Novelist (b. 15 September 1914, Ceyhan / Adana - d. 2 June 1970, Sofia /
Bulgaria). His real name was Mehmet Raşit Öğütçü. He also used the pen names
Hayrullah Güçlü, Orhan Raşit, Raşit Kemali, Reşat Kemal, Rüştü Ceyhun, Ülker
Uysal and Yıldız Okur. He is the son of Abdulkadir Kemal, the deputy of
Kastamonu at the time. His father fled to Syria after the Republican People’s
Party he had established in Adana (1930) was closed, and Orhan Kemal had to
quit elementary school to go with his father. He stayed in Syria for one year
and when he returned to Turkey (1932), he worked as a laborer, weaver and
secretary at cotton gin factories. While he was doing his military service, he
was tried for praising another regime in another country and he was sentenced
to five years in prison (1939). He was kept in several prisons in Kayseri,
Adana and Bursa. When he was in prison in Bursa, he met Nazım Hikmet and this
was a turning point in his life. He had various jobs after he was released. In
1950, he settled in İstanbul to earn his living by writing. He died in
Bulgaria, where he had gone for medical treatment. His body was brought back to
İstanbul and buried in Zincirlikuyu Graveyard.
He used the pen
name Reşat Kemal, Raşit Kemali in his first poems in syllabic meter, which were
published in the reviews Yedigün, Ses,
Yürüyüş and Yeni Mecmua (1939-40);
and used the name Orhan Reşit in his poems in free meter and first stories (Yeni
Edebiyat, 1941). He used the name Orhan Kemal in his poems and stories
after 1942 (in the review Yürüyüş).
His later works were primarily published in reviews such as Varlık, Yığın, Gün, Genç Nesil, Yeni Ses,
Yurt ve Dünya, etc. With his plain and absorbing narration without any
concern for form and elaboration, he gained fame through his first novel Baba Evi (My Father’s House, 1949) and
attracted a huge number of readers with his reflections on the environment in
which he knew and lived. He collected the Sait Faik Short Story Award in 1958
with Kardeş Payı (A Fair Share) and
in 1969 with Önce Ekmek (Bread
First). Again, he collected the Turkish Language Society Short Story Award in
1969 with Önce Ekmek (Bread First).
He was chosen as the best playwright of the year by the Ankara Art Lovers
Association with his play 72. Koğuş
(Ward 72) that was staged at the Ankara Art Theatre by Asaf Çiğiltepe in 1976.
There has been an award given in his name since his death. Some of his works
such as Hanımın Çiftliği (The
Mistress’ Farm), El Kızı (The
Foreigner’s Daughter), Bir Filiz Vardı
(There was a Filiz) were filmed.
WORKS:
SHORT STORY: Ekmek Kavgası (Fight for Bread, 1949), Sarhoşlar (Drunkards, 1951), Çamaşırcının Kızı (The Laundress’
Daughter, 1952), 72. Koğuş (Ward 72,
1954), Grev (Strike, 1954), Arka Sokak
(Back Street, 1956), Kardeş Payı (A
Fair Share, 1957), Babil Kulesi (The
Tower of Babel, 1957), Dünyada Harb Vardı
(There Was War on Earth, 1963), İşsiz
(Redundant, 1966), Önce Ekmek (Bread
First, 1968), Küçükler ve Büyükler (The
Little and the Great, 1971).
NOVEL: Baba Evi (My Father’s House, 1949), Avare Yıllar (Idle Years, 1959), Murtaza (Murtaza, 1952), Cemile (Cemile, 1952), Bereketli Topraklar Üzerinde (On Fertile
Lands, 1954), Suçlu (Guilty, 1957), Devlet Kuşu (Windfall, 1958), Vukuat Var (There’s a Crime, 1959), Gâvurun Kızı (The Infidel’s Daughter,
1959), Küçücük (Very Little, 1969), Dünya Evi (Marriage, 1960), El Kızı (The Foreigner’s Daughter, 1960;
filmed and broadcast in a television series, 1989), Hanımın Çiftliği (The Mistress’ Farm, 1961), Eskici ve Oğulları (The Junk Dealer and His Sons, 1962; later
published with the title Eskici Dükkânı –
The Junk Shop), Gurbet Kuşları (Birds
of Foreign Lands, 1962), Sokakların
Çocuğu (Kid of the Streets, 1963), Bir
Filiz Vardı (There Was a Filiz, 1965), Müfettişler
Müfettişi (Inspector of the Inspectors, 1966), Yalancı Dünya (False World, 1966), Evlerden Biri (One of the Houses, 1966), Arkadaş Islıkları (Friend’s Whistles, 1968), Sokaklarda Bir Kız (A Girl on the Streets, 1968), Üç Kağıtçı (Cheater, 1969), Kötü Yol (Evil Way, 1969), Kaçak (Fugitive, 1970), Tersine Dünya (Reversing World, 1986).
PLAY: İspinozlar (Snowbirds, staged 1964;
published 1965, also staged with the title Yalova
Kaymakamı – The Head Official of Yalova), 72. Koğuş (Ward 72) Bekçi
Murtaza (Murtaza the Watchman) Eskici
Dükkânı (The Junk Shop) and Kardeş
Payı (A Fair Share) were adapted for the stage and performed at theatres in
Ankara between the years 1967-71.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY- MEMOIR: Nazım
Hikmet'le Üç Buçuk Yıl (Three and a Half Years With Nazım Hikmet, 1965), Senaryo Tekniği ve Senaryoculuğumuzla İlgili
Notlar (Technique of Script Writing and Notes on Our Script Writing, 1963),
İstanbul'dan Çizgiler (Lines from
İstanbul, 1971).
