EDUCATION PROBLEM AND EDUCATED PEOPLE IN TANZİMAT AGE NOVELS

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EDUCATION PROBLEM AND EDUCATED PEOPLE IN TANZİMAT AGE NOVELS

Journal Title: The Journal of International Social Research - Year 2016, Vol 9, Issue 43

Abstract

Youth is the only community that a society can entrust its future. İt is a great responsibility to grow such youth to keep this entrust. İn this article it is pointed how it reflects young peopleʼs educational problems in Turkish novels during Tanzimat Age, and it gives place to the subject that what types novelists idealize , as educated people. Tanzimat is an age that people have a confusion of mind on education as well as on other subjects. The transition from Moslem theological schools that follow old fashioned educational system to the modern schools that follow westernized education, cause this dilemma. The discord in social life as well, reflects on Turkish novels as a conflict between East and West. The newly opened military schools, secondary, high schools and medical faculties become the centre of ideas of Westernization. Some young people graduated from these schools go to Paris, a city of culture, in order to specialize in higher education. The number of young people who have completed their education abroad are quite alot in Tanzimat novels. Tanzimat novelists see the family responsible first of all for the education of the young. Those who have grown up in protective and democratic families with a serious breeding, are more succesful in their educational life. The relations go on with love and respect in such families. İn the families faltering because of the Western affection, the young people who have been brought up spailed, are too weak to make a living and generally keep on a degenerated life. The writers such as Ahmet Mithat Efendi, Namık Kemal and Mizancı Murad , who think that it is their duty to guide these people, believe the necessity of growing educated and idealist young people in order that this nation can get beter, and they wish these young people can make a balance between East and West. Therefore the gualities of these educated young people that were idealized in Tanzimat novels, construct the reforms taken from West onto their own values. They are the new “Ottoman intellectuals” who will save the country from collapse. The education is the first step of the careers of idealist young people and the expectations from future. They look at the future with hope, they are optimistic. They want to set up a nice home, earning a living at once, and serve for their countries, and national and moral values. In the works Yeryüzünde Bir Melek (Şefik), Para (Vahdeti), Demir Bey yahut İnkişâf-ı Esrar (Mustafa), Turfanda mı yoksa Turfa mı? (Mansur, Mehmet Efendi, Zehra), Refet (Refet) and Mesail-i Muğlâka (Abdullah), Tanzimat generation is idealized with these aspects. In the Works of Ahmet Mithat Efendi, some of the evident qualities of these idealist young people are, their “industriousness and moral maturity. In the Works of Mizancı Murad, “task and responsibility” are in the most important place. İn This novels, on the contrary of these idealist heroes, there are such young people who disregard their national values and They are called “European snobs”. These young people who are fond of fun and pleasure, are only interested in the degenerated side of Europe. These Europen style young people sway from side to side in bewilderment as in the novels of Recaizade Mahmut Ekrem. İdealist and educated young people attract attention with their reading habits. They read Eastern or Western classicals. They know at least one foreign language. European style and degenerated young people are stranger to their national culture, They donʼnt read much. However, some of them have boks either in their pockets or libraries just to show up. İn the novels of Şemsettin Sami and Sami Paşazade Sezai, the intermediate and advanced level young people fall into a conflict because of the traditional restraints by their close relations. They wish to have a right to speak on their future as educated people. However the narrow thoughts of despot relations and parents beat them. In the works of Fatma Aliye Hanım, the education of women characters is the most effective factor in the struggle of existence and moral maturity. In the work Refet, the young girls, who has completed teacherʼs training school, want designation to the far cities from İstanbul. She is idealist, she has a thought of keeping her duty to her country, a means for her to become a teacher. Furthermore, she is determined to take the inheritance by means of law from her relatives who look down on her. When the examined works are taken into consideration, it is possible to have a general conclusion: Tanzimat is the age of changing and becoming modern. The writers who follow this process closely, give highly importance to growing educated and conscious people in order to have a vigorous change, and they warn the readers and the Turkish people on the subject of growing educated young people with the messages given between lines.

Authors and Affiliations

Alkan YILMAZ

Keywords

EP ID EP250744
DOI 10.17719/jisr.20164317627
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