A Sociological Overview Of Women's Represetion In Tanzimat Period Literature: Intibah, Zehra And Sergüzest

Literature is the one of the most important witnesses of existence, development, action, thought, and above all that attitude of the humanity on earth. It is unthinkable that society as a language does not meet literature and sociology, which make inferences from within this language, in a common denominator. The sociology of literature is an enterprise that centers the relationship between literature-society and explores all aspects of this relationship. Before the Tanzimat period, literature, coming from the root of “edb” in Arabic form, means beauty and decency but after the Tanzimat period it was in the form of “yaz？n”. It also mean to write beautifully, in convenient, and literally. We can see that literature and political institutions are showing a similar appearance in the Tanzimat period in which the novel, a modern kind of genre has entered in our life. In this period, it is possible to say that novel is generally used to enlighten people. It is aimed to create a social subconscious and present the ideas behind the events or to support the same ones. Female figures are mostly depicted in the novels during Tanzimat Period. In each novel, the female figure that comes up in different events is mentioned together with the concept of family and also is connected with decency, manners and service. This form of imagination also presents the social orientation of the women in the period conditions well. It is seen that, Turkish women are chaste, humble, cultured, loyal, and fond of their families and devoted, while foreign women are unchaste and their negative aspects are in the foreground. Aspects of non-Muslim women are emphasized and they are shown as examples to readers in this point. Novels that create awareness and analyze content in that period; Nam？k Kemal- ？ntibah (1876), Nab？zade Naz？m- Zehra (1896), Sami Pa？azade Sezai- Sergüze？t (1888)