Ambiwalencje nowoczesności. Powieść turecka i modernizm

In this paper, I examine the development of the Turkish novel from its beginning in the second half of the nineteenth century until the 1970s in terms of the concept of literary modernity. While it is often argued by many scholars that modernism, or literary modernity, began in Turkey only with the publication of Oğuz Atay’s Tutunamayanlar in 1971, I try to demonstrate that the chief concepts – as opposed to techniques – of modern literature were present in the Turkish novel from its very beginning. Modernity is thus exposed as a selfcontradictory, ambiguous entity which encompasses various, often conflicting, tendencies.