Safiye Erol’un Romanlarında Yeme-İçme Kültürü ve Alışkanlıkları
Eating and Drinking Culture and Habits in Safiye Erol’s Novels

Summary/Abstract: Four novels (Kadıköyü’nün Romanı-1938, Ülker Fırtınası-1944, Ciğerdelen-1946, Dineyri Papazı-1955) written by Safiye Erol, one of the Turkish women novelists of the early Republican period, are among the leading examples of the modern Turkish novel. In this study, I aimed at determining the eating-drinking culture and habits of people in Istanbul mentioned in Safiye Erol’s novels between 1930 and end of the World War II. Meal eating is not a simple action required to sustain human life. It can be said that meal eating is the process from obtaining of food to its consumption and is associated with well-being, beliefs, preferences, technology, power, and the frailty of society. The years between 1930 and 1950 represent a period in which Turkish society tried to adapt to a Republican ideology. Changes in the eating-drinking habits are also a part of this endeavour. In this context, the outlook in eating-drinking habits of society provides us useful sociological data. I tried to specify the eating-drinking culture and habits of the abovementioned period, as stated in Safiye Erol’s novels using text/content analysis. I thematically classified the eating-drinking culture of the heroes in the novels and later interpreted each title in detail. Safiye Erol gives place to both traditional and modern eating-drinking cultural methods in her novels. This may be an indicator that Turkish people remained between both the Ottoman and Republican cultures. In the joint entertainments of men and women of a new generation, eating and drinking are sanctified and drinking alcohol comes out as a part of modern life. This situation is relevant with the political-ideological structure of that period. Safiye Erol includes many food scenes of this period in her novels ranging from breakfast to dinner, from street vendors to rowing boats, and banqueting. There is a need to expand the results I obtained from Safiye Erol’s the novels via searching through other novels published in the same period with a similar method to reach general results regarding the eating-drinking culture and habits.

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