The culture of Turkey combines a heavily diverse and heterogeneous set of elements that have been derived from the various cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean (West Asian) and Central Asian region and to a lesser degree, Eastern European, and Caucasian traditions. Many of these traditions were initially brought together by the Ottoman Empire, a multi-ethnic and multi-religious state. During the early years of the republic, the government invested a large amount of resources into fine arts such as paintings, sculpture and architecture. This was done as both a process of modernization and of creating a cultural identity.
Turkish literature is the collection of written and oral texts composed in the Turkish language, either in its Ottoman form or in less exclusively literary forms, such as that spoken in the Republic of Turkey today. Traditional examples for Turkish folk literature include stories of Karagoz and Hacivat, Keloglan, Incili Cavus and Nasreddin Hoca, as well as the works of folk poets such as Yunus Emre and Asik Veysel. The Book of Dede Korkut and the Epic of Koroglu have been the main elements of the Turkish epic tradition in Anatolia for several centuries. The two primary streams of Ottoman literature were poetry and prose. Of the two, the Ottoman Divan poetry, a highly ritualized and symbolic art form, was the dominant stream. The vast majority of Divan poetry was lyric in nature: either ghazals or qasidas. There were, however, other common genres, most particularly the mathnawi (also known as mesnevi), a kind of verse romance and thus a variety of narrative poetry. The tradition of Ottoman prose was exclusively non-fictional in nature; as the fiction tradition was limited to narrative poetry. The Tanzimat reforms of 1839-1876 brought changes to the language of Ottoman written literature, and introduced previously unknown Western genres, primarily the novel and the short story. Many of the writers in the Tanzimat period wrote in several different genres simultaneously: for instance, the poet Namik Kemal also wrote the important 1876 novel Intibah (Awakening), while the journalist Ibrahim Sinasi is noted for writing, in 1860, the first modern Turkish play, the one-act comedy "Sair Evlenmesi" (The Poet's Marriage). Most of the roots of modern Turkish literature were formed between the years 1896 and 1923. Broadly, there were three primary literary movements during this period: the Edebiyyat-i Cedide (New Literature) movement; the Fecr-i Ati (Dawn of the Future) movement; and the Milli Edebiyyat (National Literature) movement. The Edebiyyat-i Cedide (New Literature) movement began with the founding in 1891 of the magazine Servet-i Funun (Scientific Wealth), which was largely devoted to progress (both intellectual and scientific) along the Western model. Accordingly, the magazine's literary ventures, under the direction of the poet Tevfik Fikret, were geared towards creating a Western-style "high art" in Turkey.

Q: what was the literature about?
A: collection of written and oral texts composed in the Turkish language,

Q: what was special about the poetry?
A: the Ottoman Divan poetry, a highly ritualized and symbolic art form, was the dominant stream.
what about the prose?
The tradition of Ottoman prose was exclusively non-fictional in nature; as the fiction tradition was limited to narrative poetry. The tradition of Ottoman prose was exclusively non-fictional in nature; as the fiction tradition was limited to narrative poetry. Ottoman prose was exclusively non-fictional in nature; as the fiction tradition was limited to narrative poetry. The tradition of Ottoman prose was exclusively non-fictional in nature; The tradition of Ottoman prose was exclusively non-fictional in nature; as the fiction tradition was limited to narrative poetry.
The tradition of Ottoman prose was exclusively non-fictional in nature; as the fiction tradition was limited to narrative poetry.