Epical Death Case in the Fictional World Of Namik Kemal

Abstract

The 19th century artistic and literary movements were under the influence of Romanticism led by Victor Hugo in the world. In the same period, Tanzimat writers who were trying to establish a new Turkish literature school under the influence of the West were also affected by this trend. Namık Kemal, who used literature as a tool to achieve his political and social purposes and tried to educate the public on this occasion, was among the leading authors. Namık Kemal, who gave the most successful works of the period in genres such as new poetry, new theater and novel, used striking and effective methods both in fictional structure and in content to increase the effect of the narrative's message on the readers. One of the most striking of these methods is that missionary heroes, presented as a model to society, walk towards death in an epic atmosphere. With this method, Kemal aimed to instill the people with sacred values such as homeland, nation, religion, conscience, union and martyrdom. Namık Kemal completed the case he constantly glorifies throughout the work with an epic finish, ranging from the reflection of the Ottoman flag in the blood on the forehead of the hero to the writing of his will with blood. In this article, this epic structure that ends with death is analyzed in the works of Namık Kemal. In analyzing the fictional world that reveals this structure, the stylistic theories of Vladimir Propp, which determine the functions of fictional elements and examine the relationship of Viktor Shklovsky's fictional elements, were used. With the help of these stylistic theories, the article also showed how the wind of the Romantic movement had an impact on the works of Turkish literature of the period.