An Overview of the Psychological Effects of the Earthquakes in Türkiye through Five Stories

Authors : Tülin Arseven

Pages : 1287-1300

Doi:10.22559/folklor.3822

View : 76 | Download : 28

Publication Date : 2024-12-15

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :The number of earthquake-themed literary texts in Turkish literature is inversely proportional to the frequency and impact of earthquakes in Türkiye. This study examines earthquake-themed stories in Turkish literature regarding the effects of earthquakes on human psychology. Economic losses caused by earthquakes are, of course, an essential issue. It is also natural to deal with this issue in literary texts. The psychological impact of earthquakes is as crucial as economic losses. On the other hand, few literary texts deal with the psychological effects of earthquakes. Accordingly, few stories have been written about the psychological impacts of the earthquake, most of which are about the 1999 Gölcük earthquake. The Gölcük earthquake caused extensive damage with economic and psychological consequences. This study is based on qualitative research, whereby five stories written after the 1999 Gölcük Earthquake were selected using the purposive sampling method. The stories (How I Fell Out of Bed, The Wrong Person, Dear Hate, Without Breaking Faults, and Benefactors) were analysed by focusing on the inquiry of which aspects of the stories address the psychological problems caused by the earthquake on individuals. The selected stories have different characteristics in terms of genre and format. The stories belong to Orhan Duru, Mebuse Tekay, Hakan Şenocak, Ahmet Ümit and Barış Bıçakçı, who are renowned authors of recent Turkish literature. In the selection of the story, I paid attention to the stories dealing with different aspects of individuals’ inner world. As a result of the analysis, the destructive effects of earthquakes on people’s mental and spiritual health were determined showing that short-stories, as an important literary genre helps us understand and empathize with people who survived an earthquake.
Keywords : deprem, öykü, Türk edebiyatı, Türkiye, Gölcük