HISTORIQUE DU ROMAN POLICIER TURC
THE HISTORY OF TURKISH DETECTIVE NOVEL

Summary/Abstract: “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1841, is considered to be the first detective novel. Afterwards, Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional character is accepted as the first detective. Although it is the most read kind of novel in the world, detective novel is not accounted as a literary genre by many critics. The first translated detective novel belongs to Ahmet Münif, who translated Ponson du Terrail’s “Les Tragédies (ou drames) Paris” as "Paris Faciaları" in 1881. Three years later, Ahmet Mithat Efendi writes the first native detective novel “Esrâr-ı Cinâyât”. The genre was not able to develop itself because of the decline of Ottoman Empire; it just continued its existence. Turkish detective novel, which is introduced to our country by the West, is a new kind in Turkish literature tradition. Despite its short past of 130 years, it displays a great success in Turkish literature recently. Having very restricted topics until 1980s, Turkish detective novel began to touch upon various topics including secret government issues, terrorism, drug smuggling, and dark murders. With the emerging of private television channels, various topics are added. In recent years some detective novel writers’ works have been translated into foreign languages. Thanks to new detective novel writers, Turkish detective novels will be able to spread out its reputation to the world.

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