Postmodernist Features in the Novels of Sema Kaygusuz

Abstract

The study examines three novels by Sema Kaygusuz, a well-known contemporary Turkish writer: Yere Düşen Dualar (Prayers Falling to the Ground, 2006), Yüzünde Bir Yer (A Place on Your Face, 2009), and Barbarin Kahkahasi (Laughter of the Barbarian, 2015). It focuses on the poetic attributes of these novels: Their narrative and composition, as well as the imagery. This paper aims to prove that the above novels belong to the postmodernist school, relying on quoting traditional texts, intertextuality, multiplying simulated imagery and them blending into one another. To achieve the aim, the following tasks were outlined: review the creative biography of Sema Kaygusuz; cite the content of the novels “Prayers Falling to the Ground”, “A Place on Your Face”, and “Laughter of the Barbarian”; highlight the quotation layers of the works; demonstrate that the characters lose their integrity and even human shape in the textual reality of the works, where corporeality starts supplanting spirituality, as well as to examine the core issues of the novels and the system of simulated imagery. The paper proves that the techniques of Carnivalesque are fundamental to the novels’ composition, and this is expressed at different levels, right down to the linguistic form of the pieces. In Conclusion, the study suggests that the postmodernist outlook of Sema Kaygusuz’s novels is expressed through traditional postmodernist principles: textualisation of reality, intertextuality, simulated imagery losing its figurativeness, and replacement of the spiritual with the corporeal (Carnivalesque). Most quotes in her novels are represented by citations of the Bible and Qur'an narratives, woven into modern Turkish life.