CHILDREN’S LITERATURE in TURKEY

 

According to Uludağ(2009), children’s literature; to contribute to the growth and development of children, to their dreams, feelings, thoughts and talents, to their pleasures, and to their enjoyment in education.The concept of children’s literature in Turkey is quite new. In the Ottoman Empire period, children’s  needs were met with verbal literary products such as rhyme, riddles, folk tales and fairy tales.Reading texts prepared in consideration of children’s interest, age and appreciation levels in Turkish literature are rarely encountered until the second half of XIX.The first examples of Turkish literature related to children are translation products made from Western literature. While investigating the children’s literary history in our country, I saw that there were no books suitable for children before the Tanzimat period. During the Tanzimat period, writers thought that art should serve the public. We also see this in Along with the Tanzimat period, the point of view towards the child has changed children’s literature. It is said that the actual development in the field of children’s literature in Turkey is after the Tanzimat. In this period, intellectuals focus on child education and psychology.The changing world conditions, the necessity of keeping up with the technical civilization, are the works of these intellectuals. Among the studies that our intellectuals have done are the Prayer of Münif Pasha, Emile, translated by Ziya Pasha and Sadık Rifat Pasha’s Terbiyetü’l-Etfal Risalesi.These works are distinguished from other works of the period by their simplicity in their tongues and their short sentences (Enginün, 1985,p. 188).In this period, the fables of La Fontaine responded to the children’s need for comprehension, understanding and language. Şinasi (1826-1871) made translations from La Fontain; thus constituting the sub-structure of children’s literature.The first example of this is Eşek ile Tilki Hikayesi. This was included in the book of Tercüme-i Manzume (1859). Şinasi also has his own fables: Kara Kuş Yavrusu ile Karga Hikâyesi, Arı ile Sivrisinek Hikâyesi. Şinasi has taken these fables to his book Müntehabat-ı Eş’ar. The language of these texts is plain. (Özkırımlı,n.d. , p. 327–333) Dr. Rüştü addressed the children in the alphabet book Nuhbetü’l-Etfal (1859). It also includes the fables he has translated in his book: Deryaya Giden Balığın Hikâyesi, Karınca ile Ağustos Böceğinin Hikâyesi, Kedi ile Farenin Hikâyesi… These translations are intended to give children a good time, to teach ethics and to give them reading habits. (Özkırımlı,n.d. , p.327-333) Despite the suitability of the topics in these books to children ,i think they are heavy in language. Despite the efforts of the writers at those times children’s literature did not show any improvement at the desired level. The main reasons for this depend on the conditions of the period.The Ottoman empire has lagged behind many inland western cultures. In later periods, the war of liberation and the process of establishing a new country constituted obstacles. Most books have been rewritten since the Latin alphabet was introduced in 1928. This period affected the literature field positively. Besides the new alphabet books, translations of old books were also made.Reşat Nuri Gültekin was one of the most popular writers.Although these books are not suitable for children, they have been read by children for a long time due to lack of children’s books. After the 1930s, the well-known poets and writers have begun to write for children, a great benefit for our children’s literature. The development in this area has increased even further since 1950; The themes such as the Independence War, the Republic’s importance, poverty-richness centered on children’s stories and novels.( Gönen,2014) In the 1940s,The Turkish Child Protection Society sponsored the translation of children’s classics.The well-known poet of Orhan Veli Kanık will be remebered for his sensitive translation of La Fontaine’s Fables.After 1940, some writers have compiled and rewritten our fairy tales and folk stories for children (like Dede Korkut Masalları, Eflatun C. Güney). These artifacts have important place in young grafting of fairy tales.La Fontaine Tales and Nasrettin Hodja Stories, adapted from Orhan Veli Kanık’s famous poetry in 1948-49 are important works in terms of our literature. When it comes to 1950’s, we see that the writers of the village institute emerged from the village in the Second World War.The subject of “children’s literature” emerged with the introduction of western education approach to the teachers’ schools. Authors who graduate from these schools have begun to write children’s books with some common characteristics.Among these features, books mentioned the Anatolia, the importance of reading, and the love of homeland. I have searched one of these writers for the sake of being an example.From these authors,Talip Apaydin is one of the founders of the village literary movement. Toprağa Basınca (1966), Dağdaki Kaynak (1981), Merdiven (1985), Biz Varız (1998) çocuk romanları ile Çalgıcı Recep (1970), O Güzel İnsanlar (1978), Aloo Çocuklar (1979), Yangın (1981), Elif Kızın Elleri (1981), Hem Uzak Hem Yakın (1985) children’s books constitute the child and youth literature of the village institute teacher writer Talip Apaydın.(Erol,2007) The mentioned works are designed to guide young people, inform them and prepare them for the future.According to Erol(2007), as one of the village institute teachers and writers,it is seen that Talip Apaydın, who announces the use of the observation method which is referred to as educational trips in technical terms, is frequently used in children’s novels. With this method, students are taken to places such as the factory museum, library, various official institutions, villages, mountains, forests, lakes,it is understood that the opportunity to make direct observations is recognized so that they can get information from their original source. As a matter of fact, children are curious about the characteristics of foreign places, their natural beauty, their clothing and their way of life. The aim is to encourage children in school age to research and learn; directing their surroundings to the examination; to improve the love of nature, the village and the homeland. In his books, he tried to tell the children about the society they were in, using his own experience and experience. I think that this author’s books have added a lot of things to the children in the educational direction, but I found the author wrongly conveying worldview to children through books. It may be wrong to direct children through books in this way.”If this effective power of children’s literature is open to exploitation, future generations will not be able to participate as mentally and profane people” (Dayioglu, 1987, p.406) The political life that became so loud during this period was also influential in the inclination of writers to social issues.After the 1950s, many publishing houses began publishing books for children. According to Mavibulut Publishing, which has been providing quality and content to children since 1980, it is the first publishing house to publish only children’s books in Turkey. Purpose of Mavibulut; aware of the habit of reading books in childhood, and to love to read a book with a child is the most important obstacle is to present good books to children with the awareness that it is badly presented literature.Mavibulut, since the day it was founded, has brought many important works such as “Little Prince” and “Hungry Caterpillar”, which have world famous classics, into Turkish. In addition to this, publishers such as Yapı Kredi Publications, Redhouse Children and Can Children have been formed. In 1974, Can Göknil published his first book entitled “Kirpi Masalı”, which is the first illustrated children’s book to address pre-school children.In 1979, painter and writer Serpil Ural published his illustrated book “Top Rabbit”.(Gönen,n,d.)

In conlusion, the number of qualified books in our children’s literature is still small, but increasing interest is hopeful.

REFERENCES

Tuncer, N. (1995) Children’s literature in Turkey. Türk Kütüphaneciliği

Çocuk Edebiyatı: Ed: Mübeccel Gönen (Eğiten)

Mavibulut Yayıncılık. Available http://www.mavibulut.com.tr

Erol, (2007). Talip Apaydın’ın çocuk romanlarında gezi-gözlem,araştırma ve dinlenme yoluyla öğrenme

Available http://efdergi.yyu.edu.tr/makaleler/cilt_IV/k_erol.pdf

Çocuk Vakfı. Available http://www.cocukvakfi.org.tr/icerik.aspx?id=45

 

 

 

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