Some Attention on the Sources of Mai and Siyah

Comparative literature, which examines interactions between different cultures, not only contributes to such disciplines as literary history and cultural studies, but sheds light on the process of creating literary works as well. Intertextual relations/influences which can be found through close readings of texts are indeed like silent shadows in texts. New readings through these silent shadows reveal the interrelationships between different literatures. In this study, Mai ve Siyah (Blue and Black) by Halit Ziya U？akl？gil, a pioneering author in terms of his contributions to Turkish novel and the relations he established with the world literature, will be interrelated to the book of poetry Le Bleu et le Noir (The Blue and the Black), written by André Theuriet. Particularly, the poem “Au Lectuer” (To the Reader) will be discussed on the basis of the argument that the poem in question is a starting point for the stream of the novel on the axis of “imagination and reality”, symbolized with particular colors