Author(s): Tahsin CULHAOGLU
This paper aims to explore how Ya?ar Kemal uses memory in his novels. As a writer who tends to transform his own memory into the memory of his characters through literary creation, Ya?ar Kemal employs trauma and fear of death as an underlying theme that connects his memory and imagination to those of his characters no matter what the cause of the trauma is. As a child at the age of five, Ya?ar Kemal experienced the greatest trauma of his life: he witnessed the murder of his father by his adopted brother at the village mosque during evening prayers. Like Ya?ar Kemal himself, most of his protagonists are deeply traumatized and suffering individuals who are incessantly haunted by the painful scenes of their traumatic experiences and who try to have a sort of selfpsychotherapy through deep inner journeys. The paper examines several of Ya?ar Kemal’s important novels through this perspective and demonstrates how he has constructed his characters’ memory.
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