Novel
Yeni Turan
Not translated into English
Halide Edib Adıvar · 1913
Synopsis
In an imagined Turkey, around 1931 according to turkedebiyati.org, two parties confront each other. The New Ottomans of Hamdi Paşa defend centralisation and Ottoman identity; the New Turan, led by Oğuz, wants to lift the country through schooling, the economy, the autonomy of the provinces and the place given to women. Kaya, a relative of Oğuz and his companion in the struggle, works among women and children. The narrative, which the same site attributes to Âsım, Hamdi Paşa's nephew, follows the rivalry of the two camps up to the arrest of Oğuz, whom Kaya tries to save.
Context
The novel first appeared as a serial in the Tanin from 7 September 1912, then in volume in 1913, in 1329 of the Rumi calendar, from the presses of the same newspaper. Britannica links it to the Pan-Turkist movement and recalls that the author took a large part, the same year, in the Turkish Hearths, which gave lectures open to men and women. The journal Erdem sees in it a utopia turned towards the future, born of the debates of the second constitutional period, and the quarrel between decentralisation and Ottomanism forms its crux.
Who it is for
A novel of ideas in Turkish, with long political debates; no French translation has been found.
Prizes and reception
According to Britannica, the book that brought the Pan-Turkic movement into the novel, in the very year of its serial publication.
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The pages consulted to check this page.