ORHAN KEMAL'S STARK REALISM AND MODERNISM

By Robert P. Finn 

            I understand you are considering publishing some of the work of Orhan Kemal.  This would be a very useful contribution to comparative literature and to our understanding of Turkey and Turkish literature.  Orhan Kemal's stark realism and modernism are very important for the development of the novel in Turkey. His focus on the urban underside of life revealed to Turkish readers a whole aspect of their reality, which had been neglected.  I am sure that English readers will find his work fascinating and that it will reveal to them a Turkey that is starkly different from the kind of Oriental romanticism which is what most Westerners think about when they think of Turkey.  Given the success of Orhan Pamuk’s Istanbul, Orhan Kemal's work would provide another, grittier look at the same context.  I imagine that Kemal's work would be included in many literature courses.  I would certainly would include it in mine.  
   
Ambassador Robert P. Finn 
 
Lecturer in the Department of Near 
Eastern Studies (Turkish Literature) 

Senior Research Associate, Liechtenstein Institute, Woodorow
Wilson School  

 Princeton University