Traditional Resistance and Narrators’ Dialogue in Serial Children’s Novels in the Modernising Ottoman Empire

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the first serial novels for children, which were published in Ottoman magazines and newspapers between 1894 and 1908, and which are now almost forgotten in the pages of these publications. It is generally accepted that an ambivalent attitude towards modernisation can be felt in novels written during the modernisation period of the Ottoman Empire. However, an examination of the serials published for children reveals that there is no clear concern with modernisation, but rather an attempt to convey traditions to children in the clearest and most didactic way possible. For this reason, series prioritising traditions, like Hasude and Muallime, and series that encouraged sympathy for technological innovations, like Mösyö Elektrik, will be examined. Although it may seem ambivalent or dualistic, it will also be shown that there is a decisive change towards the concept of childhood.