From the Ottoman Tezkire Tradition to the Biography of the Poet’s Image in 18th-Century English Literature

Authors : Serap Sarıbaş

Pages : 457-473

Doi:10.47777/cankujhss.1763006

View : 96 | Download : 993

Publication Date : 2025-12-29

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This study examines the Ottoman tezkire tradition of poet biographies, with particular reference to Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi’s Tezkiretü’ş-Şuara, alongside the eighteenth-century English biographical tradition represented by Samuel Johnson’s Lives of the Poets, within an interdisciplinary and comparative framework centered on the construction of the poet’s image. Situated in two distinct historical, cultural, and aesthetic contexts, the study problematizes the function of biography as a mediating form between literary production, authorial identity, and canon formation. Drawing on concepts from biography theory, author function, cultural memory, and symbolic capital, the analysis effects a comparative scrutiny of selected poet portraits, foregrounding narrative architecture, character construction, thematic orientation, and evaluative language. The findings substantiate that, while both traditions instrumentalize biography as a central mechanism for the legitimation of literary authority and the consolidation of the canon, they manifest pronounced divergences in representational strategy. Ottoman tezkires configure the poet within an idealizing discourse anchored in moral integrity, aesthetic mastery, and communal validation, whereas Johnson’s biographies operationalize critical judgment, individual distinction, and the public negotiation of literary value. Across both corpora, recurrent archetypes such as the satirical master and the spiritual poet retain analytical salience, yet are recalibrated in accordance with the cultural priorities and institutional frameworks of their respective literary fields. The study advances literary biography as a cultural practice that actively generates and mediates collective memory, literary value, and authorial identity.
Keywords : Biography Theory, Narrative Analysis, Author Function, Symbolic Capital, Satirical Master Archetype

ORIGINAL ARTICLE URL