CIVILIZATION CHANGE IN OTTOMAN AND RUSSIAN SOCIETIES: BİHRUZ BEYS AND OBLOMOVS

The Turkish novel boasts many examples of ‘‘European-style snobs’’ that appear as a result of the Westernization problematic during the Tanzimat era. Similarly, the 19th century Russian novel also contains examples of what might be called the ‘‘useless chap’’ that emerges in the context of Westernization. This article compares the ‘‘European-style snob’’ character that first appears in Ahmet Midhat Efendi’s novel Felâtun Bey ile Rakım Efendi and reaches its peak with Bihruz Bey in Recaizade Mahmud Ekrem’s Araba Sevdası (The Carriage Affair) with the ‘‘useless chap’’ character that emerges with Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin and reaches its height in Goncharov’s Oblomov. Various changes that occur in terms of social and intellectual life in Ottoman and Russian societies during the Westernization period form the basis of this comparison. The fact that the two societies have their own ways of perceiving Westernization and that they have different social and intellectual infrastructural developments account for the individual circumstances in which the ‘‘European-style snob’’ and the ‘‘useless chap’’ come to life. The article tries to analyse all these factors.