Tomris Uyar öykücülüğünde toplumsal güncellik ve biçimsel arayışlar

Date
2001
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Oğuzertem, Süha
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Bilkent University
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English
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Abstract

The Republic of Turkey has begun to go through a process of modernization especially rapidly since the 1960s. The symptoms of this process have shown themselves most evidently in the everyday life of urban areas. Since the second half of the twentieth century Western literature has been looking for new horizons to express such a modern transformation and the “short story” as a genre has proved to be a highly effective form to catch the spirit of the age. In Turkish literature, too, many writers have preferred the short story genre to tell the modern stories of their own country since the Tanzimat period, but consistent development is seen after the 1950s as a result of rapid modernization. Tomris Uyar has been writing short stories since 1965. Her tenth book was published in 1998. In her works, she has always been in pursuit of the changes in social life and literature. The mechanisms of social constraints in the background threatening the lives and dreams of ordinary characters are generally the subject matter of her stories. Tomris Uyar’s persistent interest in social actuality relates directly with the problems of modern life. The details of everday life captured by Uyar’s stories make the reader recall the experience of the days passing by; they lead to a sort of critical awareness. Tomris Uyar’s stories have changed throughout the years. Before the 1980s most of her stories had a plain and quite poetic style; the stories of that period seem to have been influenced by literary impressionism. During this period, the author mainly told the stories of ordinary people trying to cope with the changing values in society. Then, Tomris Uyar began to search for new forms for her short fiction: she began to include dreams and fantasies, postmodern fairy tales, intertextuality, and ambiguity in her stories. Between 1965 and 1998 it is evident that Tomris Uyar’s storytelling improved both in style and technique. But she has always insisted on keeping in touch with the social actuality of her country as a background for her short stories.

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