Trauma e memoria del trauma in Huzur di Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar

This article examines the relationship between trauma, memory and national identity in the context of modern Turkish literature. Since the end of the XIX century, Turkish literature has always been a privileged space for different writers and intellectuals to debate identity and cultural issues related to both nationalization and modernization. The traumatic results produced by the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and subsequently by the Kemalist reforms have emerged as central topics in the Turkish novel genre since its origins. A long-standing prevalent aesthetic approach in Turkey submitted the arts to social and political commitments. In the light of this, I will focus on Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s narrative works, and in particular on his second novel Huzur, in order to underline the deep philosophical and political reflection that makes this author probably the most sophisticated interpreter of the main traumas in which Turkish national identity is grounded.