Abstract:

This article examines Feyyaz Kayacan’s Çocuktaki Bahçe  (The Garden in the Child) in relation to his connection with Surrealism.  Çocuktaki Bahçe is the only novel of Kayacan, who is known fundemantally with his short stories in Turkish literature. Kayacan, a multilingual writer, participated in the activities of the London Surrealist Group at a time when Surrealism rose and became influential in Europe. Çocuktaki Bahçe presents some clues with regard to Kayacan’s relationship with Surrealism especially in the context of childhood. For the purpose of tracing these clues, this article interprets the meaning that André Breton attributes to childhood, Rob Jackaman’s description of the “surrealist state of mind,” a concept that draws on Breton, and Herbert Read’s  treatment of childhood in The Green Child. The article carries the discussion to an aesthetic realm by building an analogy between the garden that blossoms within Feyzi, who is the child character of the novel, and the style of Çocuktaki Bahçe, which, similar to Feyzi’s garden, branches out, blends various genres, and brings together the modern novel and traditional literature. Through this analogy, the article aims to discuss the contribution of Kayacan’s aesthetics of vitality to the novel’s surrealist state of mind.

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