Safiye Erol’un Kadıköy’ü: Melez Bir Terkip
Bu çalışma, Safiye Erol’un Kadıköyü’nün Romanı, Ülker Fırtınası, Ciğerdelen ve Dineyri Papazı romanlarını, modernleşme, sosyal değişim ve şehirleşme bağlamında içerik analizine tabi tutarak, Safiye Erol romanlarında Kadıköy’ün ne şekilde yer aldığını inceliyor. Osmanlı İmparatorluğu döneminde uzun bir süre İstanbul’un sakin bir köyü olarak kalan Kadıköy, zamanla gözde bir sayfiye mekânına dönüşmüş ve modern Türk romanı literatürü içerisinde bu yönüyle yer edinmiştir. Semt, erken Cumhuriyet dönemi romanlarında çok kültürlü, canlı, yenilikçi bir mekân olarak ön plana çıkmış, rejim değişikliğiyle birlikte her alanda altı çizilen “yenilenme” olgusunun gündelik hayattaki karşılığını burada bulduğu vurgulanır olmuştur. Safiye Erol romanları da bu temsili güçlü bir şekilde yansıtmakta, söz konusu dönemde Bourdieu’cu anlamda semtin habitusunu tasvir etmektedirler. Osmanlı Türk modernleşmesinin “aydınlık” ve “eğlenceli” veçhesini temsil eden semtin gölgede kalan yönlerine de yer veren metinler, modernleşme serüveninin temel problematiklerine temas etmekte, okuyucuya bütüncül bir perspektif sunmaktadırlar. Yazar, romanlarında bazen doğrudan Kadıköy’ü konu edinerek, bazen de sadece mekânsal bağlamı Kadıköy üzerinden belirleyerek derinlikli bir tahlil sunar. Bu minvalde, bu çalışma sözkonusu metinlerde Kadıköy’ün kullanıldığı kısımları çözümlemenin yanı sıra, romanların genel kurgusu içerisinde Kadıköy temsilini de inceleyecek ve Safiye Erol romanlarında Kadıköy’ün genel tasvirini tespit etmeye çalışacaktır.
Safiye Erol’s Kadıköy: Hybrid Combination
In this study, Safiye Erol’s novels Kadıköyü’nün Romanı, Ülker Fırtınası, Ciğerdelen, and Dineyri Papazı are subjected to content analysis in the context of modernization, social change, and urbanization. This study also examines how Kadıköy features in these novels. Kadıköy, which remained a quiet village of Istanbul for a long time during the Ottoman Empire, became a popular summer resort in time and gained a seat in modern Turkish literature from this aspect. The neighborhood came to the forefront as a cosmopolitan, lively, and innovative space in the early Republican novels; it is emphasized that the “renewal” phenomenon, underlined in every field with the change of regime, finds its equivalent in everyday life here. Safiye Erol’s novels also strongly reflect this representation and describe the habitus of the neighborhood in the Bourdieuan sense in this period. The texts, which represent the “bright” and “playful” aspects of (Ottoman and) Turkish modernization, also refer the basic problematics of the modernization adventure and provide the reader with a holistic perspective. In her novels, the author presents an in-depth analysis, sometimes by directly addressing Kadıköy and sometimes only by determining the spatial context through Kadıköy. In this respect, this study examines the representation of Kadıköy in the general fiction and attempts to determine the general depiction of Kadıköy in Safiye Erol’s novels and analyze the parts where Kadıköy is used in the texts.
This study analyzes Safiye Erol’s novels Kadıköyü’nün Romanı, Ülker Fırtınası, Ciğerdelen, and Dineyri Papazı in the context of modernization, social change, and urbanization by examining the history of Kadıköy.
The period between 1930 and 1950, in which Erol takes the subject in her novels, is interesting in terms of the history of Kadıköy. The district that spatially reflects the repercussions of the sociocultural and socioeconomic change processes of the Early Republican period in a meaningful reflexivity has experienced rapid urbanization since the beginning of the century and becomes one of the “new Turkey’s” most popular resort places in the 1930s.
In the 1950s, this experience matured, and the change gained a new dimension when the kiosks and mansions, which began to concentrate to change the social fabric of the district since the 1850s, collapsed and made way for modern apartments. Notably, it is not possible to express periodization in certain dates when discussing spatial change. However, in the history of Kadiköy, symbolic cases or certain concentrations allow us to make some classifications without ignoring the transitions between centuries and decades. In this framework, when we examine the history of Kadıköy, we can discuss a general picture: Kadıköy is one of the modest village considered far from the center of the city until the second half of the 19th century. It mainly hosts Greek and Turkish fishing families. However, with the commencement of ferry services in 1850 and the construction of Haydarpaşa–İzmit railway line in 1873, the region started to mobilize and turned from a small village into a popular summer resort.
The district has attracted the Ottoman court elites and bureaucrats, Levantines, foreign traders, and diplomats, and included weaker socioeconomic statuses such as the Jewish people fleeing the Kuzguncuk fire and migrants from the Crimean War. In addition, it has become a dynamic place that accommodates many seasonal or daily guests with its population. Safiye Erol writes her novels with this background in mind and treats Kadıköy as the ground of her discussions in the context of Ottoman–Turkish modernization. The author observed the unique experience of Kadıköy and noticed the sociological richness of the district with special attention that distinguishes her from her contemporaries. Kadıköy has a place in each of the four novels and has a crucial place in the lives of heroes in all except for Ciğerdelen. Kadıköy is one of the characters of the story in Kadıköyü'nün Romanı, and the place where the bitter-sweet memories of heroes take place in Ülker Fırtınası and Dineyri Papazı. With its promenade places, beaches, coves, tennis courts, kiosks, gardens, and as a place where the experience of the Early Republican Period comes to life, it gains various meanings in the texts. In addition to analyzing the parts where Kadıköy is used in these four novels, this study examines the representation of Kadıköy in the general fiction and attempts to determine the general description of Kadıköy in Safiye Erol’s novels.
