Aesthetic Innovation in the Nation-Making of Japan and the Ottoman Empire: A Comparative Study

This article examines the prevalence of aesthetics within the political and social reorganization of the late nineteenth century and its central role in shaping the concept of national literature in the Ottoman Empire and Japan. It contextualizes the emergence of literary modernity within the simultaneous rise of nationalism and radical modernization in two cultures that did not experience direct colonial rule—one in the West and the other in East Asia. Drawing primarily on existing research, it compares how intellectuals in these two contexts understood the relationship between aesthetics and cultural transformation. The article argues that literary aesthetics is not a dependent variable of political and economic processes, but possesses an autonomy that allowed writers of the reorganization period to explore and negotiate new possibilities within a not-yet-solidified national consciousness. It pays particular attention to the complexities surrounding the transition to nation-states in Japan and the Ottoman Empire and traces this process across three domains: the use of literature to articulate civic ideals under censorship; the contested institutionalization of literature as a national and disciplinary category grounded in classical traditions; and the rise of print culture and criticism, which enabled new forms of public engagement. The article thus offers a comparative overview of the aesthetic and literary scene, opening further avenues for comparison across other non-Western contexts not shaped by direct colonial intervention.