BALKAN CITIES AND CULTURE IN TANZİMAT ERA TURKISH NOVELS

Abstract

The life in Balkan that has called attention through its polyphony all along takes it splace in Tanzimat era novel. In Tanzimat priod novel, it is possible to encounter toa significant part of Balkans' historical, sociological, cultural and economic trace since some part of Balkans was tied up with Ottoman Empire. Greece andBulgaria's cities being first, most of today's cities and sites connected with countries like Albania and Romania are used as places and reflected to the works inquestion. Some certain parts of Balkans that Ottoman Empire maintained its sovereignty along 5-6 centuries becomes a place that can be traveled easily andmentioned frequently in daily life.It is essential to add the geography of Balkans,being a battlefield especially between the end of 19th and beginning of 20th century, is handled around the themes of war and sorrow in Tanzimat era novel. In this frame, the novels of Ahmet Mithat Efendi called Gonullu and Arnavutlar-Solyotlar should be considered the most important novels of us reflecting the cities and cultures of Balkans with their historical atmosphere. Balkans in the novel of Mizanci Murad which is called Turfanda mi Turfa mi is subject to around the theme of war. On the othe hand, Tanzimat era novels in which Balkan cities and cultures could be encontered and we can not mention in our summary. In our work,historical, cultural, sociological and economic features of Balkan cities will bestudied considering the fictive atmosphere in Tanzimat era novels in question.