TURKISH LITERATURE
1) Stranger (Yaban-1932) –Yakup Kadri KARAOSMANOĞLU
In this novel Yaban, the writer depicts the bitter experiences of a Turkish intellectual, Ahmet
Celal, in the countryside after losing his arm in the Battle of Gallipoli. Ahmet later goes to
Anatolia and looks down on Anatolian villagers especially women He thinks he is superior than
these villagers although he had lost his arm for these people. There is social class
discrimination.Though categorized as naturalist, the novel has a romantic, anti-pastoral quality.
2) Beat the Prostitute(Vurun Kahpeye-1926) – Halide Edip ADIVAR
In this novel there is gender discrimination. During the years of Turkish Independance War a
female teacher is exposed to violence because of her gernder and modern thoughts by feudal
and obscurantist men. Despite the fear of losing her life, for her country and next generations
she does not give up struggling against these obscurantists.
3)Memed, My Hawk (İnce Memed-1955) – Yaşar KEMAL
In the book, the years of 1950s when the feudality was wide spread in Anatolia, Turkey is told.
We see the oppression and cruelty of Aghas in the story. (Agha is a person who owns all of the land
in a village and rules the villagers). The author received international acclaim with the publication
of Memed, My Hawk (Turkish: İnce Memed) in 1955. In İnce Memed, Yaşar Kemal criticizes the fabric
of the society through a legendary hero, a protagonist, who flees to the mountains as a result of the
oppression of the Aghas – who . One of the most famous living writers in Turkey, Kemal is noted for
his command of the language and lyrical description of bucolic Turkish life. He has been awarded 19
literary prizes so far and nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1973.
4)The Forty Rules of Love (Aşk) – by Elif ŞAFAK Aşk is a novel within a novel, a story within a story.
With her masterfully created and contrasting characters, such as the 13th century poet, theologian
and mystic Rumi, the wandering mystic Shams-i Tabrizi, the 21st Century Jewish-American housewife
Ella Rubenstein and the Scottish writer and mystic Aziz Z. Zahara, Shafak directs the readers to look
into their own lives. While questioning the difference between being religious and believing, the
author also invites the readers to discover love, which is in the core of belief.
5) Happiness (Mutluluk)- by Zülfü LİVANELİ Gender and Social class discrimination
6) Shah Sultan (Şah Sultan9– by İskender PALA Discrimination between nations and religions.
7) Door to the Mystery (Bab-ı Esrar)- by Ahmet ÜMİT It ıs based on beliefs.
UNIVERSAL LITERATURE
1) To Kill A Mocking Bird – Harper LEE
Atticus Finch, a lawyer in the Depression-era South, defends a black man
against an undeserved rape charge, and his kids against prejudice. He agrees
to defend a young black man who is accused of raping a white woman. Many of the
townspeople try to get Atticus to pull out of the trial, but he decides to go ahead. How
will the trial turn out - and will it change any of the racial tension in the town ?
2) Precious Bane - Mary WEBB
The story is set in rural Shropshire shortly after the Napoleonic Wars}. It is narrated by the central
character, Prue Sarn, whose life is blighted by having a harelip. Only the weaver, Kester Woodseaves,
perceives the beauty of her character, but Prue cannot believe herself worthy of him. Her brother
Gideon is overridingly ambitious to attain wealth and power, regardless of who suffers while he does
so. Gideon is set to wed his sweetheart Jancis, but he incurs the wrath of her father, the cruel and
scheming self-proclaimed wizard Beguildy. An act of vengeance by Beguildy makes Gideon reject
Jancis and tragedy overwhelms them both. Prue is wrongly accused of murder and set upon by a mob,
but Kester defies them and carries Prue away to the happiness she believed she could never possess
because of her harelip.
3)Farewell Anatolia - Dido SOTIRIYU
After Greeks lost the war, Manolis who comes to İzmir escapes to a Greek island. The most interesting
point of the novel is: it enables the reader to have a different view of point to the Turkish
Independence War. The novel tries to tell us that WAR is a terrible thing whatever the reason is. Both
sides became strangers to eachother when the war started, discriminated the other nation and behaved
badly. The longings for the old friendships were described.
4)Great Expectations – Charles DICKENS
The novel centers around a poor young man by the name of Pip, who is given the chance to make
himself a gentleman by a mysterious benefactor.Great Expectations offers a fascinating view of the
differences between classes during the Victorian era, as well as a great sense of comedy and pathos.Discrimination between social classes in the period.
In his novel the author is against the lack of love and hypocrisy between people,and on the other
hand severely attacks the society system based on the monetary ambitions and discrimination. Dickens
was pleased with the idea, calling it a "such a very fine, new and grotesque idea." He planned to write
"a little piece," a "grotesque tragi-comic conception," about a young hero who befriends an escaped
convict, who then makes a fortune in Australia and anonymously bequeaths his property to the hero. In
the end, the hero loses the money because it is forfeited to the Crown.
5) THE KITE RUNNER- Khaled HOSSEIN is a novel about friendship and betrayal, and about
the price of loyalty. It is about the bonds between fathers and sons, and the power of fathers
over sons—their love, their sacrifices, and their lies. Written against a backdrop of history that
has not been told in fiction before, The Kite Runner describes the rich culture and beauty of a
land in the process of being destroyed. But through the devastation, Khaled Hosseini offers
hope: through the novel’s faith in the power of reading and storytelling, and in the possibilities
he shows us for redemption.
6) TheUgly Duckling –Hans Christian ANDERSEN (Danish poet and author- a fairytale)
Intolerance for diversity