Hyenas as fictional animals can be found in art, literature, music, films, comics, television series and advertising. Hyenas are present in many disciplines in both German and Turkish culture and literature and largely embody negative human actions and behavior. The metaphor of hyenas is often used to illustrate a complex situation or create an emotional resonance, particularly when it involves cruelty, greed, or ruthlessness. In many cultures, hyenas are considered a symbol of deviousness, unscrupulousness and opportunistic behavior. In literary texts, it can be used to describe certain characters or groups of people and interpersonal actions that behave in a similar way to these animals: they are greedy, quarrelsome or act without regard for others. The metaphor of hyenas can symbolize and describe social phenomena such as corruption, injustice, oppression, and exploitation. This means that the hyena metaphor is used in many different ways in a narrative.

This article analyzes and compares two narrative prose works from the collection of stories by Siegfried Lenz (1926-2014) as the representative of German literature and Necip Fazıl Kısakürek (1904-1983) as the representative of Turkish literature: Sırtlan (Hyena) (1928) and The Hyenas’ Favorite Food (1958). The two writers use animal symbolism and animal metaphors to try to shape everyday life and the peculiarities of human behavior. Animal symbolism refers to the use of animals as symbols or metaphors to represent certain characteristics, emotions or ideas. In this context, the following questions are examined: What do the stories Sırtlan (Hyena) and The Hyenas’ Favorite Food have in common? How does the human-animal relationship appear in the stories by Lenz and Kısakürek? What function do the authors assign to the animal symbolism and metaphor hyena in their respective narratives prose works?

In the stories of Siegfried Lenz and Necip Fazıl Kısakürek, death, fear, sadness, memories, regret, delusions, emotional fluctuations and the bitter realities of life often appear. They use literary characters to portray everyday life and the peculiarities of human behavior, including animal symbolism and animal metaphors. Animal symbolism refers to the use of animals as symbols or metaphors to represent certain characteristics, emotions or ideas. In The Hyenas’ Favorite Food, the shoe shopping of humans/women is compared to that of hyenas. In Lenz’s text, the hyena is only a rhetorical attribution: the two women are described by the man as hyenas who eat shoes. In Lenz’s story, the mother and daughter are named hyenas. In this way, Lenz calls for an intensive confrontation with the consumer world. The hyena in Lenz’s work is an attribution and has a contemptuous negative (even somewhat humorous) label that stands for the two women and has nothing in common with a specific hyena, whereas in Kısakürek’s work it is a real encounter with a real hyena (once alive and one dead). Such an encounter would not be possible in Europe, and actually only in Africa. In both short prose works, the hyena as a fictional object offers the potential for irritation. Overall, both short prose works describe the penetration into dark and sinister atmospheres in which the characters are confronted with their own demons and secrets.

In Kısakürek’s story, the creature/hyena is shot because it behaved immorally. The relationship between human nature and its environment is critically questioned. Both authors have created a gruesome depiction of events with the hyena. In both stories, the main characters react differently when they are afraid. The American is completely different in the moment when there should be danger; he remains passive and does not act, unlike the traveling man in the Turkish story, who reacts automatically and shoots the creature. In summary, it can be said that both storytellers use the animal symbolism/metaphor of the hyena to present a moral critique such as war as a destructive force, human cruelty and barbarism, loss of humanity and lack of empathy and compassion. The hyena seems to be a suitable literary esthetic device in short prose to make interpersonal experiences, the processing of fear, death and grief, and conflicts with other people (individuals in business and society) more tangible, to open up empathetic approaches to topics such as trauma and grief or to initiate reflection.

In both Turkish and German literature, the hyena is used as an animal symbol to visualize unpleasant, scary, threatening, and frightening aspects, situations and behaviors. It reflects a lack of moral compass. In Lenz’s work, the hyena does not appear as a living animal. It is an attribution to women whose actions seem threatened, scary and incomprehensible. In Kısakürek’s work, the hyena is a part of nature, and a scary, scary animal. Overall, the hyena serves to underline the themes and messages in the story, to depict people’s behavior in critical situations, and to give the reader a deeper understanding of human nature.