Abstract
THE DISCREPANCIES OF AHMET MITHAT EFENDİ OR THE MAN INSIDE A MAN
Abstract
In Tanzimat Reform Era, Turkish intellectuals seesawed between old and new, the East and the West; and according to their political view, they chose one of the ways as total refusal, total acceptance or synthesis. Ahmet Mithat Efendi is one of the most prominent names of synthesist approach that could be explained as adopting the positive sides of the West without refusing national and moral values. However, trying to balance between the East and the West which have a lot in common as well as having completely opposite value judgements caused some contradictions to rise for Ahmet Mithat Efendi, as for the other various writers. These contradictions were mostly seen between the ideas and practices about the woman.
In this study conducted by using scanning model in qualitative research method, the novels "Müşahedat", "Felatun Bey ile Rakım Efendi", "Yeryüzünde Bir Melek", “Diplomalı Kız” and “Hasan Mellah” have been examined and the findings have been collected with document analysis method. In the light of the information obtained with the content analysis method, contradictions about the woman issue in Mithat Efendi’s novels have been revealed. The constraint of this study is the incapability of examining all novels of Mithat Efendi Efendi. This study tries to find out how the life in that period was reflected to the works of art in terms of contradictions about woman issue in Mithat Efendi Efendi’s novels.
Keywords
Ahmet Mithat, Woman, Education, Women's Training
