In the following undergraduate thesis, I try to give the reader an insight in the way Turkish language policy influenced the development of Turkish modern literature. I will focus specifically on the development of the Turkish novel. In the beginning of my thesis I describe the cultural and historic background of the Turkish nation, from the creation of the Ottoman Empire to the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. Then I go into more detail about the attributes and development of the Turkish language reform, where I also give an insight into the way the Turkish language policy was deployed and the governing bodies that deployed it. In the second part of my thesis I examine the Turkish novel writing and highlight the most important authors of Turkish novel. I also concentrate on various literary movements that develop within the growth of Turkish literature. At first I briefly talk about social realism in literature, which describes the state of the Turkish people who live in misery and poverty. The cause for such poor conditions among people are language and social change in Turkey, which passes over to crisis of identity in the second half of the twentieth century. The Turks find themselves in a dilemma between tradition and modern ways of life. They are torn between East and West, the clash that has sparked many contemporary Turkish novels. They continue to live in the spirit of a hybrid identity, which is not only a clash between western and eastern values, but also the difference between European consciousness and Islamic tradition.
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