Feyyaz Kayacan's Art of War: Multiculturalism and Surrealism in The Shelter Stories

Abstract

Feyyaz Kayacan, one of the pioneering figures of the Turkish short story, pursued a multicultural life and published his works in French, English, and Turkish. His literary journeys across languages and cultures not only enabled him to get in touch with the literary and artistic movements of his time but also allowed him to take an active part in the surrealist groups in London. After surveying Kayacan’s international identity and his quest for belonging both in his actual life and in his short fiction, this article concentrates on The Shelter Stories (Sığınak Hikâyeleri, 1962), a collection of the short stories that portray the Londoners during the Second World War. It traces the possible sources that might have incited Kayacan’s imagination in writing such idiosyncratic short stories full of linguistic tricks and figures of speech. Drawing attention to the similarity between Kayacan’s imagination and the visual representations of the wartime painters Paul Nash and Henry Moore, the article underlines that Kayacan’s art of war is geared to transform dark feelings into a cheerful spirit.