Rethinking Modernization In Türkiye: The Intellectual Legacies Of Attila İlhan (1925-2005) and Necmettin Erbakan (1926-2011) – Esra Polat Onbaşı – Gece Kitaplığı

Is modernization a singular trajectory, or does each society generate its own modernity?
Rethinking Modernization in Türkiye brings into critical dialogue two towering yet often compartmentalized figures of Turkish intellectual history: Attila İlhan and Necmettin Erbakan. Emerging from distinct intellectual domains—literature and cultural criticism on the one hand, political thought and technological vision on the other—both grappled with the same fundamental question: is it possible to become modern without imitating the West?
Setting aside ideological labels and conventional binaries, this study examines their respective conceptions of modernization within a shared theoretical framework for the first time. The analysis reveals that debates over modernity in Türkiye have never been merely about development or institutional reform; they have been deeply intertwined with questions of civilization, identity, morality, and historical consciousness.
By situating these two thinkers within broader global discussions on alternative modernities, this book invites readers not only to reconsider modernization in Türkiye but to rethink the very meaning of modernity itself.