Tragic Character vs. Idealist Type: Dramatic Beginning, Ideological Narrative, and Melodramatic Closure in Küçük Ağa
Tarık Buğra’s 1963 novel Küçük Ağa [The Little Agha] strives to offer an original historical perspective on the Turkish War of Independence while acknowledging its historical complexity. The book challenges the official historical narrative, emphasizing the need for revision all while maintaining a...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Istanbul University Press
2024-04-01
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| Series: | İstanbul Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Türk Dili ve Edebiyatı Dergisi |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/564E717F35DF4AA9B0AD3DD5129870C5 |
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| Summary: | Tarık Buğra’s 1963 novel Küçük Ağa [The Little Agha] strives to offer an original historical perspective on the Turkish War of Independence while acknowledging its historical complexity. The book challenges the official historical narrative, emphasizing the need for revision all while maintaining a strong narrative purpose. The novel’s dynamic structure is explored through the character Çolak Salih and starts by presenting the potential for Salih’s dramatic development through his internal conflicts. As the story progresses, however, the author’s intention to convey his historical thesis profoundly influences the character’s fate, turning Salih into a mere literary tool for this message. This transition from a complex character shaped by inner conflicts to a one-dimensional hero simplifies the narrative and detracts from its complexity and also shifts Küçük Ağa from a dramatic narrative to a melodrama, weakening the overall structure of the novel. Nevertheless, Küçük Ağa manages to retain the major elements of modernist literature, particularly in Salih’s initial portrayal by aligning him with the characteristics of a modernist “bildungsroman” [novel of character development]. This infusion of modernist elements counterbalances the novel’s shift toward melodrama, adding depth and meaning to the text. Additionally, the transition from drama to melodrama can be seen as reflecting the author’s dual intentions, highlighting the tension between a thesis-driven tendency to simplify and a narrative open to complexity and plurality. This article contributes to the examination of the tension between literary structures and ideological messages, shedding light on their intricate interplay. |
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| ISSN: | 2602-2648 |