YURUKS IN NOVELS OF SAMIM KOCAGOZ IN THE 100TH A NNIVERSARY OF HIS BIRTH / DOĞUMUNUN 100. YILI İÇİN SAMİM KOCAGÖZ’ÜN ROMANINDA YÖRÜKLER

• Main Author: Songül Taş*
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cyprus International University 2016-08-01
• Series: Folklor/Edebiyat
• Subjects: : Bir Karış Toprak; Samim Kocagöz; Yuruks; Tahtacis; Turkmens.
• Online Access: http://www.folkloredebiyat.org/Makaleler/1301951259_fe%2087-5.pdf

In this study the novel named “Bir Karış Toprak” (A Span of Land) which is one of the personal and original style period novels of Samim Kocagöz was resolved with a structuralist approach and based on text. Bir Karış Toprak, is a novel of Turkmens which are known as Tahtaci or mountain Yuruks. In the novel the plot is about the intentional switching of Yuruks to settled life and their land acquisition. In the novel, the features of Yuruks and their traditions are portrayed with a vital, unique and epic narration. The difference between nomadic culture & traditions and permanent settlement, dominant point of view were portrayed by author narrator technique. The events in the novel are dated back to 1894’s. In the novel which is about a period of 11 months, Abdulhamid II. Era, namely pre-republican era is narrated. There is a deep relation between event and time. Nomadic culture is narrated with an epic style from proverbs to idioms, from reduplications to public articulations while permanent settlement is narrated with a plain style filled with stagnation and desperation. This is important in terms of evoking the stagnancy and floundering that Yuruks (who awarded the name Yuruk Timar” to Soke plain on the way back to the mountains) faced in switching to settled lifestyle.