Yordanka Bibina

Omer Seyfettin: the Sad Smile of the Satirist

The humor tradition is deeply rooted in the centuries-old Turkish literature. It is feed by the reach folklore tradition of Karagöz, anecdotes of Nastraddin Hodja, narrations of the Ashik poets. Modern satire created after the European paradigm started at the middle of 19th century in parallel with widening and deepening the realistic trends. The forming processes of 20th century Turkish literature, including the humor and satire, speeded up after the Young Turk Revolution in 1908 and springs of new literary currents, publications, including humorous such as “Cem”, “Kirpi”, “Kalem”, etc. Omer Seyfettin (1884-1920) is among the masters that imposed and developed the Modern Turkish humor and satire. His personal life is closely tied with that of Balkan peoples. Being an army officer during the Balkan Wars, he was inspired by the patriotism and national ideas rose on the Peninsula. After 1911 together with some other young authors, Omer Seyfettin starts “Young Feathers” literary journal promoting the National Literature Movement (Milli Akımı), which actually for the first time launches such concepts as “national” and “national literature” (Milli edebiyatı). The talent to catch the spirit of the time, to reflect the true face of it, marks his creative works. He defenses the creation of literature on a natural spoken and understandable language and pioneered the “New language” Movement among the new generations of Turkish men of letters. Himself he gives the first successful examples of prose written on a national language free of foreign borrowings, artificial phrases, and lured meanings. Through pre-exposing of antitheses to his New language Program, he managed to satirize the zeal for “complicated” wordings, composed by “few languages - French, German, Rumanian, Persian, Ottoman-Turkish”, such as “chief de gar” (a station master), “le obligations de me birader” (my brothers’ obligations), etc. Omer Seyfettin builds up the “hero of the time.” Generations after the Efruz Bey became a byword for the negative side of Turkish image of the “Self.” In the period of building the national identity, the most satirized in the woks of writer is the “phoney civilization.” Alongside with that through the humor tools he rejects everything that hinders this process of nation building, especially such ideological trends as Panturkism, Ottomanism, Turanism, in his short stories, such as “Characters” (Şimeler), “At the Knowledge Hearths” (Bilgi Bucağında). He also draws a bead on neo-Hellenism current promoted by Yahya Kemal because believes that the most important task is to build the Modern Turkish Literature finding the inspirations in its own history, traditions, mythology, value system. With the exceptional writing skills he was gifted Omer Seyfettin creates the true pictures of his complicated times where one can find side by side the ugly and comic, pathetic and grand. Behind authors’ sarcasm, however one can feel his sad smile, the smile of man of wisdom. His pen combines almost incompatible things: tender lyricism with philosophical outset and biting satire and forgiving irony. As he says, “Isn’t it the same in the life – behind every laughter is an invisible tragedy!”

The paper analyses Omer Seyfettin’s humor tools, giving a number of examples from his “Efruz Bey” novel.