinese, Greek, Arabic, Persian, German, Indian, Irish, Spanish , and perhaps two or three others. Literature, the premier genre of Turkish culture, had its dawn in Mongolia ’s Orhon Valley, where in the 720s and 730s the Köktürks erected stelae featuring their historical narratives. These inscriptions still stand in situ. They relate the Köktürk experiences of conflict, defeat, and regained sovereignty. In moving terms, they emphasize the importance of cultural authenticity and of a quasi-national consciousness. Turkic poetry made its debut in the Uyghur dialect presumably in the sixth century, although it is difficult to ascertain the exact date. By the tenth century, it had become a living tradition. viii  Foreword The Dede Korkut tales (The Book of Dede Korkut), often characterized as “the Turkish national epic,” probably had their origins in the tenth century , although the epic took about another five centuries to make its transition from the oral tradition to its first written version. It was in the second half of the eleventh century that two early major literary works, Kutadgu Bilig (Wisdom of Royal Glory) and Divanü Lügâti’t Türk (Compendium and Lexicon of Turkish), made their advent. If one disregards all the preceding works (inscriptions, lyric poetry, myths, tales, etc.), these two substantial books mark the outset of Turkish literature. The story of Turkish literature from the eleventh century to the twenty-first is rich and complex, full of firm traditions and daring transformations . It straddles the creative endeavors of small states, tribal communities , and principalities; a major state such as the Selçuk, the expansive and enduring Ottoman Empire, the modern Turkish Republic, and the newly independent Cypriot Turkish and Central Asian Turkic republics. This literature achieved an impressive élan with the work of the humanistic mystic folk poet Yunus Emre, who lived in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. Ottoman literary creativity matured in the fifteenth century and produced its best works until the end of the eighteenth century. In the classical age of Ottoman culture, the urban elite distinguished itself with its prolific corpus of formal lyrics that dealt with empyreal themes but without ignoring real life. Although verse was regarded as intrinsically superior to prose, numerous prose works, principally the ten-volume Seyahatname (Book of Travels) by Evliya Çelebi in the seventeenth century, achieved an enduring place of pride. As the power of the Ottoman Empire waned, intellectuals and writers engaged in a dynamic search for Western aesthetics, genres, and techniques. In the second half of the nineteenth century, European-type fiction, drama, criticism, and newspaper writing gained popularity. As a consequence, Turkish literature embraced Europeanization. With the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923, modern literature gained ascendancy. The leftist poet-playwright Nazım Hikmet revolutionized Turkish poetry and attained to world-class stature. The female novelist Halide Edib (Adıvar) made an impact with her works, some of which she wrote in English and published in England and the United States. The genre of fiction was dominated in the second half of the twentieth century by Yaşar Kemal, whose prolific output came close to securing Foreword  ix a Nobel Prize for him. That honor ultimately was won by a stimulating younger novelist, Orhan Pamuk, in 2006, the first Nobel ever for a Turk in any field. It stands as the culmination of a nation’s passion for literature through...