Tanpınar as a Literary Historian

Abstract: Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s The History of Turkish Literature in the 19th Century is a contrastive history of literature written with a dialogical approach and focusing on the change of literary genres. Moreover, this work is a history of “literary genres” rarely written in the world. It develops from general to special, from environment and time to author and work. It discovers the dynamics of change in the 19th century as well. The authors and poets examined are concerned about being overshadowed by the old and abiding by the old. However, they are attracted by the new. They write their works in between the old and the new. Tanpınar criticizes analytically the fact that the authors and literature are stuck in between the old and the new, the West and the East. The actual change in literature begins thanks to the rediscovery of nature. As a consequence of this rediscovery, the individuation process of human beings begins, and they tend to reflect their inner worlds.