Looking at the Novel Panorama from the Perspective of “The Great Revolution and Petty Politics”

Abstract

Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu, one of the leading figures of Turkish literature, is a typical name for a combination of intellectual/bureaucrat/politician that has been seen since Tanzimat era with his idendity of journalist, deputy and diplomat beside being a man of literature. Because of the penetration of literature and thought from the years of Tanzimat when modern Turkish thought appeared, he comes from the line of authors leaning towards society and politics as well. Writing diferrent literal varieties like from novel to memories and journal articles, he reflected his witnessings in the periods of Abdülhamit II, Meşrutiyet, War of Independence, establishment of Republic, passing into multi-party political life and the Coup d’Etat on 27th May into his studies.
Within this context his novel, Panorama that depicts the period from the 1930s to the 1950s, is regarded to have been written to make a critical assessment about the effects of the revolutions on Turkish people and whether the revolutions were embraced or not. Yakup Kadri, a member of Atatürk’s innercircle since the National Struggle was one of the leading defenders of the Republic and Atatürk’s revolutions. However his approach to the Republic and the revolutions was not based on exaggerated praising without any questioning. Although Atatürk was very dear to him, Yakup Kadri began criticising the way of implementing his revolutions by the administrators and the reflections of them to Turkish people as early as in 1930’s. In this perspective, the second part of his novel Ankara, published in those years (1934), was just like a forerunner of Panorama. His article, written on the occasion of tenth anniversary of the Republic but never published, “The Great Revolution and Little Politics” was a reflection of the author’s critical approach to the political and social developments of the term. This article, covering his views about sacrificing of “the great revolution” of Atatürk to the “petty politics” by Republican People’s Party and some officers in the bureacracy, can be considered a sub-text of Panorama.
In this study, it is aimed to analyze Panorama in the light of Yakup Kadri’s article “The Great Revoultion and Petty Politics”. Together with this article, it has been benefited from his memories as a contributing source as well.