Abstract:

His son Atay's 1972 novel "The Untolds" describes the search for identity of the Turkish light and the interaction of this search with society. In Atay’s work, at the beginning of the 1960s, the mood of the intersection between tradition and modernization of the middle class is narrated. The main character of the novel, Turgut Özben and his friend, Selim Işık, have become alien to society, to themselves and to the period in which they live, because they are stuck between tradition and modernity. In the text, the definition of Turgut and Selim as "untold" emphasizes their exclusion from society. The distinction of these characters to society and to the outside world draws attention to the society-individual conflict. As Atay’s work is in Istanbul and mostly in Ankara, the placement of his characters in the living areas of big cities prepares the ground for us to watch the individualization through different places. Furthermore, the “games” that Turgut and Selim set up in the spaces show their desire to increase their tolerance to life and how aliened they are to the outside world, while also show their desire to escape from the outside world, from the society and, in fact, from the “spaces” where their bodies are imprisoned. This study focuses on the space-individual relationship in the novel and examines the impact of space on society-stranged characters and bodies. In the novel, the capture, limitation of bodies by spaces in modern society and the limitation of the spaces of movement by characters are very effective on the fact that individuals are unable to realize themselves. In this context, the purpose of this study is to examine the complex effects of the main characters in the Impossible, especially Turgut and Selim, of their bodies imprisoned in spaces and on the social-individual relationship and their interactions with the spaces.

Keywords: