The Department of the Turkish Language and Literature
Social Sciences are generally related to the world of meanings of the human being and it’s divided into branches because of elements which are related to this world. Language and Literature has a central importance between these branches. Literature as being a distinctive characteristic of human being and emerging as a result of the usage of language , constitutes the subject of two separate branches of science as a general concept: the Linguistics not towards the aim of examining any languages but to the aim of examining the language generally and the Science of General Literature not examining any literature but treating the examination of literature generally. Besides language and literature sciences, the works aiming the examination of every language and literature in the world, yielded a result that various languages and literatures became disciplines. Basically, general literature and language sciences were formed after these sciences had developed. Because it would be impossible to talk about language and literature as a general concept without examining language and literature privately. Language as a concept, can only be concretized through a written and spoken language. Otherwise we can’t talk about language. Whereas literature is always a literature of a language. There is a natural and compulsory relation between language and literature.
Turkish Language and Literature is a formed discipline on account of its having been
examined with all its properties and elements from past to today and at the universities that
are educational establishments where all sciences are present as a whole.
The Turkish Language and Literature discipline and the Turkish Language and Literature department which is represented by this discipline, has a distinctive importance among other language and literature departments. This importance is first of all because of the
characteristic of Turkish and Turkish Literature. Turkish is not any other language; like its
being among the most ancient languages of the world, it’s also one of the most common
languages in the world. Furthermore it’s the language of a big civilization. Therefore Turkish
Literature is a big literature with a long history in which there are various litterateurs and
literary works that is not only important for the Turkish nationality but also for the whole
mankind. With this reputation there are Turkish Language and Literature departments not
only in Turkey but at various universities in various countries.
It’s important to point out that Turkish language and literature has a special importance for us, Turkish people, due to the fact that it treats our own language and literature.
Turkish Language and Literature is first divided into two departments in itself: Turkish
Language and Turkish Literature. These departments have sub departments; Ancient Turkish
Language and New Turkish Language; Turkish Literature department consists of three
departments: Ancient Turkish Literature , New Turkish Literature and Folk Literature. In all
these departments the information which has reached hitherto , is passed on to students in the
constitution of the department during the education , on account of the electives and main courses like : The Turkish of Turkey , Ottoman Turkish, An Introduction to Ancient
Turkish Literature, The Literature of the period of Administrative Reforms. The aim is to
teach Turkish language and literature on the level of specialization with its history, structure
and all important works of art. To make it possible, all the alphabets that the Turks has used
throughout history , the alphabets of Kök Turks , Uighurs and the ancient Turkish alphabet are taught to the students. Therefore the graduates of Turkish Language and Literature have the right to have a title of learning and this title is defined in the diploma which is given to the
students after the completion of their education with success.
The graduates of Turkish Language and Literature Department can serve in many fields because of their specialization. They can work in the fields like media-publication, visual media, archive and librarianship and also it’s possible to work at the schools of the Ministry of Education, private schools and at private courses as Turkish and Literature teachers.
Prof. Dr. Muhammet YELTEN
Chair, Department of Turkish Language and Literature
