CHILDREN IN TURKISH POSTMODERNIST NOVELS WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF TURKISH MODERNIZATION

The purpose of this study is to show within which framework of concepts children in Turkish postmodernist novels are handled in Turkish modernization context.Turkish novels generally represented a societyoriented tendency and trend until 1980s.The main objective of Turkish novels was to inform the society within an ideological framework, and the concept of children was examined based on this ideological perspective. Subsequent to 1980s, Turkish novel entered a new period when the idea of writing novels moved from society-based to individual oriented concept and stood against the ideology supported before 1980s. The understanding of Postmodernism in Turkish society emerged at a late period when compared to the Postmodern novels having arisen in the Western literature. The individual and independent aspect of children was emphasized in Turkish Postmodern novels. Turkish Postmodernist novels aimed to scrutinize the identity of children from a different and novel perspective that involved a critical approach.The ideological repression of children by the society was assessed piecemal in this new approach, and therefore new concepts related to children arose. This study included certain postmodern novels by examining the concept of children. The elements related to children in these novels were analyzed and the viewpoint of Postmodern novel type towards children was examined within the framework of Turkish modernization. The study showed that Turkish Postmodernist novels, compared to Turkish novels written before Postmodern ones, stressed the importance of children and attempted to view children as independent beings