Tahsin Yücel’in “Vatandaş” Adlı Romanı Üzerine Bir İnceleme

Abstract

Tahsin Yücel, who produced works in many literary genres such as stories, novels, criticism, trial and translation, has written his name among the important writers of Turkish literature in the Republican period. The author, who is seen to penetrate the dephts of the human soul in his stories and novels, draws attention with the references and ironies he uses his works. The author explicitly uses these techniques in his novel Vatandaş, which can be considered within the scope of his study. Şaban Baş, the protagonist of the novel, which can be considered in the context of social criticism, is clearly alienated from the society he lives in. With this alienation, the protagonist, torn between the docile Şaban Baş and the brave Volkan Taş, ultimately prefers to remain a Vatandaş and chooses to join an anonymous resistance. He comforts himself by writing on the backs of public restroom doors, saying things that no one else can say. When he returns to outside world, he falls into trouble again, but here, too, he opens an imaginary door for himself by marrying a woman who resembles his mother. Vatandaş, who partially experiences imaginary satisfactions thanks to this marriage, is generally seen to be floundering and troubled between the imaginary and the symbolic. In this study, the psychology of Şaban Baş/Vatandaş, who reveals his mental state through his own language, will be analyzed in the light of psychoanalytic methods. At this point, the methodology will be based on the teaching of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. The aim of the study, which will be supported by the views of other psychoanalysts, will not be to reveal the pathological aspects of Vatandaş, but to try to make sense of Vatandaş actions based on the images in the text.