“Wandering on the peripheries”: The Turkish novelistic hero as “Beautiful Soul”

The Turkish formation story does not follow the pattern of the classical Bildungsroman. Neither does its protagonist. As opposed to his Western counterpart, who usually ends up as a “reformed idealist,” the Turkish novelistic hero, failing to overcome the dichotomy of tradition and modernity, sets on a journey in search of authenticity and gets stuck at the end. His “becoming,” if there is any, is not reminiscent of Hegelian Bildung. Being trapped in a schizoid dividedness of interiority and outside reality, the Turkish Bildungsheld becomes a purist obsessed with the idea of an “immediate meaning,” which he cannot get hold of. Instead of “actively” taking part in social reality and going through a process of maturation, he steps back and seeks transcendence in pure contemplation, which turns him into a spiritual dandy, i.e. “the Beautiful Soul.”