Culture in Selim İleri’s Novels with its Social Dimensions

Meaning map of culture had gradually enlarged throughouth history. It has also changed the human being with whom it interacted in the process. It helped people to experience nature through cultural forms. Language, religion, morality, art, art, economics, politics, the sense of fun, myth, science and philosophy are the forms in which culture appears. These forms had been shaped in social life and had also changed. Societies that changed were regarded as civilized. Moreover, civilized and cultured had the same meaning. However, civilized societies had a break as time passed. The meanings of the terms culture and civilization become different. This break bore consequences that would be named “cultural schizophrenia”. Literature has become the way of reflecting experience (life) in the environment of cultural schizophrenia. The relationship between culture and literature has been studied under the name of cultural studies. Cultural elements in society and their reflections in literary works are emphasized in the analyses. Turkish literature has met a lot of culture in the historical process. The cultural changes and breaks influenced literature. Selim İleri is a writer who had lived the critical periods of cultural changes. İleri generally discussed the position of society and culture through intellectuals in his novels. He deal with political thoughts, economics discussion, problems of education, deterioration in moral and religious values and cultural degeneration in the social and cultural structure. He made use of cultural elements of the past in his novels. Thus, he helped the i

Keywords

Turkish novel, culture, society, economics, politics, morality.