Kâmil Bey’s Trees: The Intellectual and Emotional World of Esir Şehrin İnsanları

Abstract

Esir Şehrin İnsanları, one of the most widely read works in Kemal Tahir’s oeuvre, not only presents a panorama of Istanbul during the Armistice period but also takes shape as a novel of “awakening” through its protagonist, Kâmil Bey. In the novel, Kâmil Bey’s transformation from an “ordinary individual” into a “responsible individual” is narrated with a focus on his intellectual and emotional world. While depicting the intellectual milieu of Ottoman intellectuals of the period through the press circles that Kâmil Bey enters as a result of his work as a journalist, Kemal Tahir also interrogates the role of the press in the imagination of nation-states. Kâmil Bey’s identity as a painter, in addition to reflecting the emotional panorama of the period, serves as a means of conveying his understanding of art. Through Kâmil Bey’s paintings, the novel addresses the role of art in understanding and representing the world, making it possible to establish a parallel between Kemal Tahir’s novel and Kâmil Bey’s paintings. In this context, the novel discusses Eastern and Western art, cultural and aesthetic heritage, as well as modes of seeing and representation. This article, which argues that Kâmil Bey’s awakening is shaped along two fundamental axes—intellectual and emotional—will focus on the intellectual and emotional climate constructed by Kemal Tahir through the novel.