Peride Celal’in Kurtlar’ını Anahtarlı Roman Olarak Okumak

Abstract

Roman à clef (novel with a key) is a genre of novel in which real individuals are disguised and transformed into fictional characters, and the boundaries between fiction and reality are deliberately blurred. In this genre, the identities of real individuals are not revealed directly; instead, their names are slightly altered. In this way, readers are expected to identify the real-life counterparts of the characters through clues within the text and hints provided in paratexts. Neither entirely fictional nor wholly referential, roman à clef creates a practice of reading that oscillates between the apparent fictional narrative and a hidden layer of encoded reality. This study evaluates Peride Celal’s novel Kurtlar through the conceptual framework of the roman à clef, questioning whether reading the work in this manner constitutes a misreading or represents one of the legitimate interpretive approaches. The first part of the article outlines the historical and theoretical context of the roman à clef, addressing its main issues and the matching strategies employed by authors. In the following section, the relationships between the fictional characters and real-life figures are examined, drawing on textual clues and paratextual elements such as author interviews. The study ultimately argues that, while Kurtlar can be classified as an autobiographical novel, autofiction, or Künstlerroman, it may also legitimately be read as a roman à clef.

Authors

Batuhan ERDOĞAN, & Seçil DUMANTEPE, & Seçil DUMANTEPE

Keywords

novel with a key, roman à clef, reference, Peride Celal, Kurtlar

Publication Information

Volume 0, Issue 21, 2025

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15658551

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