Abstract:

Mustafa Kutlu has a unique position regarding to the reconciliation of the story genre with modern narrative forms in Turkish literature. This position manifests itself in both the form and content of his works. With the value he attaches to tradition, the way he perceives history, and his Islamic sensitivity, Mustafa Kutlu is a writer who gives much more places to the soul and moral position of people in his works. The collision of universal moral rules and the values of Muslim Turkish society with the modern world determine the main conflicts in Kutlu’s works. This attitude Kutlu has creates unique structures in his writing style and in the language, genre, and content of his works. Mustafa Kutlu is better known as a storyteller who creates texts closer to stories through all their traditional connotations and techniques instead of the strict realism required by the novel genre. However, the dimension of his writings and his relationship with the modern narrative allow some of his works to be referred to as novels. Kutlu’s (2017) long story Tarla Kuşunun Sesi [ Song of the Skylark] aims to establish a broad historical perspective in line with the characteristics of the novel genre. As a work, it incorporates the storytelling characteristic of the narrative form of Turkish-Islamic culture and in terms of its content describes social processes. The tensions created by the combination of a realistic historical perspective and original indigenous narrative features in the story prepare the grounds for the combined use of traditional story and modern narrative techniques by resolving these tensions. This study will focus on the harmony between form and the critical historical perspective in the content of Tarla Kuşunun Sesi.