Bingöl University Journal of Social Sciences Institute

Abstract

The last periods of the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey witnessed many coups. Coup periods are times when free will, the right to vote, and individual freedoms are shelved and democratic governance is interrupted. Since it is impossible to think of literary works separately from society and history, the socio-political problems of these periods were naturally reflected in literary works. The coups of May 27, 1960, March 12, 1971, September 12, 1980, and then February 28, 1997, and July 15, 2016, are the coups recorded in the history of the Republic. After each coup, novels, poems and stories were written about the coup. As a matter of fact, novels written about May 27, March 12 and September 12 have taken their place in the history of literature, but the works about the February 28 Coup have not been mentioned much. Approximately twenty novels, hundreds of stories and as many poems have been written about the February 28 Coup. Physical/psychological violence, interrogation, imprisonment, censorship/auto-censorship, social pressure, the use of state institutions as ideological devices and exile, the main themes and themes of almost every coup novel, can be seen as the main problems of the February 28 novels. In addition to these themes, the topics and themes specific to February 28th are headscarf, persuasion rooms, and headscarf protests. As a headscarved woman writer, Sibel Eraslan reflected on the socio-political problems of the period in her novel Saklı Kitap. The general characteristics of February 28 novels are also visible in Sibel Eraslan's Saklı Kitap novel.