N. Buket Cengiz Right to the City Novels in Turkish Literature from the 1960s to the Present

Annotation

Right to the City Novels in Turkish Literature from the 1960s to the Present analyses the representation of rural migration to Istanbul in literature, placing Henri Lefebvre's concept of the right to the city at the centre of the argument. Using a framework of critical urban theory, the book examines Orhan Kemal's Gurbet KuslarA [The Homesick Birds] (1962); Muzaffer Izgu's Halo DayA ve Iki Okuz [Uncle Halo and Two Oxen] (1973); Latife Tekin's Berci Kristin Cop MasallarA [Berji Kristin: Tales From the Garbage Hills] (1984); Metin Kacan's AgA r Roman [Heavy Roman(i)] (1990); Ayhan Gecgin's Kenarda [On the Periphery] (2003); Hatice Meryem's Insan KA sA m KA sA m, Yer Damar Damar [It Takes All Kinds] (2008); and Orhan Pamuk's Kafamda Bir TuhaflA k [A Strangeness in My Mind] (2014) in the historical context as regards rural migration to Istanbul, urbanization of migrants, and anti-migrant nostalgia. Situating these works as a counterpoint to nostalgic novels and categorising them as right to the city novels, the book aims to offer a conceptual framework that can be implemented on internal as well as international migration in other global(ising) cities; and on cultural products other than literature, such as film.