Kuramdan Kurmacaya Türk Edebiyatında Kısa Öykü

Abstract

The short story, which is the Turkish equivalent of the English term “short story”, dates back to the products of oral culture, but emerged as a literary genre in the second half of the 19th century with the works of Edgar Allan Poe in America. The criteria proposed by Poe, such as brevity, unity of effect, intensity, compression, and poetic quality, were expanded in the 20th century by modern writers, led by Chekhov, to include new criteria such as ordinary subjects, passive individuals, uncertainty, plot structure, temporal disruption, and open endings. The development of the short story genre in Turkish literature, on the other hand, spans a longer period. The short story genre, first introduced during the Tanzimat period by Ahmet Mithat Efendi and Recaizade Mahmut Ekrem, was further developed by Sami Paşazade Sezai with his book Küçük Şeyler (1891), which opened the door to the modern short story. In the Transitional Generation period, Nabizade Nazım and Mehmed Celal continued to develop the genre, and during the Servet-i Fünun period, Halit Ziya and Mehmed Rauf further contributed to its growth. In the Second Constitutional Era, with examples from Ömer Seyfettin, the short story broke away from the novel and became an independent literary genre. In the Atatürk period, after the fictional works of Memduh Şevket and the theoretical writings of Nahit Sırrı and Kenan Halet, the short story genre began to appear in many journals, particularly Varlık and Seçilmiş Hikâyeler, in the 1940s. In the 1950s and 1960s, with the fictional works of Sait Faik and the short story writers of the 1950s generation, and through periodicals such as Yeditepe, Yenilik, Dost, and Pazar Postası, the short story developed both its fictional and theoretical aspects, earning a significant place in Turkish short story history. In our study, Sami Paşazade Sezai's “Hiç” and “Kediler”, Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil's “Haber-i Meş’um” and “Tramvayda Gelirken” were published in Turkish literature between 1890 and 1960, Ömer Seyfettin's “Apandisit” and “Nişanlılar”, Memduh Şevket's “Mebus Olursa” and “Gençlik”, Sait Faik Abasıyanık's “Bacakları Olsaydı” and “Öyle Bir Hikâye”, Vüs'at O. Bener's short stories titled “İlki” are analyzed in the light of modern short story criteria.