Attractiveness of Appearance: Fashion in Aşk-ı Memnu

Fashion, contrary to popular belief today, neither stems from a necessity for change nor is a simple adornment. The fashion that emerged with modernization gives information about the identities of people, the classes they belong to, the society they are in and the values of the period. In literature, therefore, how characters are involved in fashion is pointed out in to reveal their characteristics and by this means to represent the people and their relationships in the narrated period realistically. In the novel Aşk-ı Memnu written by Halid Ziya Uşaklıgil, who depicts his society in his novels, the characters’ relations with fashion reveal both the relations and the characteristics of the upper class not only in the fictional world but also in the real world of the time. Being a fashion icon or at least following the fashion is an important factor in determining one’s social position. Characters can be visible through fashion, so that they can penetrate some people around them, even move up to upper class. The attachment of characters to fashion, especially the main character Bihter, is one of the basic elements hierarchizing the relations among them, thereby affecting the flow of the narrative. Fashion in this aspect has a key position in the narrative. In this paper, class conflicts and rapprochements among the characters that can be gathered in two main groups such as people of Ziyagil mansion and Melih Bey’s group will be examined with reference to the concept of “fashion” of Georg Simmel.

Keywords

Fashion, Halid Ziya Uşaklıgil, Aşk-ı Memnu, Georg Simmel, social class