An Original Socialist Realist Novelist in the Context of the Approach to Religion in Modern Turkish Literature: Kemal Tahir

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

There are a few referencing irregularities which need to be addressed by the author.

Paper Review

The paper “An Original Socialist Realist Novelist in the Context of the Approach to Religion in Modern Turkish Literature: Kemal Tahir” is a well-written paper in which the author/s examine/s the them of religion, and the role it plays (whether negatively or positively from the point of the novelist, Kemal Tahir, as expressed in his novels. The author traces the shift in Kemal Tahir’s career as a novelist. In the early novels, Kemal Tahir seems to be anti-religious and this theme has been expressed in his early novels, and writings in general. He was influenced by the Marxist ideas prevailing at that time. Kemal Tahir used to think that religion goes against science and progress and that the clergy control the lives of people in the name of religion; it is an opium which helped people forget their sufferings.

In a later stage, Kemal Tahir came to reconcile with religion and no longer did he consider religion as an obstacle in the way of freedom or progress. Rather, in his later novel (Mother State), Tahir believes that religion can help in building nations and in helping people be more patriotic. The reason for Tahir’s change is that he was influenced by the Sufi movement which helped him come to a more balanced way of understanding religion.

The author diligently touches on all these elements in the novels of Kemal Tahir and puts all these in a coherent essay. However, there are a few referencing irregularities which need to be addressed by the author

Author Response

Response to Reviewers

Dear Reviewer,

We would like to thank you for the valuable time and constructive comments.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I have made some suggestions to improve your article - I have made all those comments directly on the document directly. However, one of the important points is the organization of your paper - at times it was difficult to follow all the names of the authors (not Tahir) that are mentioned with the title of their books etc. too crowded to make a sense of what are you trying to tell the readers.

A re-arrange of parts of the manuscript in a more organized way would help to make a lot of improvement and easier in reading your work. 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The English is okay, but sentences could be shorten. Some repeated content should be cut. 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

We would like to thank you for the valuable time and constructive comments that helped us improve our manuscript entitled .

We have carefully considered each of the reviewers' suggestions and revised the manuscript accordingly. 

All the requested changes have been made and are highlighted in yellow in the revised manuscript.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Thanks

you have worked hard to answer the concerns of my first review 

please give the English translation of the Tanzimat (I guess you did not note that)

it is in the Abstract section