Osmanlı Steampunk’ı: Yedinci Gün İhsan Oktay Anar’ın Eserlerinde Steampunk Esintileri

Steampunk, defined as a subgenre of science fiction, is a postmodern subgenre that imagines a past that never actually existed. Steampunk narratives create a retrofuturistic alternative history by combining 19th-century industrial steam-powered technologies and aesthetic elements. Emerging in literature during the late 1980s, Steampunk creates complex narratives by merging with other genres such as fantasy, horror, and historical fiction. These narratives present an alternative version of historical technologies by depicting elements such as steam-powered machines, gears, pipes and mechanical components, hot air balloons, and zeppelins. When examining İhsan Oktay Anar's novels, one can observe the construction of an alternative Ottoman period. In Anar's novels, fantasy and historical reality intertwine to present an alternative past. The primary motivation for this study stems from the consideration that particularly his novel "The Seventh Day" encompasses many elements of the steampunk subgenre by constructing a time travel narrative set in the late Ottoman period. The study aims to demonstrate that Steampunk is not exclusively a Western literary subgenre, but similar tendencies can emerge in different cultural contexts.