Seniha: A Young Girl Rolling Down the Cliff

Kiralık Konak is the work of Yakup Kadri in which he intensively deals with westernization phenomenon. In the work, the destruction that the phenomenon causes in the society and family is attributed to the mansion of Naim Efendi, who symbolizes the tradition and the oldness, and Seniha’s personality, who represents “malicious European style”. The way that European cultural values, which begin to affect the country with the Ottoman Reform Movement, are reflected to the protagonist Seniha and her friends are remarkable. Seniha is the 1920s version of the European style types who misunderstand the westernization. A lot of studies have been conducted on analysis of Seniha’s actions. In this study, rather than the analysis, the reasons that have driven the heroine to have a European style have been examined in detail and holistic conclusions have been reached.

Keywords

Key Words: Yakup Kadri, Kiralık Konak, Seniha, European Style Snob, European Style Traitor, Madam Kr