The Perception of Geography in Samiha Ayverdi’s Literature

It can be said that entrance of “place” to litearture as an area of study is one of the most important gains of postmodernism which came up in social sciences at the second half of the 20th century. At the same time, the fact that new definitions of geography and place have entered the social sciences supports thestudy of everyday life. This work focuses on the Republican Period and the author Samiha Ayverdi’s autobiographical works called “Paşa Hanım” and “İbrahim Efendi Konağı.” It aims to understand the author’s perception of place. For Samiha Ayverdi, family, neighbours, events, places, value judements and culture are important subjects and these are pieces of everyday life. Ayverdi mentions famous people who lived in her period, their everyday life, her family and family relations, her family’s mansion, the environment, life style in the Ottoman Empire, and in this respect she interprets main geographies. The author, who lives a religious mystic tradition has a specific Turkishness perception, and reflects this perception into her literary work. This paper aims to analyse this cognitive map.