Cataloged from PDF version of article.This thesis aims at exploring the changing images of non-Muslim characters
in five novels written in the last quarter of the 19th century, namely Karabibik (1891)
by Nabizade Nazım; Turfanda mı Yoksa Turfa mı? (1892) by Mizancı Mehmet
Murat, Araba Sevdası (1896) by Recaizade Mahmut Ekrem, Mes‚il-i Muğl‚ka
(1898) by Ahmet Mithat Efendi and Aím‚k-ı Hayal (1910) by Şehbenderz‚de Filibeli
Ahmet Hilmi. The novels are discussed taking the historical background and the
authorsí ideological positioning into consideration.
Reviews and critical essays focusing on non-Muslim characters in novels
during the post-Tanzimat period are limited in number and scope and are based on
generalizations that do not recognize the various authorsí intellectual and ideological
particularities and differences.
The study of the five novels examined in this thesis shows that there are
several differing images of non-Muslim characters. The image and role of nonMuslim
characters in the works depend on the authors approach to religion, ethnical
identity and his understanding of civilization. The highlighting of differences
between European and Muslim cultures in those novels leads to the positioning of the
non-Muslim image in a circle of ìidentity and differencesî. The focus on nonMuslim
characters in those novels, shows that the concepts of religion, nation and
culture have close links to typological structures such as modernity and tradition,
centre and periphery and ìIî and the other. In the light of this study, it is concluded
that it is not possible to talk about only one single non-Muslim concept in the postTanzimat
novelsUyanık, SedaM.S
