Authorship, Literary Production and Censorship in the Late-Nineteenth Century

1. Abstract

This book provides an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to the profound transformations in the construction of authorship, literary production and censorship practices in England, Norway and the Ottoman Empire in the late nineteenth century and their influence on the representation of art and the artist in the novels of the period. Even though these countries had distinctive social, cultural, economic and political structures and conditions in the period, canonical literary works were still being produced alongside dramatic changes in the publishing and literary market and various forms of censorship being placed on art and the artist. Among the many prominent literary works, New Grub Street (1891) by George Gissing, Sult (1890) by Knut Hamsun and Mai ve Siyah (1896–97) by Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil stand out as essential literary works that represent the changing conditions of art and the artist in the period. The timeline of the novels (the 1890s), in particular, draws attention to the pressing need for artistic autonomy, self-expression and creativity in the novel genre. They address pivotal questions about the financial and aesthetic concerns of the novelists, the impact of (self-)censorship on their literary approach and narratives, the transforming notion of authorship, and prevailing problems in the literary and publishing world in the last decades of the century. This study argues that the novels have not only made outstanding contributions to the novel genre with their distinctive narrative style, content and form but they also exemplify the creative outcomes of implicit/explicit forms of censorships on literary production. They are innovative manifestations of the novelists challenging the dominant forms of restrictions and limitations on the freedom of expression by the artist and production of art in the period.

Keywords: authorship, literary production, (self) censorship, George Gissing, Knut Hamsun, Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil, nineteenth-century literature

2. Acknowledgements

Writing a book can be a lonely pursuit and sometimes it is difficult to see the complete picture for a long time. With the continuous support of my family, friends and colleagues, this book has been completed. I am deeply indebted to Prof. Clare Pettit and Prof. Mark Turner from King’s College London for inspiring me to do some research on Victorian publishing culture and George Gissing’s novels. I would also like to thank Dr Tahir Yaşar for his continuous academic support at Siirt University. I am indebted to my friends Emek Yüce Zeyrek Rios, Meral Öztürk, Sevim Güneş, and Hatice Bay for motivating me to persevere with the project. My heartfelt appreciation goes to my husband Shaheen Shah, for his constant support and advice. I would like to acknowledge with gratitude, the support and love of my parents, sisters and brothers for their understanding and patience. I am also grateful to Esra Bahşi, Padma and Suresh Selvamani from Peter Lang Publishing for their confidence in my work, patience and assistance.

3. Introduction

The primary aim of this project is to provide an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to the profound transformations in the construction of authorship, literary production and censorship practices in the late nineteenth century and their influence on the representation of art and the artist in the novels of the period. Such an outlook calls for new perspectives on the historical background and development of literary authorship and creativity, as well as the ambiguous effects of implicit and explicit forms of censorship on the artist and artistic production. Even though this project foregrounds literature, literary history and analysis, it necessarily navigates a range of disciplines among the social sciences and the humanities since literary authorship and production are deeply affected by the socio-cultural, economic and political conditions in which they are formed. For this reason, the study examines a sequence of specific contexts and concepts that shaped the conditions of literary production and the lives of the authors as they are represented in their novels.

The focus of the project is the last two decades of the nineteenth century (from 1880 to 1900) since this period represents a significant transitional era in the history of authorship, literary production and censorship, both in Europe and in the world at large. In the scholarship, a particular emphasis has been placed on specific countries, such as France, the UK, Germany, Italy and China, in certain historical periods, alongside a global perspective on authorship, literary history and censorship. However, there remains a research gap in the comparative analysis of these concepts and their impact on the literature of different countries. This project limits itself to the study of England, Norway and the Ottoman Empire in the late nineteenth century. Although these countries had distinctive social, cultural, economic and political structures and conditions in the period, canonical literary works were still being produced alongside dramatic changes in the publishing and literary market and various forms of censorship being placed on art and the artist. The strength of this study, therefore, lies in its focus on the differences and similarities among these countries regarding the specific conditions that structured late-nineteenth-century authorship and the genre of the novel.