Global exposures in Turkish literature: The case of Robinson Crusoe

Abstract

The texts entitled “Robenson” as adopted in Turkish influenced in one way or another by Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe’s renowned novel that has become a global figure, will be discussed in this article. These texts are Abdülhak Hâmid Tarhan's poem entitled Robenson, Sait Faik Abasıyanık's short story entitled Robenson, Orhan Veli Kanık's poem entitled Robenson, Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı's poem entitled Robenson and Mahmut Bahar's poem entitled Robenson Crusoe, respectively. The aim here is to determine the nature, change and transformation of the exchange between a main text and the subtexts that are directly or indirectly derived and fed from it and refer to it, in order to understand the continuity of the connection of Turkish literature with global literature, albeit on a specific example, in the world which is increasingly shrinking through the means of communication nowadays. In this evaluation, Daniel Defoe’s Robenson Crusoe will be occasionally discussed with the mainland metaphor, and five texts that we have mentioned in Turkish literature will be discussed with the island metaphor.