Ömer Seyfettin

(also Ömer Seyfeddin). Born Feb. 28, 1884, in Gönen; died Mar. 6, 1920, in Istanbul. Turkish writer.

Educated in a military school, Seyfettin taught literature in the Kabataş Lycée in Istanbul from 1914. His works were first published in 1911.

Ömer Seyfettin was the father of the Turkish realistic short story. His works reveal the contradictions inherent in the Turkish bourgeoisie after the Young Turk Revolution (1908). In his short stories Ömer Seyfettin criticized the greed and ignorance of the clergy (“The Saint,” “The Savior”), the mendacity of bourgeois politicians (“Efruz Bey,” “Progress”), and feudal-patriarchal backwardness (“The Apostate”). His principal literary device in these stories was satiric hyperbole.

One of the main themes in Ömer Seyfettin’s work was the nationality question, which he sometimes viewed from the standpoint of Pan-Turkism (for example, “A Letter to the Fatherland”). His short stories were published in the collections High Heels (1923),. The White Tulip (1938), Point (1956), and Efruz Bey (1970). Ömer Seyfettin also wrote poetry.