Postcolonial Reflections of Alienatıon in “Kiralık Konak”: Alafranga, Subaltern and Cultural Hybrids

Postcolonial theory can be defined as a system of thought that constructs a critique of Western-centric "othering" as a method of reading and understanding in various disciplines such as art, politics, sociology, and philosophy. The subjectivity or cultural hybridity created by colonialism's hegemonic approaches reveals certain stereotypes within the social fabric. Engaging in identity questioning, the problem of otherness, and the dilemma of loneliness brought about by modernity allows for the sociological and psychological evaluation of the issues at hand. Thus, postcolonial theory or perspective enables the subject under consideration to be approached through deconstruction and analyzed through a polyphonic method. The Westernized characters or Westernization misconceptions that emerged in the Turkish novel adventure starting with the Tanzimat period, bearing a resemblance to the concepts of the other/subaltern with a broad contextual area within postcolonial theory. The effects of the process of modernization in the Turkish novel since the Tanzimat period, which are also fundamental themes in “Kiralık Konak”, on Ottoman society and family structure, the conflict between tradition and modernism, intergenerational conflict, cultural degeneration, are traces of colonialism. The aim of our study is to evaluate Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu's novel “Kiralık Konak” through deconstruction and postcolonial theory thereby establishing a text-meaning relationship created by the theory of “alienation”.