An abstract of the thesis of Şeyda Barlas for the degree of Master of Arts from the Atatürk Institute for Modern Turkish History to be taken June 2007

Visions of Aesthetics and Culture in "Yeni Adam": Republic of Fine Arts (1934-1950)

This thesis aims to examine the construction of art and aesthetic as objects of national identitiy construction in both Kemalist and Yeni Adam’s cultural conservative perspective in the early Republican Turkey covers a period between the mid 1930s and the 1940s. Following the state’s building process, discussion on culture, tradition, and ideology were questioned by different groups of intellectuals and state authorities. On the one hand, the single party regime monopolized artistic production and contributed state directed national art.On the other hand, Ismayil Hakki Baltacioglu was a follower of cultural nationalist ideology in the early era attempt to deal with the main problematics of national art in more liberal way. This thesis presents discussions on a broad scale of visual arts in the period of nation-building.Art critiques of early Republican intellectuals show the ongoing efforts to change the society’s perception of art.Among the dominant discourse of the 1930s, Yeni Adam’s critical perspective on art and aethetic in the concept of nation-state and Westernism went hand in hand with nationalism and modernism. Yeni Adam’s reshaping the Western cultural formation in the Turkish culture opened up a new path for art and aesthetics in which nationalism, social realism, and modernism co-existed.
 

Atatürk Ilkeleri ve Inkilap Tarihi Enstitüsü’nde Yüksek Lisans derecesi için Şeyda Barlas tarafindan Haziran 2007’de teslim edilen tezin kisa özeti

Güzel Sanatlar Cumhuriyeti: Yeni Adam'da Estetik ve Kültür

Bu çalismanin amaci erken cumhuriyet döneminde sanat ve estetigin milli kimligin insasi süreci olan 1930 ve 1940’li yillarda Kemalist ve Yeni Adam dergisinin kültürel milliyetçi bakis açisindan karsilastirmali olarak incelenmesidir.Milli devlet insasini takip eden süreçte kültür, gelenek ve ideoloji gibi kavramlar devlet yönetici kadrosu ve erken dönem entellektüel çevre tarafindan siklikla sorgulanmis.Bir taraftan devlet sanatta yapilan üretim üzerine denetim uygulayarak güdümlü milli sanat politikasinin hayata geçirmeye çalirirken diger taraftan Ismayil Hakki Baltacioglu kültürel milliyetçi söylemin bir takipçisi olarak milli sanat anlayisinin ana sorunsallarina daha liberal bir bakis açisiyla yaklasmisti. Bu tez milli devlet in