Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
İstanbul on Page & Screen
İ
STANBUL IN PRINT
Turkey has a rich but relatively young literary tradition. Its brightest stars tend to be based
in İstanbul and are greatly revered throughout the country. Many are being translated into
English, which is great news for people wanting to do some background reading before
travelling here.
Literary Heritage
Under the sultans, literature was really a form of religious devotion. Ottoman poets, bor-
rowing from the great Arabic and Persian traditions, wrote sensual love poems of attrac-
tion, longing, fulfilment and ecstasy in the search for union with God.
By the late 19th century the influence of Western literature began to be felt. This was the
time of the Tanzimat political and social reforms initiated by Sultan Abdül Mecit, and in
İstanbul a literary movement was established that became known as 'Tanzimat Literature'.
This movement was responsible for the first serious attacks on the ponderous cadences
of Ottoman courtly prose and poetry, but it wasn't until the foundation of the republic that
the death knell of this form of literature finally rang. Atatürk decreed that the Turkish lan-
guage should be purified of Arabic and Persian borrowings, and that in the future the na-
tion's literature should be created using the new Latin-based Turkish alphabet. Major fig-
ures in the new literary movement (dubbed 'National Literature') included poet Yahya
Kemal Beyatli and novelist Halide Edib Adıvar.
Though not part of the National Literature movement, İrfan Orga (1908-70) is probably
the most famous Turkish literary figure of the 20th century. His 1950 masterpiece
Portrait
of a Turkish Family
is his memoir of growing up in İstanbul at the start of the century and
is among the best writing about the city ever published.
Politician and novelist Ahmet Hamdi Tanipar (1901-62) wrote
A Mind at Peace
in 1949.
Set in the city at the beginning of WWII, it is beloved by many Turks.
Lord Byron spent two months in Constantinople in 1810 and wrote about the city in
his satiric poem
Don Juan
.
