Zeitschrift für die Welt der Türken (Apr 2010)
UNDERGROUND LITERATURE IN TURKEY AND THE TRACES OF UNDERGROUND LITERATURE IN HAKAN GÜNDAY’S NOVELS
Abstract
Today, one of the sources which feeds the literature is underground culture. It is known that the underground effects have been reflected to the literature field by the Gothic literature since 18th century. Gothic literature is based on fear which is one of the most basic and primitive emotions of people. Fear and evil are the two indispensable elements of underground culture. Looking at the centuries-long adventure of literature, it is seen that the literature is also benefited from “evil” concept. Literature has been predicated on the good/evil contrast for many years and given its messages on behalf of goodness. But the evil has become a dominant element with the underground literature, and the badness concept has began to be questioned again through the opponent and anarchist heroes. In the underground literature understanding, the evil is not the opposite of good now, it is just a new way of life. Traces of underground literature began to form in the political and social crisis environment of Turkey after 1980 and it was taken its place as a significant movement in the 1990’s. Today H. Günday has been accepted as one of the important representatives of underground literature in Turkey by critics. In this study, three novels of H. Günday as Kinyas and Kayra (2000), Zargana (2002), Piç (2003) which were written between 2000-2003. And carry the main dynamics of underground literature are selected as a sample and in the results of the data obtained, the underground values which Günday presented as a character property of novel persons are reported in the headings of inability to accord in life/inability to give meaning to the existence, the idealization of death, prefererred loneliness, anti-socialization and opposition against institutions, lack of the feeling of belonging to somewhere or something, ignorance of moral rules, the violence trend-dependence and the opposition to the civilization.
