Questions from ‘Newsweek’
1. Do you think is it possible to classify contemporary Turkish literature in one category: postmodern literature?
Not exactly. I think contemporary Turkish literature is a tapestry of different voices and styles. I don’t see it as a monolithic whole. There are very different approaches, from one author to the other. It is, however, mainly a male dominated world. Most fiction writers are male, but most fiction readers are female.
2. Would you call 'Bit Palas' a postmodern book?
To be honest, I am not very comfortable with such categories. I mean I don’t mind it when critics call it a “postmodern novel”. I understand why they say this but for me such labels and categories are not very important. In my eyes Flea Palace resembles a building with many doors and rooms and many floors. It is up to the reader which rooms to visit longer, which doors to open. I like to combine the great art of European novel with the long traditions of narration in the East and Middle East. When you are a woman writer from Turkey you learn to write with and within combinations and syntheses.
3. When I am reading Turkish authors from different generations, and different countries I have a feeling that they have many things in common. Books written by Ozdamar Emine Sevgi, Orhan Pamuk or Moris Farhi are self-referential, autothematic, postmodern and full of political motives.
Certainly we have many things in common. But also we are very different in our style, subjects and rhythm. In Turkish literature there is a tradition of “father novelists” –male writers writing with auhtority, as if their readers were their sons, and they had to teach or give a message. This is not my style. I do not write like an engineer, planning everything beforehand. I like to write by letting the story and the characters and the language carry me and surprise me. I write with less “intellect” than with “intuition.”
4. How do you think what is the secret of these similarities in works of many differnt writers?
We are all the children of an age and culture. The issues we deal with are similar –how to be an individual in a collectivistic society, the past, modernity, West and East, and so on. What differs one author from another is not exactly what he writes but how he writes.
5. Do you any connection, any relationship with those writers?
Turkish writers are many in number. We have very different styles in literature and art, and also very different lifestyles. So it is not like everybody sees each other. That’s not the case.
- New Turkish literature is often called neo-ottomanism or ottoman-sentimental. Do you think it is rightly to call it like that?
My writing has been named as Neo-Ottoman by some ciritcs for two reasons. Firstly, my language. I use old words and new words. I also use many Sufi terms. I like to expand the horizons of language. Secondly, the themes I deal with cpme froma broad range. It is cosmopolitan. I like to combine the local and the universal. But the thing is I am a writer who doesn’t like to repeat herself. I have published my ninth book this month. And when I put all those nine books side by side each and every one of them is different. Because I was a different person at the time. So ı keep changing. I am a nmad and my writing is nomadic.
- You live outside Turkey. But in Turkey your book evoked controversies. Does that mean that Turkey is not a country in which writer have a freedom of creativity?
As a matter of fact, I am based in Istanbul. I travel a lot but I live in Istanbul most of the time because I am deeply in love with this ancient city. Turkey is an interesting country and I think one should not make quick generalizations about Turkey. In the West many books are published and there is a developed democracy but books also evaporate more quickly. In Turkey novels and stories are important. People take literature and imagination more seriously. I really love and cherish fiction readers in Turkey, most of whom are women. I think for people interested in art and literature Istanbul is a treasure. So this country can be also very inspiring for writers.
Thank you very much...