Postmodern responses to the september 12th 1980 mılıtary coup d’état in turkısh lıterature

The coup d’état on 12th September 1980 was the third successful and most influential military coup in the political history of Turkey. It is accepted as a turning point in Turkey’s history in terms of its long term effects on Turkish society and democracy. The literature in the 1980s was also hugely affected by the coup and succeeded to display the facts of the period to its readers either directly or indirectly and move it to the next generation. This study aims to investigate the literature just after the September 12 coup d’état; how the coup was experienced by the authors; how the coup is represented within the novels in 1980s and how it affected the novels in both its form and content. This article will examine two novels - Hayır (No) by Adalet Ağaoğlu and Gece Dersleri (Night Lessons) by Latife Tekin – written during the 1980s following the overthrow of the government by the military. Both novels are postmodern texts that resist the direct political and historical analysis through their refusal to submit to narrative norms of plot, structure, and language. This article will analyse their dislocations of history and how both respond to the political atmosphere in Turkey during the 1980s. The article also highlights the Turkish political history beginning from the 1960s, the political environment of the 1970s which led the 12th September 1980 military coup and its cultural environment.