The Relationship between Social Self and Family as an Institution in Ayfer Tunç’s Novels and Stories
Şeyma BakkaloğluAyfer Tunç a well-known author in today’s literature. Brings up the issue of love, loneliness, and social and individual conflict in her works. Her novels and stories frequently criticize the institution of the family, which is considered the smallest and yet most influential part of heroes where they endured trauma that affects them for their lifetime. That is Tunç’s heroes who face difficulty in society bear the traces of family conflicts from their childhood periods. Because they were not loved or were oppressed by their parents in childhood, they cannot keep up with their social environment as adults. A child who grows up in such an environment feels a lack of trust and love in his communication with others, and this makes it difficult for him to socialize. Given the author’s depiction of these heroes whose social selves are not formed and their traumatic family stories it is clear that Tunç treats the family as a problematic place. This study reveals that Tunç sees the institution of the family as the reason her heroes cannot establish a connection with society.
Ayfer Tunç’un Roman ve Hikâyelerinde Sosyal Benlik ile Aile Kurumu İlişkisi
Şeyma BakkaloğluAyfer Tunç günümüz edebiyatının önemli isimlerinden birisidir. Toplumla ve realiteyle olan kuvvetli bağı ile dikkat çeker. Aşk, yalnızlık, uyumsuzluk, toplumsal ve bireysel çatışma eserlerinde işlediği belli başlı konulardır. Kahramanları ise çevreye, zamana, bulundukları ortama eleştirel gözle bakan, genel anlamda hayatı sorgulayan tiplerdir. Toplumun birçok parçasına getirmiş olduğu eleştirel dikkatler sahip olduğu gözlem gücüyle birleşerek etki alanını genişletir. Toplumun en küçük ve en etkili parçası olarak kabul edilen aile kurumu da Ayfer Tunç’un roman ve hikâyelerinde sıklıkla eleştirdiği alanlardan biridir. Onun kurgusunda zaman bir bütün olarak karşımıza çıkar. Bu bütünlük kahramanlarının hayat öykülerini anlatma biçimine de yansır. Zamanlar arasındaki geçişler sayesinde kahramanlarının çocukluğuna mutlaka dönüş yapar. Çocukluğa her dönüşte bir travma ortaya çıkar ve bu travmalar da kahramanları bir ömür etkiler. Toplumun içine girememiş bu kahramanların hemen hepsinin çocukluk dönemlerine ait aile içi çatışmaların izlerini taşıdıkları görülür. Bu izler kahramanların normal bir hayat sürmesinin önündeki en büyük engellerdir. Çocukluk dönemlerinde ebeveynleri tarafından sevgisiz bırakılmış veya baskı altına alınmış kahramanlar büyüdüklerinde sosyal çevreye ayak uyduramazlar. Sosyal benliği oluşamamış kahramanlar ile bu kahramanların travmatik aile hikâyeleri birleştirildiğinde Ayfer Tunç’un aile kurumunu sorunlu bir yer olarak ele aldığı açıktır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, Tunç’un, kahramanlarının toplumla bağ kuramamasının sebebi olarak aile kurumunu gördüğünü ortaya koymaktır.
The social self refers to a person’s bond with others. Many people and institutions are involved in the formation of this bond: including family members, friends, and the school environment. Among which the family has the greatest impact. Family can be considered as the starting place of the social self in terms of people living together. It is a family that raises a person, makes the greatest contribution to communication with himself and his environment, and, in short, forms the person as an individual. As such, it has many roles, most importantly, meeting the physical and mental needs of the individual during childhood. It is equally important to meet a child’s mental needs as well as physical needs. Meeting a child’s needs for love, care, trust, and freedom in a family environment will also have a positive impact on his future life. However in the opposite situation, that is, in a family environment where a child’s needs for love, care, trust, and freedom are not met, the child grows up without the most important needs in the formation of the social self. This situation negatively affects his communication with others.
The quality of interaction among family members also affects the course of a child’s social self-process. In an environment where parents communicate with each other in a healthy way, the child adopts a healthy language in communication. However, in an environment where parents communicate unhealthily, the child inevitably adopts an unhealthy language, too. In this respect, good communication in the family is very important for the quality of the child’s later life. In a family environment with good communication, family members respect each other’s opinions and decisions, and relationships are established within personal boundaries. On the other hand, the social self suffers in environments where family members oppress or do not like each other. A child who grows up in such an environment feels a lack of trust and love in his communication with others, and this makes it difficult for him to socialize.
Like many authors, Ayfer Tunç takes up the influence of one’s family on the social self. Tunç is a well-known name in today’s literature. She attracts attention through her strong bond with society and reality. Her works are a reflection of life where love, loneliness, social and individual conflict, and incompatibility emerge as the main issues. Notably, the heroes in her writing look at their surroundings with a critical eye and question life. The critical interest this brings to many parts of society, combined with the power of observation, expands their sphere of influence. Specifically, Tunç’s novels and stories frequently criticize the institution of the family, which is considered the smallest and yet most influential part of society.
Moreover, time appears as a whole in her fiction. This wholeness is also reflected in how the heroes tell their life stories. Tunç often takes readers back to the childhood of the heroes where they endured a trauma that affects them for their lifetime. That is, Tunç’s heroes who face difficulty in society and live on the margins bear the traces of family conflicts from their childhoods. These traces are the biggest obstacles they face to leading a normal life. Because they were not loved or were oppressed by their parents in childhood, they cannot keep up with their social environment as adults.
Tunç, with her interest in psychology, provides in-depth descriptions of the traumas her heroes faced and the effects of these traumas on their. Almost all of her heroes have been abandoned, repressed, or doomed to lovelessness by their parents. Authoritarian and loveless parents are the problem Tunç emphasizes most in her depictions of problematic family relationships. Various traumas experienced in the family environment have different effects on the heroes. The heroes all have different characters, but the fact that they feel lonely throughout their lives unites them in the same destiny. That is, all of Tunç’s heroes are alone, having failed to form social egos because they grew up in restless families. Therefore, it is clear that Tunç sees the family institution as a problematic place. The aim of this study is to reveal the relationship between the social self and the institution of the family in Tunç’s novels and stories.
