The place of the turkish cultural heritage in the collective memory of Algerian society and the imagery of Ottoman/Turkish culture through the eyes of algerian writers Türk kültürel mirasinin cezayir halkinin kolektif belleğindeki yeri ve cezayirli yazarlarin gözünden osmanli/türk kültürü imgesi

There are many positive and negative imageries among different communities around the world concerning Turks who have deeply affected the societies they have communicated socially, politically, culturally and religiously throughout history. While Turks, are defined as “warriors”, “brave”, “courageous” by some societies, they are also regarded as “barbaric”, “cruel” and “rude” Easterners in the eyes of some others. There is also no doubt that many positive and negative imageries have been created not only about Turks but also about their culture. As a matter of fact, it is inevitable that these imageries created about Turks and their culture that have been going on for centuries, are reflected in the literary works, as well. Therefore, many studies have been carried out concerning these imageries that have settled in the literary world of countries. However, the study of the imagery of Ottoman/Turkish culture in the Francophone Algerian literature is almost nonexistent. The reflections of the Ottoman Empire can also be observed in the Francophone Algerian literature, which generally deals with topics such as colonial history, war of independence, cultural diversity, linguistic issues. As a matter of fact, this study aims to investigate traces of Ottoman/Turkish culture in the novel entitled La Maison de lumière of Nourredine Saadi and in the novel entitled Dounia of Fatima Bakhaï in the context of imagology of Daniel-Henri Pageaux. In this study, we sought to answer the question of how Algerian people perceive the Ottomans/Turks, who dominated Algeria between 1516-1830. It is revealed whether the Algerians prefer to adopt Ottomans/Turks and their culture in their own country or otherize them. For this purpose, a general introduction is made first. Immediately afterwards, the imagological theory, which forms the intercul-tural dimension of comparative literature and which investigates how a society or nation, in other words, the Other is looked, perceived and described, is discussed. The imagological theory consisting of three stages, which Daniel-Henri Pageaux addressed in his book entitled La littérature générale et compare, is explained. Then, the place of Ottomans/Turks and their culture in the collective memory of the Algerian people in La Maison de lumière and in Dounia is examined. In the novels, which are investigated in detail, it is seen that Ottomans/Turks take their culture wherever they go and thus they preserve their culture. It is clear that many positive and negative imageries about Ottomans/Turks and their culture have been created by the Algerian people. However, when these imageries in the novels are compared, it is understood that the positives imageries are more than negative ones. It is also undoubted that Ottomans/Turks affect deeply the Algerian people through their culture because, even in the novels, which were written after many years of the reign of the Ottoman Empire in the region, the traces of Ottoman/Turkish culture are found. As a matter of fact, it is concluded that Ottomans/Turks carried their own culture to Algeria, located in a distant region, and established a close relationship with the Algerian people.