THE DISCONNECTED (OĞUZ ATAY)

Tutunamayanlar (The Disconnected) is one of most important works in Turkish literature. This work content the first postmodern experiment in Turkish literature. That’s why plot and reality move away from modernist novel. The reality is almost collapsed. It is a impossible to find a plot in style we are know in novel. This novel witness to collapse of reality thanks to intertextuality, postiche and leitmotif techniques.

Turgut Özben’s life is which is told in “Tutunamayanlar” (The Disconnected). Turgut was very influenced by Selim’s suicide. The common points of Selim and Turgut are that they can not cope with the hypocrisy of the modern world.

Reality in the Novel

In fact, there is a lot of distorted information that we know correctly. For example, Gogol’s suicide is mentioned. Actually, there is no such thing. These is good examples revealing the relevance of post-modern literature to reality. Literature isn’t a messenger or educationist. Narrator should not feel necessity such as revealing the reality. Irony and distortion are the most important driving force of narrative. These two concepts provide the reach of reader to aesthetic pleasure. No longer, traditional and modern are demolished. The action had burried inside the reality. It does not mean that reality is completely lost in novel. Reality inside the novel should be consistent within itself. Contrasts between dimensions are resolved with “story inside story”.

Detailed Turkish version (Click)