Appearance of nihilism in novel of Aylak Adam

Abstract

Aylak Adam, one of the pioneering texts of Turkish literature, is a novel that reveals the element threatening human existence as nihilism. Nihilism, which is a concept that is hard to define due to its paradoxical nature, implies the state of disbelief; it is divided into two as positive and negative. It is possible to say that both forms of nihilism, which have a positive reaction in a positive way and an unfavorable reaction in a negative way, are essentially an expansion of the punitive thought which means the will of the time. This phenomenon, which undoubtedly manifests itself in the best way with human reactive words and actions and always points to a special punishment situation, appears in the Aylak Adam novel with the general attitude of C. who closes the possibilities faced by the real person and punishes him. Considered as a whole, the novel Aylak Adam appears as a pioneer in the history of the novel by presenting the element that threatens the existence of human beings as a prisoner to the punitive (vengeful) thought or not being free. © 2019 Hacettepe University 1. All rights reserved.