Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar

From Freepedia

Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar was one of the most important modern novelists and essayists of Turkish literature. He was also a member of the Turkish parliament between 1946 and 1950. He died in 1962.

One of his most significant works, among others, is a novel entitled "Institute for Setting Clocks" (Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü). The book has been widely acclaimed as an ironic criticism of the bureaucratization process with the implication that its title suggests, however that's not what the book is all about. In fact the book can be read from quite different perspectives, and can not be exhausted in only one. First of all, it is a great psychological analysis of a man who suffers from being unable to adapt himself to his time, in other words to modern times. So the fact of bureaucratization is indeed incorporated into a broader problem: modernization and its impact on the individual. Most of the characters of the novel seem to be struggling in quite weird manners in order to survive in modern times. In this way, the concept of "time" occupies a central place, giving a deeper sense, even a philosophical taste to the novel.