From Servet-i Fünûn to “World” literature: The mapping of Mehmet Rauf’s literary criticism

Abstract

This thesis critically discusses Mehmet Rauf’s articles on literary criticism published in the journal Servet-i Fünûn (Wealth of Sciences) between 1896 and 1901. It focuses primarily on how he used literary criticism to re-shape Ottoman-Turkish literature. While Mehmet Rauf is accepted as a prominent writer of the Servet-i Fünûn era (1896 1901) in Turkish literature, his works on literary criticism have been largely ignored. To understand the principles, methods, and motives behind his fiction and to interpret them within the cultural framework of the Servet-i Fünûn era, it is necessary to analyze his articles on literary criticism. In these articles, defining criticism as the spirit of literature, he examined not only his own literary works but also the Ottoman-Turkish literature. Accordingly, he attempted to form an intellectual and cultural foundation for Ottoman Turkish literature by critically surveying the development of European literature. Discussing his literary criticism and practices regarding fictional works in the Ottoman Empire, this thesis provides a map of his literary criticism and its defining principles, method, and function. It argues that Mehmet Rauf aspired to build a new paradigm for criticism inspired by the models of impressionist and biographical literary criticism in France during this period. It further maintains that Mehmet Rauf utilized this paradigm to bring Ottoman-Turkish literature and especially Servet-i Fünûn literature in contact with the globalizing modern literature system transforming the established literary system into one with a more realist and “national” appearance.