A study of Murat Gülsoy's novel İstanbul'da Bir Merhamet Haftası i̇n the context of experimental literature

As traditional literature loses its importance and fails to satisfy readers, Experimental Literature appears as a new école aiming to break monotony, bring style variation and give writers a new tool for innovation. Experimental Literature originated with the French group OULIPO (Ouvroir de Litterature Potentielle) "workshop of potential literature"--which consisted of writers, artists and mathematicians. The main goal of OULIPO is to expand literary forms by incorporating formats from other disciplines such as math, chess and logic. In this way, they extract the essence of literature by breaking it down to its structural parts to see where it can lead. For example, by combining mathematics with literature OULIPO members have developed different methods and techniques. The phase that Experimental Literature has embarked on by sending reference to modernism has juxtaposed the movement with Avant-gardism, Dadaism, Surrealism, and Postmodernism in a common denominator. The very first example of Experimental Literature, which appeared in the avant-garde movement within the Turkish literary scene, was produced by Oğuz Atay in his novel "Tutunamayanlar." As one of the modern day writers, Murat Gülsoy' "İstanbul'da Bir Merhamet Haftası" is an example of this experiment in Turkish Literature. The novel is inspired by another work, "Une Semaine de Bonté" a graphic novel in collage form by German surrealist artist Max Ernst. Ernst's collage "Une Semaine de Bonté" is divided into seven sections named after the days of the week. Each of the days is associated with an element and provides an example of the element. Primarily using themes of power, violence and catastrophe, Ernst has made references to a worrisome European political atmosphere and the rise of the dark powers in Europe at that time. Inspired by Ernst, Murat Gülsoy's novel consists of seven sections within which seven strangers make commentary about seven different pictures of Ernst's collage. Murat Gülsoy wanted to accomplish in writing what Ernst did in collage. Gülsoy wanted to experiment with techniques for writing and collage by posting seven strangers' commentary about seven different pictures in seven sections. He framed each of the seven characters within their distinctive disposition, cultural background and social settings. He kept each character's narrative, viewpoints and location distinct as well. Even though the novel is written in reference to life's complexity, the increasing loneliness of humanity within crowds and people being worlds apart from each other, it is a good example of experimental literature in structure as well as technique and style. Key words: Experimental Literature, OULIPO, Max Ernst, İstanbul'da Bir Merhamet Haftası.