Abstract
This study investigates the changing positions of social classes and status groups during the capitalist transformation of agriculture in Turkish Çukurova region throughout the last century from the perspective of Yaşar Kemal’s literary works. The study begins with a methodological discussion on the use of literary works in historical and sociological studies. It stresses three points regarding the agrarian change in Çukurova. Firstly, the resistance of lower classes to the capitalist agrarian transformation had a wide scope spanning from the Luddite-type machine-breaking to land and labor struggles. Secondly, proletarianized villagers viewed wage work as a temporary rather than a permanent condition, which would help them accumulate funds and engage with small-scale farming. Finally, transformations of classes and status groups were closely related. While the previous generations of landlords remained loyal to precapitalist social norms, failed to adapt to capitalist transformation and thereby declined, new generations started to rise, embracing profit maximization as the main goal.
Highlights
This article discusses the use of “social class” and “status group” as conceptual tools for the analysis of social change in rural Turkey in the twentieth century
This article addresses three related themes: the impact of rapid capitalist transformation on the peasantry through conceptual tools constructed by Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Karl Polanyi; the transformation of established rural elites into a modern agrarian bourgeoisie illustrated by the cases of elite success and failure in response to the requirements of capitalist accumulation; and the changing forms of agrarian class conflict during this period
This study investigates the changing positions of classes and status groups during the process of capitalist transformation of agriculture in Çukurova in the twentieth century from the perspective of Yaşar Kemal’s literary works
Summary
This article discusses the use of “social class” and “status group” as conceptual tools for the analysis of social change in rural Turkey in the twentieth century. This article addresses three related themes: the impact of rapid capitalist transformation on the peasantry through conceptual tools constructed by Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Karl Polanyi; the transformation of established rural elites into a modern agrarian bourgeoisie illustrated by the cases of elite success and failure in response to the requirements of capitalist accumulation; and the changing forms of agrarian class conflict during this period These themes are addressed through a close reading of Yaşar Kemal’s literary works on the agrarian transformation in Çukurova. Kemal’s novels and stories are not entirely works of fiction They offer rich ethnographic insights that can be read through theoretical concepts such as class, status group, household economy, capitalist development, primitive accumulation, and proletarianization. Such reading can contribute to the analysis of socio-economic changes in rural Çukurova in the twentieth century
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