SEARCH FOR IDENTITY IN THE TATAR AND TURKISH LITERATURE IN THE “EAST–WEST” CONTEXT AT THE TURN OF THE 19TH and 20TH CENTURIES
Journal Title: Studia Litterarum - Year 2017, Vol 2, Issue 2
Abstract
This article analyzes the search for the national and confessional identity of Tatar and Turkish writers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and identifies similarities and differences in their understanding of Westernization and modernization. The compatibility of the Muslim East with the Christian West became an acute problem for the ummah that realized the need for progressive changes in the society. Tatar and Turkish literature openly criticized one-sidedness and infatuation with external signs of Westernization and borrowing of the European way of life that was called lafranga, which was opposed to the traditional way of life laturca. In literature, this confrontation was reflected in the conflict between the “old” and the “new” generations. Describing the achievements of the Western culture, writers had to take into account the realities, morals and values of their society, the role of religion and traditions, the ethics and obligations of men and women in everyday life. Therefore, the authors of novels and stories created images, events and spaces that reflected the ethics and values of their society, where relations between men and women had a very different format than in the West. Incompleteness of modernization process and only partial “Europeanisation” of the Muslim society gave rise to a special type of people who found themselves between two fires — between the Eastern and Western cultural values — and who eventually became neither a European nor an Asian.
Authors and Affiliations
A. T. Sibgatullina
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