URBAN UTOPIA IN TURKISH FICTION: AN INVESTIGATION OF SIMERANYA BY PEYAMI SAFA

Utopia is both “no place (outopia)” and “a good place (eutopia)”. The meaning of utopia refers to “living in a world that is not possible, but one desires to live in”. Peyami Safa was a writer, teacher and journalist who lived between 1899-1961. He established a close relationship between the concepts of hesitation and doubt and suspicion became elucidator of the intelligence. There is a utopia-like story in his novel “Yaln？z？z” which was published as a book in 1951 after serialized in Yeni ？stanbul newspaper. Samim is the protagonist of the novel and the founder of Simeranya. Safa wrote how he solved the problems that he experienced in real life in Simeranya. The purpose of this study is to find out whether “Simeranya” is a city utopia or not. In this context, the study will analyze the characteristics of the concept of utopia and the essential features of “Simeranya” by comparing them. In summary the results can be presented as follows; -the work was written as science fiction in the form of story in the novel. - Simeranya is thought to be in the form of an island, being located elsewhere. -One can go to Simeranya by dreaming or while in a dream. -The space is introverted. -The interior and exterior space were described as if it were a real place.- The subject of education was given a particular importance and it was regarded as an institution that produces and reproduces the system.-The future is predictable. Although there are utopian tendencies such as those mentioned above, the novel does not carry many features of classical and modern utopia