Postmodern paradigm in contemporary Turkish literature

The article examines the paradigmatic features of one of the leading literary trends in modern Turkey – postmodernism. It is emphasized that the postmodernist paradigm has clear contours of existence (1985–2000) and a clear structure based on its own philosophy, aesthetics and language. A special place is given to the emergence of postmodernism on Turkish soil. The basis is the hypothesis of Russian (A.V.Obraztsov) and Turkish (B.Moran) literary scholars that Turkish postmodernism has not only Western, but also national roots and that Turkish modernism had also dealt with simulated reality before it. Analyzing the textualized hyperreality of postmodernists, in which everything turns into its opposite in an endless game, the article examines the simulated heroes of works from two “waves” of Turkish postmodernism, their hybrid components (different cultural languages, different aesthetic systems). Much attention is paid to new spatio-temporal characteristics in postmodernism, when space develops dynamically and begins to “flow”, while time freezes in statics and stops, giving rise to a hybrid formation of past-present-future. The article notes that the postmodernist paradigm is changing the work of Turkish literary critics. At first they are confused, then they abandon the previous conceptual apparatus and turn to the interpretation of postmodernist texts, “open” to endless reading. In conclusion it is concluded that Turkish postmodernism influenced national realistic art, introducing quotation, collage, play and a new language into it. The postmodern paradigm has presented Turkish literature with a whole range of problems, including philosophical ones, which had not previously appeared on the artistic agenda (mass consciousness, collective unconscious, etc.).