The War of Independence and The Republican Ideology in Literary Level: Dikmen Yıldızı Example

Abstract

It is inevitable that the wars which affect a society deeply take place in the literature of that society. The same is true for the War of Independence. The struggle of the Ottoman State with the different states in Anatolia between 1919-1923, then the effort of the new regime and its staff to legitimize themselves and establish official history in the process of structuring new administrations and administrative staff have been the subjects of many novels and plays in Turkish literature. Even some of them are printed directly by Atatürk as custom-made. Because persistence of social breakdown is not a war that can be won only in the front. The power of literature is exploited to embody the dominant ideology in the minds of the people and to penetrate the base. Aka Gündüz, in many literary products, especially Dikmen Yıldızı, adopts to the style that serves to official ideology. In general there are certain female and male stereotypes in the literary products of this period. While men are fearless and noble for individual love for the sake of homeland love, women try to support them as long as they can affort as sisters. These images become stronger in Dikmen Yıldızı. Yıldız who takes a position in the war and who does not even cry for the martyrdom of his fiance. In other words, every fact of representation attributed to the woman by the official ideology is found in Yıldız. In this work, ideology and literature relation will be examined with the help of sociological criticism through Dikmen Yıldızı written in a narrative style under the Ottoman malaism and Republican affirmation.