Analysis of Orhan Kemal's novels of Çukurova period from the perspective of sociology of literature

Sociology, since its emergence, is a science that tries to address all the problems that concern society. Over time, sociology was in need of help from other disciplines in order tcomprehend the society. In this context, sociology has benefited from a discipline that deals with people as sociology does; literature. The development of the novel genre has a specificrole for sociology to be closely related to literature. As a result of this interaction, sociology of literature emerged as a field. A social analysis requires the relation between sociology and literature to be taken into account. Trying to understand and make sense of societies means examining the literary products of societies. It could be said that the changes in society are seen through literary product. In this sense, the novels that carry an interpretation of a certain period in itself are very important. Especially, Orhan Kemal's novels in which he describes the world of people from Çukurova working in farms and factories are of significance. What will be examined in this study is "novel" which is a literary genre helping us to understand society. The concept specifically will be analyzed through Orhan Kemal's novels. This article entails a social structure analysis based on the characteristics of a time period in Orhan Kemal's following novels: Bereketli Topraklar Üzerinde, Vukuat Var,Hanımın Çiftliği, Eskici ve Oğulları, Kanlı Topraklar and Kaçak. The aims of this study are to list which thematic problems the author refers to, to determine, by considering the characters, which social issues of the author's period are covered in the novel, and to explain the relationship between his writings and the social conditions of his period in the context of sociology of literature.