Microsoft Word 1 Arif thesis cover final doc

CHAPTER 3 – SOME TOPOI IN THE KURTULUŞ EDEBİYATI 
82 
together with Mahmut Yesari, the satirical periodical 
Kelebek
(Butterfly). During 
these years and until 1931 he taught Turkish, Philosophy and Pedagogics at various 
Academies. Between 1931-1939 he served as an Inspector of National Education and 
later rose to be Chief inspector. Between 1939-1943 he served as representative for 
Çanakkale in the National Assembly. Between 1949 and 1951 he served as the 
Turkish representative to UNESCO in Paris. He retired from official duties in 1954 
but did not enjoy a long retirement, dying in London, where he went for treatment, 
from lung cancer in 1956. He was buried in Karacaahmet cemetery in Istanbul. 
Reşat Nuri was not only a popular writer but was also much admired by his fellow 
craftsmen. On his death Yakup Kadri wrote an obituary entitled ‘Our Literature’s 
Great Loss’ in which he praised Reşat Nuri’s powers of characterisation and, 
comparing Feride, the heroine of 
Çalıkuşu
, with Iphigeneia, his capacity to create 
models of innocence and dignity. Some months later Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar praised 
the clarity of his Turkish
2
and his ability to “distil sweet honey out of everyday 
experience”
3
.
Of all his novels 
Çalıkuşu 
was the most popular. It was one of the earliest novels to 
reach a wider public, was supposedly read by Mustafa Kemal himself, became an 
established school text and inspired several film adaptations. Because some of his 
other early works as for example 
Dudaktan Kalbe
(From the Lip to the Heart) follow
 
Çalıkuşu
in making the emotional world of the individual the main theme while 
2
Tanpınar 1969, 125: ‘İddiasız Realizm’ (Simple Realism) 
3
Tanpınar 1969, 471: ‘Reşat Nuri ve Eserleri’(Reşat Nuri and his Work) 

---