Western sun, Ottoman apocalypse: Voltaire, Rousseau, and the Enlightenment in Late Ottoman literary culture

This dissertation traces the evolving reception of Voltaire and Rousseau across the long nineteenth century and examines their impact on Ottoman literary culture. Beginning with the earliest Ottoman references to their works in the 1790s, it argues that the Enlightenment, far from being readily embraced, was initially conceived as a destructive force, often framed through apocalyptic metaphors that signified the economic and political decentralization of long-standing Ottoman power within global systems. The study identifies a marked transformation in this reception with the first translation attempts, accompanied by processes of localization and domestication of Enlightenment frameworks. It explores how Voltaire and Rousseau were not merely read or translated but actively reimagined, foregrounding the agency of Ottoman intellectuals in reshaping and adapting European thought. Through close textual analysis of Ottoman literary works in dialogue with eighteenth-century French literature, the dissertation demonstrates how central Enlightenment themes, tropes, and concepts were appropriated, contested, and transformed in accordance with local epistemologies and political anxieties. Special attention is given to the cross-communal dynamics of this literary transmission, highlighting moments where intercommunal actors within the empire intersected in the dissemination and reinterpretation of Enlightenment ideas. By situating these engagements within broader transimperial networks of reading and rewriting, the study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of Ottoman modernity and its entanglement with global intellectual history.