Famiglia, nazione, stato. Conflitti generazionali nella narrativa turca degli anni 1950-80

This article, based on examples chosen among Turkish novels on youth protests of the period between 1950-80, intends to analyse the essential continuity with the imperial past of the power structure in the Turkish Republic. Its main aim is to highlight how patriarchal construction of the authority, both domestic and public, although challenged by continuous youth protests since the beginning of Ottoman modernization in the 1800’s, continues to reign with its violent and despotic structure. As evidenced by the selected novels, in the absence of a real rebellion of the new generations aiming to “kill the father”, the youth involved in protest movements can be only represented in its essentially powerless condition of “eternal kids” never left free to grow up.