Tracing performances in literature: The balls and parties in the Republican novel

By focusing on the balls and ball-like parties in the twelve novels published from the establishment of the Turkish Republic to today, this thesis analyses the roles of these scenes in the narrative structure. The thesis evaluates these scenes through performance theories and argues that balls/parties are performances independently, and the characters' behaviors within these scenes can be considered daily performances. This thesis comparatively examines the following twelve novels: Reşat Nuri Güntekin's Bir Kadın Düşmanı, Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu's Ankara, Peyami Safa's Cumbadan Rumbaya, Suat Derviş's İstanbul'un Bir Gecesi, Nahit Sırrı Örik's Kıskanmak, Halide Edip Adıvar's Sonsuz Panayır, Refik Halid Karay's Bugünün Saraylısı, Kemal Bilbaşar's Başka Olur Ağaların Düğünü, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar's Aydaki Kadın, Adalet Ağaoğlu's Bir Düğün Gecesi, Leylâ Erbil's Karanlığın Günü, and Orhan Pamuk's Masumiyet Müzesi. Seeing and being seen during the balls, house or garden parties, weddings, engagement parties, and nightclub scenes in the novels determine the characters' feelings, life goals, and, eventually, behaviors. These behaviors engender personal performances resulting from social pressure or a way of developing public identities. Thus balls/parties and people's behaviors within these scenes play a significant role in the novels. The twelve novels employ these scenes to explore the essence and outcome of cultural modernization in Turkey. By examining the issues that have been rewritten from different perspectives and with different styles, this thesis also traces the transformation of the Turkish novel.