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When Divan Literature reached a point where it could no longer produce anything new, it was replaced by the so called Tanzimat Literature in the nineteenth century when some significant political reforms were made, thus giving the period its name, Tanzimat, meaning "Reformation". Tanzimat literature which developed under Western influence, produced novels, plays, stories, articles and critical essays which were alien to "divan" literature. Journalism and writing editorials for the dailies influenced the authors of this period, when literature with a social context became the vogue and journalism and literature became interlinked.

The editors of the dailies in this period were men and women of literature. They were invariably under the influence of either classicism, romanticism or realism; but all of them attributed importance to the utilization of simple language and aimed to reach and inform the public. In this period, Sinasi wrote, Sair Evlenmesi (A Poet's Marriage), which was the first play in the Western sense. Namik Kemal, Ziya Pasha, Semsettin Sami and Recaiz�de Mahmut Ekrem were prolific producers of prose and verse in this genre.

The Edebiyat-i Cedide (New Literature) movement started in 1891 by the authors who had gathered around Servet-i Funun (a periodical) who were proponents of "art for art's sake". But whether this was a choice they had made freely is rather debatable: some historians of literature argue that they had no other option, considering the oppression and censorship in the reign of Sultan Abdulhamit II. In this period, the most important literary development occurred in the novel. The Mavi ve Siyah (Blue and Black) and Ask-i Memnu (An Illicit Love) by Halit Ziya Usakligil, who is considered to be the first real Turkish novelist, and Eylul (September) by Mehmet Rauf, who produced the first example of the psychological novel, were the most important works of this period.