The History Written By The Novelist: Peyami Safa And Attila

Abstract

It is often thought that there is a strict separation between the disciplines of history and literature. However, the field of historical novels brings the two disciplines closer together, while also managing to blur the boundaries between the two writing styles. In particular, novels written by professional historians and works by authors who, while possessing a literary identity, declare their primary aim to leave a mark on history can certainly be classified as popular history texts. This study focuses on a novel belonging to the second type mentioned above. The novel Attila, written by Peyami Safa and first published in installments in 1928 and then as a book in 1932, is the subject of this study. This work, which is special from the perspective of literary history as it is the author's first and last historical novel, is also a text worthy of examination by historians due to Safa's preface to the work and the main sources and footnotes he used in it. The author's objection to the biased and erroneous history of Attila constructed by Westerners, and his desire to reveal the history of this great ruler of the Huns, make the text worthy of examination by historians. In this study, Safa is considered a historian, and an attempt is made to analyze the history of Attila constructed through the possibilities of the novel. The method of the study is based on discourse analysis. Here, the discourse analysis of the Attila history constructed by Safa is carried out through the depiction of the Huns, Attila's extraordinary characteristics, his portrayal of the "other," and the lines where Safa directly expresses his objections to the views of Western historians, and a method is followed to verify the equation presented by Safa through both primary sources and literature. The most important conclusion reached in the study is the necessity for professional historians to be more visible in the fields of popular history and historical novels. In our opinion, an ordinary person who reads Safa's Attila can form a certain opinion about Attila. The work has achieved this. Therefore, such an opportunity must be used by historians rather than literary figures or historical merchants. While the study is based on the principle of accepting and analyzing the novel as a historical text, it strives to achieve its goal without deciphering the text, despite offering a critical perspective and highlighting its shortcomings.