Reshaping literature: the literary criticism of Ahmed Şuayb

Abstract

This thesis is a study of Ahmed Şuayb’s literary criticism from 1899 to 1901 during the Servet-i Fünûn period. It argues that literary criticism was one of the primary tools used to reshape modern Turkish literature during its belated modernization process. It examines the critical works of various subjects who were part of this process of reshaping the literature from the Tanzimat period through the Servet-i Fünûn period. This study focuses on Ahmed Şuayb’s literary criticism and the specific ways in which he used his criticism to change the face of Ottoman-Turkish literature. It argues that Ahmed Şuayb began to establish a new form of literary criticism based on the French positivist model and used it to reshape Edebiyât-ı Cedîde. It shows that in his critical works Ahmed Şuayb tried to establish a realist/naturalist literary model and looked for ways to reshape Edebiyât-ı Cedîde into this new literary model.