A Study of Kemal Tahir's "Esir Şehrin insanları" (The People of the Captured City)

Abstract

Kemal Tahir tells the status and attitudes of the Turks during the Allied occupation of Istanbul in his novel, "Esir Şehrin İnsanları". The novel is about three types of people: Those who sided with the Istanbul Government, those who are in relation with the National Forces, and those who are indifferent people who let everything follow its natural course. The conflict in the novel is composed of the woridviews of these three types of people. The author reflects in the novel what the Turkish intellectuals need to have. Having filled up a national identity, Kamil Bey joins in the struggle for the liberation of Anatolia. Kemal Tahir stresses in this novel that the Turkish intellectuals should not lose their consciousness of identity. He also successfully tells the effects of weaknesses of the istanbul government on society.