Cemi̇l Meri̇ç’s Search of Personal and Social Identity


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ASLAN B.

İstanbul Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Türk Dili ve Edebiyatı Dergisi, vol.57, no.57 (2017/2), pp.47-64, 2017 (ESCI) identifier identifier

Abstract

Cemil Meriç is one of the important figures of Turkish literature and intellectual life in the 20th century. He made a breakthrough in essay form and influenced Turkish literature with his unique style in late century. One of the important features of his works is mentioning about search of personal and social identity. The circumstances he lived in have pushed him to question the culture and identity of his own nation and while this process was going on, he tried to create his personal identity. In this search of identity, he firstly turned his gaze upon West and its culture. But literary works that he read guided him to India and he had an interest in Indian philosophy and literature, also he has written about those. Yet again, India was not the answer of his search of identity. Finally, he finished his search of identity by coming back to where he escaped from, the home, his own culture. This search of his that he personally lived includes a social suggestion. Because his search of identity isn’t independent or unattached from community. He, as an intellectual, did this search for his own community either. Thereby, his point of arrival carries an attribution of a solutional offer to search of social identity. Meriç has referenced constanty literary works in this phase of search and pointed out the importance of those for building the identity. In this regard, he has an exceptional place in late century Turkish literature. In this article, we tried to determine his search of identity and its’ main points and qualifications.