Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları

Abstract

The transformation of the mindset can be tracked through the transformation of the human-object relationship. Lamartine’s statement, quoted by Ahmet Güner Sayar, “This nation does not actually create anything and renew anything. It does not destroy anything, either” can be considered as the essence of Turkish people’s relationship with the object. The reason for the distance of Turkish people, who were said to be distant to trade by authors such as Ömer Seyfettin, Ziya Gökalp Yusuf Akçura, is shown to be the way they view the object. The transformation which started with the Declaration of the Tanzimat Edict caused the human-object relationship to gain a different aspect in the second constitutional period. In this period, the way the object is viewed went beyond the boundaries determined by tradition. Ideologists wanted to organize the nation, which is said to renew nothing, with the ideal of a "new life" in order to renew everything altogether. When war conditions were added to the ideal of innovation, it became inevitable that many things in social life would be broken and destroyed. Hence, the post-second constitutional period can be called a period of transformation in which both innovation and destruction occurred together. Ömer Seyfettin’s short stories, in this vein, are the primary texts through which we can observe this transformation. In this context, this article will focus on how the human-object relationship is perceived in the short stories of Ömer Seyfettin.