Yeni Türk Edebiyatında Letaifname (1837-1928)

Abstract

In this dissertation named "Genre of Letaifname in Modern Turkish Literature (1837-1928)", it is aimed to discuss the examples of letaifnames, today called humorous anecdotes, between the years 1837 and 1928 in a holistic and historical perspective and to assess the texts according to the modern humor theories. Correspondingly, anecdotes that have been published in the XIXth century and in the first quarter of the 20th century have been read and taken into daylight, structurally assessed and by this means the understanding of humor in the writing culture in XIXth century has been tried to be determined. Aim of the dissertation, its limits and methods used have been identified in the Preface; humor and anecdote genre in the context of oral-writing culture has been dwelled upon in the Introduction; characteristics of leatifname genre have been determined by examining the history of the given years and the comprehension of humor in the XIXth century. Dissertation is composed of seven main chapters. In the first chapter, letaifnames published between 1837-1928 have been introduced. In chapter two, anecdotes have been examined according to their sources; anecdotes from the oral culture as well as the adapted and translated anecdotes have been discussed. Anecdotes have been studied structurally in chapter three and classsified and studied in detail according to their themes in chapter four. In chapter five, anecdotes have been discussed according to people, in chapter six, according to place and time. In the last chapter, after the examination of the anecdotes according to humor theories, anecdotes that have been transfered from old Turkish alphabet to Latin Turkish alphabet have been presented in a table and analyzed in detail consistent with the subtitles of the dissertation. In this study, where, thirty seven letaifnames published between 1837 -1928 were examined, the attained opinions are mentioned in the Conclusion part. Accordingly, needs or agenda of the time period are the key points to identify the content of the letaifnames. Therefore, letaifnames of the XIX and XXth centuries are formed driven by considering not only political but also cultural structure and contained a message to the reader. These years when there was cultural mobility as well as some radical changes are discussed in a humorous manner in the anecdote compilations. Letaifnames play a significant role in portraying the panorama of the given time period.