Social and individual themes in Hakan Şenocak's stories

This thesis aims to evaluate the historical development of Turkish short story writing from the Tanzimat period to the present day and to examine the relationship between the individual and society both thematically and formally in the stories of Hakan Şenocak, a writer who has established a distinctive position in post-1980 Turkish narrative literature. While the first generation of the Tanzimat period produced didactic stories, the second generation turned towards personal emotions. Individuality and aesthetics came to the forefront during the Servet-i Fünun and Fecr-i Ati periods, whereas the National Literature movement created a rupture in narrative with its plain language and people-centered approach. The Republican era focused on themes such as village life, social injustice, and class conflict.After 1950, the inner world of the individual took center stage, leading to formal diversity through techniques such as polyphony, stream of consciousness, and interior monologue. In the post-1980 period, identity crises, repressed traumas, individual loneliness, and social alienation emerged under the shadow of the military coup. Writers of this era abandoned classical narrative patterns and adopted modernist and postmodernist narrative techniques. Features such as interior monologue, stream of consciousness, intertextuality, fragmented plots, and broken timelines became prominent formal characteristics.Hakan Şenocak reflects the mental turmoil of the individual and their contradictions with society through a simple yet symbolic language. His timelines are fragile, settings are anonymous, and characters are surrounded by loneliness, silence, death, and poverty. Fairy-tale-like narration, surreal transitions, and symbolic elements give his texts a universal and philosophical dimension. Through concise yet intense sentences, dramatic structure, and introspective analysis, Şenocak constructs a unique narrative style within contemporary Turkish short story writing. His characters are generally introverted and fragile individuals whose psychological breakdowns are influenced by social pressures, economic inequalities, and identity issues.In this study, a qualitative research method has been adopted, and selected stories have been analyzed using thematic and structural analysis techniques. Hakan Şenocak blends personal and social layers, bringing a brief yet original breath to contemporary literature. As a result, it is concluded that Şenocak's literary world makes a distinctive contribution to modern Turkish short story writing.