Novel
Yaban
Not translated into English
Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu · 1932
Synopsis
Ahmet Celal, an officer and man of letters, leaves Istanbul under British occupation and settles in a village in central Anatolia where one of his former soldiers lives; according to the Küre encyclopaedia, he lost an arm during the Great War, his former orderly is called Mehmet Ali and the village is near Eskişehir. He had idealised the peasants; they do not welcome him, and he reproaches them for their religious fanaticism and their indifference to the national struggle, while the army advances towards independence. He becomes attached to Emine, a married woman, and keeps a diary.
Context
The novel appeared in 1932, the year its author was deputy for Manisa. According to Küre, it was praised for showing the gulf between intellectuals and the people, and criticised for its uniformly negative portrayal of the peasant; the critic Berna Moran makes this question the heart of the debate. The Diyanet notes that it took second place in the novel competition of the Republican People's Party in 1942. Its French version, by Ferda Fidan, keeps the Turkish title.
Who it is for
A novel in Turkish, written in the form of its hero's diary, translated into French in 1989.
Prizes and reception
The most discussed novel by its author in Turkey, at the centre of the quarrel over how to portray the peasant.
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