Özet
HISTORY, IDENTITY AND MEMORY IN AN ISLAND STORY
In the tetralogy titled ‘An Island Story’ Yaşar Kemal lyrically depicts the drama of people from different ethnicity and region in Anatolia after the World War I. The first book of the tetralogy, Fırat Suyu Kan Akıyor Baksana (Look! Fırat River Bleeds) narrated the struggle of the people who effort to recreate self identity after the trauma of the war. The relationship between Christian Rum Vasili and Muslim Turkish Poyraz Musa’s self-identities, the others and nature in the island they nestled was narrated. Yaşar Kemal focuses on ‘human reality’ while depicting the events that occurred in Karınca (Mirmingi) Island after the barter. The author underlines the reality that multicultural order will be able to saved by means of the unity and solidarity. The minorities who advocate the values of the land where they lived and internalized as a homeland are narrated through their relation with the past. The author acted opponent to the war. The purpose of this paper is to examine the history-identity relationship in the novel in terms of memory. Based on the theory of ‘Cultural Memory’ developed by Jan Asmann and Maurice Halbwachs, the method of how the historical material was handled in the novel is researched.
Anahtar Kelimeler
Key Words: History, Identity, Memory, Yaşar Kemal, Fırat Suyu Kan Akıyor Baksana.