Abstract
Fragmented Narratives, Disconnected Men: The Postmodern Dialogue Between Oğuz Atay and Poyraz Karayel
Shaped by a deep distrust of the grand narratives of modernism, postmodern narrative aesthetics brings forth a framework that explores the inner world of the individual through themes such as fragmentation, multilayered structures, irony, parody, and identity crises. This narrative form has not remained confined to literature alone; it has been reproduced across various media, including cinema, television, and digital storytelling. In Turkish literature, Oğuz Atay stands as a pioneering figure of postmodernism with his narratives that center on fragmented identities, social alienation, and the boundaries of language making him both a witness to and ahead of his time. The television series Poyraz Karayel, which aired between 2015 and 2017 and attracted a wide audience, transcends the conventions of the classical detective genre with its ironic tone, multilayered characters, and narrative techniques that disrupt conventional perceptions of time and space.
This article aims to explore the continuity that can be established between Oğuz Atay’s novel Tutunamayanlar (The Disconnected) and the TV series Poyraz Karayel within the context of postmodern narrative, particularly through the figure of the "disconnected" man. The study first analyzes the postmodern techniques and identity dissolution in Tutunamayanlar, followed by an examination of the narrative structure and character construction in Poyraz Karayel. Finally, a comparative interdisciplinary reading is proposed to discuss the permeability of postmodern aesthetics between literature and television. In this context, the article argues that although the medium of narrative production changes, the questions concerning the individual’s fragility in the modern world remain constant only their forms transform.
Keywords
Postmodernism, Tutunamayanlar, Poyraz Karayel, interdisciplinarity, intertextuality, representations