An Analysis of the Elements of Magical Realism in Onat Kutlar's Ishak and Bilge Karasu's Gocmus Kediler Bahcesi


Ozum A.

BILIG, sa.66, ss.179-204, 2013 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Basım Tarihi: 2013
  • Dergi Adı: BILIG
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, TR DİZİN (ULAKBİM)
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.179-204
  • Hacettepe Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

The term magical realism was employed for the first time in 1925 by Franz Roh to name the change in post-expressionistic art of painting. It was also used for the literary movement that appeared in the first half of the 20th century in Latin America and then for the narrative style in Europe. The most significant feature of magical realism is that the supernatural, fantastic, mythic and fabulative events and characters are accepted as they are in the realistic narrative discourse without any challenge. In this narrative style neither the first nor the second of the binary oppositions such as real/imaginary, human being/beast, ordinary/extraordinary and natural/supernatural is superior to the other. In contemporary Turkish literature it is possible to come across some works having the characteristics of this narrative style. Onat Kutlar's Ishak (1959) and Bilge Karasu's Gocmus Kediler Bahcesi (1979) are written in the style of magical realism. In this study, the aim is to analyse how Ishak and the stories selected from Gocmus Kediler Bahcesi, despite the twenty year gap in between, thematise the writers' common approach towards the concepts of death, life, mystery, passion, search and fear in their style of magical realism.