Gibt es ein “Genre” noir in der türkischen Literatur? Bemerkungen zu einem weiteren Problem der Genre-Bestimmung

Abstract

This article discusses the French word “noir” used as a literary term. As an imitation of its use in the expression “Film noir” it is nowadays mainly used in order to describe a certain kind of crime literature, while it denotes a certain kind of novel of social criticism in French that has a connection to crime. But in both cases, concerning film as well as literature, there is no clear definition which makes it difficult, if not impossible, to use it as a scientific term, for instance for certain genres or sub-genres. We will concentrate on some examples of Turkish literature that have been called “noir” literature during the last few years, as this term has not been used in Turkish literary history before and try to establish whether this designation is rightfully used. As so far there has not been any research into this topic, this article can be regarded as a basic contribution to the history of modern Turkish literature. If in this article some (well-known) non-Turkish authors are named, it is for putting the Turkish “noir” literature into an international frame.