Abstract:

Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu who witnessed late Ottoman period and foundation of the Republic of Turkey was a Turkish intellectual. Karaosmanoğlu wrote a novel whose name was Yaban and he told about his observation in the Turkish Independence War. In this novel, he intends nation-building by showing the disadvantages of the society. He thinks that intellectuals have an important role for nation-building and they should lead to the people who have no national consciousness. Karaosmanoğlu tells about the conflict of cultures and ideas between Ahmet Celal who is a Turkish intellectual and peasants in Anatolia in Yaban. On the one hand, Ahmet Celal follows the news about the Turkish Independent War. On the other hand, he wants to build national consciousness of the peasants. However, he cannot achieve the purpose. At the end of the novel, the village is occupied by enemy soldiers and this becomes a disaster for the peasants. This study examined the depiction of nation-building in Yaban by showing disadvantages of the society. The nation-building process consists of education of the peasants by criticizing their lifestyles, ideas about Turkish Independence War, supports of the enemy soldiers and thoughts about the term of Turk.

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