Exile literature and exile as a motif in Oya Baydar's Novel

Abstract

In Ottoman/Turkish literary history ‘exile’ has always endured as a way to quiesce contrary writers. One of the periods in which both exile within the country and abroad increased was in the period following September 12th, 1980. The novel is the most prominent form in Turkish ‘exile literature’. Oya Baydar’s two decade long exile coincides with the above given period. The exiles way of life is an important motif is her novels. Political exile is at the forefront of her literary discourse in her first three novels Hiçbiryer’e Dönüş, Sıcak Külleri Kaldı, and Erguvan Kapısı. There are certain similarities between the German born writer Anna Seghers and Oya Baydar in terms of their use of the exile motif. Both are socialist writers and their literary works may be classified within ‘resistance literature’. Political pressure, prosecution, defeat and varieties of life in exile like nihilism, marginalization, and discrimination are among the important motifs and themes of exile literature.