Fiction, Feeling, and Authority

The Nur Baba Controversy and the Affective Publics of 1922 Istanbul

Bibliographic Data

ID24216059
AuthorsFatih Altuğ (0000-0001-9163-6116, Bogaziçi University)
Year2026
Issue119
Pages1-26
Publication date2026-09-28
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTürk Kültürü ve HACI BEKTAŞ VELİ Araştırma Dergisi (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1306-8253 • E-ISSN: 2147-9895
PublisherTürk Kültürü Açisindan Haci Bektas-i Veli Arastirmalari Uygulama ve Arastirma Merkezi (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.60163/tkhcbva.1686684
OpenAlexW7214606020
LanguageTR
References cited13

This article examines the controversy surrounding Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu’s 1922 novel Nur Baba through a detailed analysis of its reception in the Turkish press and public discourse, with particular emphasis on the representation of Bektās̲h̲iyya and the responses it generated. Focusing on the period from the novel’s book publication to the release of “İkinci İzah” in 1923, the study explores how diverse reactions—devotional, literary, polemical, and satirical—transformed the novel into a contested site of cultural and spiritual meaning. Central to the debate were questions about the ethical limits of fiction when depicting living religious traditions, as well as the symbolic injury felt by Bektās̲h̲i communities in response to what they perceived as misrepresentation. Drawing on affect theory and the concept of non-performativity, the article analyzes how critics mobilized emotional registers such as indignation, melancholy, ironic detachment, and empathic critique to assert conflicting ideas about literary authority, representation, and public responsibility. Special attention is given to Ali Fuad’s serialized fiction Baba Erenler, which stages a narrative intervention that foregrounds the experiential harm inflicted by fictional portrayals of Bektās̲h̲i lifeworlds and calls for an ethics of proximity and accountability. Methodologically, the article employs close textual analysis of press articles, treatises, and fictional texts, situating them within broader debates on spiritual identity, cultural authority, and the politics of literary form. It argues that the Nur Baba debate illuminates not only the contested space of literature in moments of cultural transition, but also the deep entanglement between fiction, feeling, and the communal defense of spiritual traditions.

Affect theory · Bektashi · cultural transition · ethics of representation · literary authority · literary controversy · serialized fiction · spiritual identity · Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu · Cultural and Sociopolitical Studies · Islamic Thought and Society Studies · Turkish Literature and Culture

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