Abstract:

The aim Türk Ocağı, established in 1327, is to suggest consciousness of Turkishness to the Turkish youth who are removed from consciousness of Turkishness, thus enabling them to turn back to their essence. In this sense, Türk Ocağı is the reflex movement of Turkish youths against “orientalizm,” as one considers the time Türk Ocağı emerged. On the other hand, Türk Ocağı, which has Pan-Turanist affinities, bears both social and political attributes. As the novel inwardly conveys social and political attributes, powerful formations of a period take part, within the frame of the author’s ideology, in the body of the Turkish novel. Türk Ocağı phenomenon is one of these formations involved in the Turkish novel. In this regard, inner dynamics of Türk Ocağı such as its organization and the relationships with the Turks that live abroad are, with various means, made subject matters in the novels Suyu Arayan Adam by Şevket Süreyya Aydemir and Tutsak by Emine Işınsu. Since Şevket Süreyya Aydemir’s autobiographical novel Suyu Arayan Adam, which Aydemir wrote personally witnessing, gives an exact account of the condition of Türk Ocağı. Also, Emine Işınsu’s novel Tutsak presents to the reder the nationalist organizations and Türk Ocağı on the period the novel was written, depending also on the author’s ideology.The major aim of this paper is to search for answer to the question of how Türk Ocağı is perceived with regard to the author’s ideology. What will be attempted to be emphasized with this interdisciplinary study is that literature might constitute a minor source to history, and how Türk Ocağı is perceived with respect to the literary work.

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