The Tradition of Writing Biography and Biographical Lexicons Written After Period

Abstract

Biography which initially centered around tezkire, gains an identity that presents judgments-based sources in the Tanzimat period with the influence of biographies developed in the West. Writing biography in Turkish literature never loses its identity coming from the tradition of tezkire. Outstanding examples of standard biographies as well as lexicographic ones are written till Republic period. In folk literature, biographical folk-poetry (sair-name) is the precursor of the genre, but its function is limited with giving few characteristics of poets in few verses. In the early Republican period, glossaries of authors and poets which were written in line with the requirements of literature courses in secondary schools have been comprehensively used afterwards. Edebiyatimizda Isimler Sozlugu (The Glossary of Authors and Poets in Our Literature) which is written by Behcet Necatigil between the years of 1960-1978 becomes an important role model. In the beginning of 2000's with the studies handled by institutions or sometimes commissions, biographical lexicons are expanded to encyclopedic scale. Today common usage of internet opens a road for transferring biographical lexicons to digital data bases. In this study, the improvement of the writing biography tradition starting with tezkires and reaching to databases has been examined around the change of biographical lexicons after the Republican period.