Peyami Safa
Dokuzuncu Hariciye Koğuşu is an autobiographical work by Peyami Safa, considered one of the most successful examples of the psychological novel genre in Turkish literature.
The internal devastation of the fifteen-year-old narrator as he faces the danger of becoming crippled or dying due to bone tuberculosis in his leg, compounded by his proud yet helpless love for Nüzhet, who is four years his senior. The physical collapse runs parallel to Nüzhet’s marriage process with Doctor Ragıp.
Istanbul; cold and eerie hospital corridors, provincial/suburban houses, Haydarpaşa railway station, and the glamorous mansion with a garden in Erenköy.
1915 (The First World War era, referred to in the diary as 'October 5, 1915').
Melancholic, claustrophobic, full of disease and pain; a stifling atmosphere that, although occasionally brightened by the deceptive spring joy of the Erenköy mansion, immediately retreats into darkness, the scent of a hospital, and intense psychological tension.
First-person (I); an extremely insightful narrator with psychological depth, matured by pain, and highly subjective.
The story is based on the rigid social and medical rules of early 20th-century Istanbul. There is an almost invisible wall between the healthy and the sick. Sickness interacts directly with personal psychology as well as rational medical rules.
The late Ottoman period; a society where the influences of Westernization (French education, cosmopolitanism, infatuation with Western lifestyle) are visible, and where arranged marriages and class anxieties exist.
Characters are arranged at equal intervals on a circle; you can read the relationship type and dynamics by clicking on the lines.
Bir çizgiye tıklayarak ilişki detayını açın.
While it is a grand, life-or-death love for the narrator, for Nüzhet it fluctuates within the boundaries of affection, play, and childhood friendship. As Nüzhet leans toward Doctor Ragıp, the distance between them grows dramatically.
But dear God, why am I doomed to sleep in this room tonight, why don't I get up from here and walk all the way home, and collapse in a faint on my living room floor?
They are complete opposites. Ragıp is healthy, successful, rational, and superficial; the protagonist is ill, deep, passionate, and fragile. The tension between them surfaces through intellectual debates.
The Pasha and the doctor began to attack me with their simple, cosmopolitan ideas.
The Pasha loves the young man and has him read books, but when it comes to Nüzhet's future, he views him as a threat and warns him sternly; the bond between them reaches a breaking point.
Nüzhet is your sister. You grew up together. She is your sister!
The Aunt wants to keep the young man away from Nüzhet. She views his disease as both a physical 'germ' to be disgusted by and a spiritual germ threatening her daughter's future.
It's no joke, my dear, it's a germ...
For Ragıp, Nüzhet is the ideal spouse, while Nüzhet slowly gives in to this man whom she originally mocked. Control and direction in the relationship are in the hands of Ragıp and the Aunt.
If I were free, I would go as far as Berlin.
Boundless empathy and shared pain. The narrator avoids sharing his grief with his mother because his mother's sorrow would double his own pain.
The sorrows told to mothers are not divided, but multiplied.
A cold but realistic medical authority relationship. The surgeon is like a god-like figure holding the young man's fate in his hands; he scolds him but is actually trying to save him.
This time he will come! He doesn't heed my warnings, but this time it is not medicine, but nature itself that is directly threatening him.
The dominant mother figure forces her daughter into a wealthy and healthy marriage. Although Nüzhet rebels from time to time, she slowly surrenders to her mother's suggestions.
Listen! You must listen! Did you find your life in the street? God forbid... A germ.
The father is protective of his daughter. Although he partially yields to his wife's ambitions, he is in the position to approve the final decision.
My father did not refuse, he said 'let us think'. He is thinking.
Nurefşan, the maid in the mansion, is an ally who witnesses the young man's silent sufferings, approaches him with compassion, and carries the hidden truths of the house to him.
The poor girl was treating this bird in her room... 'The business is proceeding. The engagement will be decided within a day or two.'
