From propaganda to national identity construction:|Turkish literature and the First World War, 1914-1918

Abstract

This dissertation is about the reflection of the 1914-1918 First World War on Turkish literature of the same period. In the warring developed countries of Europe widespread efforts were directed towards the generation of propaganda that would support the war in accordance with governmental policies. However, in the underdeveloped and multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire, which had not yet transformed into a nation-state, its Ottoman-Turkish intelligentsia could not produce propaganda sufficient to support the battlefronts and the home front. As the war unfolded, Turkish writers abandoned their initial attempts at propaganda and turned instead to the formation of a national culture, which was necessary for the existence of such a mechanism in the long-term. Thus, the Ottoman-Turkish intelligentsia, who could not support the war effort, used the conditions created by the war to eliminate the deficiencies in national culture.The dissertation consists mainly of interpretations of literary texts written by the representative writers of the period. These interpretations follow a cultural historiographical methodology based on contextualisation and give precedence to an analysis of the complex interaction between literary texts and the historical context. The failure to generate wartime propaganda and the efforts to construct a culture-based national identity are described by focusing on their reasons and outcomes within the historical context of 1908-1918, with the addition of an interpretation of literary texts with reference to this context. This work discusses the subjects of First World War propaganda, Turkish nationalism and national identity construction. It is an interdisciplinary effort, as it looks for evidence of an effective interaction between cultural and literary history.