'Non-Istanbulites' of Istanbul : the right to the city novels in Turkish literature from the 1960s to the present

摘要

This dissertation is an inter-disciplinary work in the area of literary and cultural studies, in the sphere of literary urban studies. Its central question is: Are there novels in modern Turkish literature depicting immigrants in Istanbul in a way compatible with the philosophical idea of the right to the city? If so, through which themes and with the use of which stylistic features the idea of the right to the city is elaborated in these novels? In the dissertation it is argued that such novels exist in the Turkish literary repertoire, and seven of them are analysed in terms of the ways they elaborate the idea of the right to the city. In order to do that, themes directly connected with the right to the city, as well as related themes such as immigrants’ process of adopting an urbanite identity, their survival strategies in the city and so forth are analysed reciprocally with the formal characteristics of the novels. These are all novels set in Istanbul, with protagonists who are rural to urban immigrants in this city. It is argued in the dissertation that these novels can be categorized as right to the city novels in modern Turkish literature.