Literary Criticism in the Ottoman-Turkish Literature: From Tanzimat to Republican Period / OSMANLI-TÜRK EDEBİYATI TARİH YAZIMINDA TANZİMAT’TAN BUGÜNE ÇAĞDAŞ ELEŞTİREL SÖYLEM

Literary criticism has always been based on the literary realm as well as the political realm since the Tanzimat period. The first feature of the literary criticism in the OttomanTurkish literature is the transformation of itself into a symbol of modernization. Still another feature is that “formal/objective criticism” has not been well established as a critical approach for a long time. Literary texts, therefore, have been usually evaluated on the basis of personal judgements rather than objective theoretical criteria. The critics on Divan poetry seem to be an area where boundaries between the literary and political realms are the most blurred. The source of devaluing judgements, which have been repeated since the Tanzimat period and turned into stereotypical expressions, on Divan poetry are mostly shaped by these two features of literary criticism. To define, however, the position of Divan poetry not only in the Ottoman-Turkish but also in the world literature in a rightful way, it is necessary to foster “formal/objective criticism” in the field of literary criticis