Narrative Situations in the Novel Aylak Adam

Abstract

Yusuf Atılgan, known for his individual-oriented work in Turkish literature, is one of the prominent names of the Republican Period. The subject of the novel Aylak Adam, which won the second prize in the 1957-1958 Yunus Nadi Novel Awards, is the search for true love of the character named C., who leads a lonely and discordant life in society. The novel uses varied narrative situations, employing more than one character as figural mediums and narrators, ensuring that the events are seen from multiple and variable perspectives. This study examines the novel within the framework of the “Theory of Narrative Situations” by the Austrian literary theorist Franz Karl Stanzel, aiming to determine the usage strategies and role of these multiple and variable perspectives in the narrative. According to Stanzel, there are three typical narrative situations: first-person narrative, authorial narrative, and figural narration. In the first-person narrative, the narrator, who is also a character in the story, recounts their own experiences. In the authorial narrative, the narrator, an entity with limitless powers outside the storyworld, sees and conveys what the characters go through from the outside. In figural narration, what happens is told through the eyes of a character in the storyworld. Here, there is the presence of a reflector character (figural medium). This article first gives general information about the novel Aylak Adam, then explains Stanzel’s theory of narrative situations, and finally examines the novel in terms of narrative situations.