Bilig, vol.91, pp.255-278, 2019 (SSCI)
© 2019, Ahmet Yesevi University. All rights reserved.Attributing arole in the direction of educational objectives to the history of literature is a consequence of modernity. The thought that history of literature should be considered along with the national identity, initially started in Western societies. In Turkey however, the attribution of such a function to history of literature dates back to the early 20th century after the Balkan wars. Early works on history of literature in Ottoman Era, in accordance with the ideology of Ottomanism, have dealt with literature only within the Ottoman territory and history and ignored both the literary outcome of Turkish language outside this territory and the accumulated literary treasure of even earlier times. It was Köprülüzade Mehmet Fuat who first followed the idea of “total Turkishness” in History of Literature Classes. During the Turkish Republic period until World War II, Turkish literature outside Turkey that is several Turkish dialects have been the subject of literature in the secondary school level. However, after World War II the Russians gained strength and this has been the greatest barrier to writing with the idea of total Turkishness in Turkey. In parallel to secondary education there has not been adequate interest in contemporary Turkish dialects in universities either. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union the interest for Turkish dialects has grown. These academic efforts will strengthen and speed up the integration of Turkic World.