JOURNAL-POETRY: Yazmak Doludizgin (Writing at Full Speed, journals, poems, 2002).
REFERENCE: Tahir Alangu / Cumhuriyetten Sonra Hikâye ve Roman (1965) - Orhan Kemal’in Romancılığı (Cumhuriyet Sanat-Edebiyat, sayı: 3, Temmuz 1970), Orhan Kemal Özel Sayısı (Yeni Edebiyat, Temmuz 1970), Muzaffer Uyguner / Orhan Kemal’in Öykücülüğü Üzerine (Türk Dili, Temmuz 1975), TDE Ansiklopedisi (c. 8, 1976), İhsan Işık / Yazarlar Sözlüğü (1990, 1998) - Türkiye Yazarlar Ansiklopedisi (2001, 2004) – Encyclopedia of Turkish Authors (2005) - Resimli ve Metin Örnekli Türkiye Edebiyatçılar ve Kültür Adamları Ansiklopedisi (2006, gen. 2. bas. 2007) - Ünlü Edebiyatçılar (Türkiye Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi, C. 4, 2013) - Encyclopedia of Turkey’s Famous People (2013), Behçet Necatigil / Edebiyatımızda İsimler Sözlüğü (18. bas. 1999), TBE Ansiklopedisi (c. 2, 2001), Adnan Özyalçıner / Yoksullar Parasızlar İşsizler İşçiler Otuz İki Yıldır Onsuz: Orhan Kemal (Cumhuriyet Kitap, 6.6.2002), Orhan Kemal Özel Bölüm (Berfin Bahar, Haziran 2005).
ORHAN KEMAL WORKS
MURTAZA
(MOURTAZA)
An émigré from the Greek town
of Alasonia, Mourtaza believes in the nobility of his blood of his heroic
uncle, whom he has taken as an idol for himself and expects every citizen to do
the same. Trying his best to do his job, he always messes up and gets
ridiculed. In time, the public begins to get annoyed by the behaviours of this
idealist watchman, who forces the residents to go to bed at a certain hour with
the belief that lack of sleep would cause them to fail in performing their
civil duties.
Is Mourtaza, one of the most
significant figures in Turkish Literature, a co
Mourtaza is one of the best
tragicomic novels depicting the degeneration of men and this dog-eat-dog world.
The novel has been adapted for screen twice and put on stage many times. The
play adapted from the novel is still performed by the Semaver Kumpanya theatre.
ESKİCİ
VE OĞULLARI (THE COBBLER AND HIS SONS)
Topal is a crippled, ageing
cobbler, a cantankerous, foul-mouthed man, who lives with his wife, two sons,
daughter and three grandchildren. He struggles to make ends meet as it is, but
when another shoemaker sets up shop across the street from Topal, business
takes a turn for the worse. As if that were not enough on its own, Topal has to
take on his elder son Mehmet, who finds himself out of work. Trade at the
modest store is not on a scale to feed nine mouths. After a succession of rows
and fights, it is decided that the whole family will go cotton picking. Their
dream is to rent a better workshop on return and move into shoe making rather
than just repairs.
The novel, set in the 1940s,
the early years of the
As one of the most
accomplished examples of the social realism movement, the novel has been
adapted for both the screen and, on many occasions, for the stage.
BEREKETLİ
TOPRAKLAR ÜZERİNDE (ON FERTILE LANDS)
Hasan, Ali and Yousuf, three
youngsters from a small village in
There is a current in Turkish
fiction known as the “Orhan Kemal perspective”, which reflects Kemal’s belief
that at the end of the day it would be possible to find a bright, pure and
compassionate side to every human being. In this novel, nevertheless, the
characters he regards with affection and despair are portrayed indulgently, but
exactly as they are. He conveys their distrust of each other, their lies and
deceit, their backbiting, their appetite for ostentation and crude egotism in
stark detail. However, these people could not have behaved any differently in
the current circumstances.
The novel was adapted for the
screen by Erden Kıral and won critical acclaim around the world in its film
version.
EL
KIZI (OUTSIDER GIRL)
Mazhar Bey, a wealthy lawyer,
marries the mild and accommodating Nazan, a girl of modest background whom he
met as a student. A life of bliss with their one son is marred only by the
presence at home of an arrogant and conceited mother-in-law, who could have
walked off the pages of a fairy tale cast in the role of wicked witch. Doting
on her son Mazhar, she has no time for Nazan, her new daughter-in-law,
considering her to be of “servant stock”. It becomes her mission to separate
the two, and she tries every possible means of doing so.
The novel recounts a melodrama
constructed along cinematographic lines. This, in turn, is set against a
backdrop of confusion and disarray occasioned by the enforcement of Atatürk’s
reforms and the process of urbanisation. On this occasion, Orhan Kemal runs his
observant eye over people who have left the village and moved to the outskirts
of the city, people aspiring to modernity and a prosperous life. The collision
of good and evil – in other words, the melodramatic cliché – is favoured
because it corresponds as a structure to the characteristics of the age.
GURBET
KUŞLARI (BIRDS OF EXILE)
Come the 1950s,
An accomplished figure of the
realism movement in fiction, Orhan Kemal recreates in this novel a palpable,
historic landscape of Turkish society set against the backdrop of 1950s
