The Turkish novel of the 1970s was significantly shaped by the leftist activism of the 1960s
and the prosecutions following the military intervention on 12 March 1971. While the
repercussions of these two decades determine the politics of the majority of novels published
in this period the worlds they depict extend far beyond. In such a definitively political and
historical turn in the Turkish literary sphere the position of the intellectual emerges as a
key theme in many works along with the legacy of the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the
Turkish Republic and the modernization project that followed. Promethean Encounters primarily
examines Adalet Agaoglu's Ölmeye Yatmak (1973) Attilâ Ilhan's Biçagin Ucu (1973) and Yaraya
Tuz Basmak (1978) as well as Füruzan's Kirk Yedi'liler (1974) along the lines of the
interrelations among intelligentsia state and public. It focuses on the intellectuals'
disengagement from the state their failure to relate with the people and the consequences of
such disconnections. As it contextualizes the concept of the intellectual within an
international theoretical framework its analyses both provide an in-depth view of the
literature of the period and address the enduring contemporary conflicts.
