Kültür Araştırmaları Dergisi

Öz

The work titled Alafranga Situations: Etiquette in the Late Ottoman Empire [Alafranga Halleri Geç Osmanlı’da Âdâb-ı Muâşeret], prepared as a doctoral thesis by Fatma Tunç Yaşar and later published as a book, is one of the pioneering works in its field. In the work, the cycle of etiquette within society was tried to be expressed within the framework of etiquette literature, which developed rapidly at the end of the 19th century. In this sense, the author's approach favors polyphony. So that etiquette books written by more than ten authors with different worldviews were brought together comparatively, and their perspectives and thoughts were evaluated with an equal approach. In addition, comparisons were made not only with Ottoman intellectuals but also included the European aspect of etiquette. The work, which carries the daily practice of old times to the present day, shows the transformation in private and public spaces through literature and draws attention to the response of some habits and etiquette that we feel obliged to follow even today. Along with these, perhaps the most important aspect of the work is; it conveys in a fluent language the civilization crisis between the old and the new experienced by the Ottoman society on the axis of Westernization, the dilemmas of etiquette, and the ebb and flow of politeness. In this review, an attempt was made to draw the panorama of Alafranga Situations: Etiquette in the Late Ottoman Empire.