Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
LITERA, cilt.32, sa.1, ss.435-456, 2022 (ESCI)
Adimlar, which was founded by Behice Boran in 1943, made important contributions to the world of thought and literature. The magazine, which had a wide staff of writers, adopted the principle of opening new horizons for Turkish intellectual life. The magazine featured writers such as Nermin Menemencioglu, Hilmi Ziya Ulken, Zeki Bastimar, Jean Camborde, Walter Ruben, Liko Amar, Yunus Kazim Koni, Bekir Kunt, Nurullah Atac, Suat Taser, Rifat Ilgaz, Sabahattin Ali, Kemal Bilbasar and Orhan Kemal, and especially Behice Boran and Muzaffer Serif Basoglu. Despite the unfavourable conditions of the World War II years, the journal followed Western literature closely. Aiming to introduce contemporary Western literature to the Turkish reader, it highlighted progressive and socialist authors and their works. The magazine, which described itself as populist, brought a unique perspective to the humanist approaches that came to the fore at the time of its publication. The magazine, which saw the source of humanism in the people and maintained that national culture and humanism are not contradictory to each other, turned to Western literature with a "popular humanist" perspective, and highlighted the products of Western literature that it considered "advanced" and "populist" in order to broaden people's artistic and cultural tastes. The magazine revealed both the reflection of the war, one of humanity's greatest disasters, on Western literature and the interaction between literature and society. In addition, with evaluations that were dominated by an understanding of sociological criticism, Adimlar brought theoretically pioneering approaches to the sociology of literature, which had not yet found a full application at the academic level in Turkiye. In this context, this article introduces Adimlar and discusses the journal's approaches to Western literature. Attention has been drawn to the journal's previously neglected contributions to the discipline of sociology of literature by academes in Turkiye.