THE CLASH OF CONSERVATISM AND MODERNISM IN THE NOVEL “FALL OF THE LEAVES” BY REŞAT NURİ GÜNTEKİN

The traces of the European influences seen in the mentality world and the way of living of the Ottoman Empire rulers, intellectuals and people, who frequently confronted the Western states in the political, economic and military fields and entered into a decline from the 17th century onwards, will become increasingly clear over time. One of the areas in which these traces are depicted is literature. Since the Tanzimat period, our writers have produced works in which they reflect their stance and views related to modern lifestyle and values. This tendency is also seen in the Republican Period. One of them is Reşat Nuri, the author of the novel “Yaprak Dökümü”. In Leaf Dump, Reşat Nuri Güntekin has dealt with the theme of false Westernization which is often used by our novelists since the Tanzimat period. In this novel, the author tried to show the phenomenon of the misperception and experience of Westernization in the Ali Rıza Bey family and the social environment of his family. This effort provided the author with a social content novel called Yaprak Dökümü. In this novel with the Ali Rıza Bey family at its center, the author focuses on the adoption of a new lifestyle and moral understanding based on a materialist-money-based worldview by abandoning traditional values in an environment of social and economic chaos in the early years of the Republican era. At the end of the plot, the tragic hero of the novel, Ali Rıza Bey, surrenders to the “new order. In the novel, the experience of Ali Rıza Bey and the family around him represents the clash of traditional and modern lifestyles faced by middle-class families during the Republican era, and often represents the victorious arrival of the “new”.