The Novel of the Postmodernist-New Historicist Approach in Azerbaijani Literature: Kafa

Abstract

Azerbaijani Literature is a literature among the literatures of the Turkic world, which has completed its modernization process very rapidly and produced very successful works. Azerbaijani literature, where we could find great examples of modern literature until the beginning of the 20th century, was unable to produce original and successful works for a long time after the establishment of the Soviet Union. The writers, who were obliged to meet the requirements of socialist realism under the pressure of the dominant ideology, were unable to produce truly independent works. In the 1960s, the political events that occurred in the Soviet Union, especially the partial relief observed after Stalin's death, were reflected in literature as well. The impact of the change was immediately felt in whole of the Soviet Union. However, Azerbaijani literature in particular demonstrated a very strong leap forward in this process, and a new revolutionary trend in literature emerged. In the last fifty years of Azerbaijani literature, Elçin Efendiyev, who is considered to be one of the most powerful names of novels especially in Azerbaijani literature, also gave a successful work to Azerbaijan literature in terms of both technique and subject with his latest novel Kafa. As in all world literatures, the novel is in search of changes inAzerbaijan and in this sense, traces of different movements are seen in the recent novel. In particular, we can easily observe that postmodern studies have increased considerably in recent years. Elçin Efendiyev's latest novel is one of the best examples of these studies. In this study, the place of Kafa novel in the context of Elçin's novel writing and the characteristics of postmodern style, especially in terms of new historicism, will be studied.