The Frontiers of Collective Memory in Works of Refik Halid Karay

Abstract

The aim of this article is to show that the economic, political, social and cultural traumas created by the historical turning points that the Ottoman Empire witnessed in the last period determined the memories of late Ottoman and early Republican writers. The article focuses on collective memory in the works of exiled author Refik Halid Karay who lived between 1888 and 1965. His memory was built with traumas, exiles, wars, economic and cultural transformations which form his dissident stance. He primarily uses his memory to show his stance in his novels and articles. His witness provides a framework to construct a memory of the era. Refik Halid, even in romance and adventure novels, persistently makes reference to critical moments of the historical change. The historic events witnessed by the author pervade the fictional narrative. These events shed light on wars, illnesses, shifts in population, the emergence of new social classes due to economic disparities, and socio-cultural transformations. The research question of this article is what the main source of Refik Halid Karay's novels is. In all his works of fiction and non-fiction, it is seen that the most important source of his literature is memory. This memory, however, is drawn not within individual but within collective boundaries.