A COMPARISON OF EASTERN AND WESTERN CHARACTERS IN THE NOVEL “SÖZDE KIZLAR [SO-CALLED GIRLS]” Cover Image

‘SÖZDE KIZLAR’ ROMANINDA BATILI VE DOĞULU KARAKTERLERİN KARŞILAŞTIRILMASI
A COMPARISON OF EASTERN AND WESTERN CHARACTERS IN THE NOVEL “SÖZDE KIZLAR [SO-CALLED GIRLS]”

Author(s): Abdullah DURAKOĞLU, İpek Beyza Altiparmak
Subject(s): Turkish Literature, Social differentiation, Theory of Literature
Published by: Bingöl Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü
Keywords: Peyami Safa; Sözde Kızlar; East-West Problem; Westernization; Social Changes;

Summary/Abstract: In this study, Peyami Safa’s understanding of wrong westernization is discussed with a comparison of Eastern and Western characters in his novel “Sözde Kızlar” one of his novels about depression caused by social changes in Turkey. Western characters represent bad that can do every kind of immorality while Eastern Characters represent good and innocence. Some of these Western characters get a mental disease as a result of their Bohemian life styles. Among these Western characters, Behiç gets syphilis, Nazmiye and Nevin sink into a depression. Especially the disease syphilis is meaningful. As can be understood from its common name in public, the disease is thought to belong to Europeans especially during the Ottoman time. Behiç gets this disease in Australia and transmits it to his wife and his infant. Considering this point of view, Peyami Safa shows his conservative thoughts in his novel “Sözde Kızlar”. However, it doesn’t mean that Safa is against the West. According to him Turkish people understand and live the West in a wrong way. This wrong understanding of the West has caused wrong westernization. Likewise, most people try to get to know the West not from Western people but from Eastern people who think that they are westernized. At the end of the study it is seen that Peyami Safa criticizes the aspects of westernization that are understood in a wrong way and takes sides with East.

  • Issue Year: 6/2016
  • Issue No: 11
  • Page Range: 99-112
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Turkish