The Phenomenological Construction of Hope and Ontological Breaks: The Phenomenon of the Lottery in Modern Turkish Stories

Abstract

This study aims to examine stories that place lottery, raffle, and prize phenomena -frequently encountered in modern Turkish fiction- at the center of their narrative through a phenomenological perspective on hope. Based on the assumption that literary text is a “world of life” constructed by the intentionality of consciousness, the study examines how a lottery ticket transforms from an ordinary object into a “design for the future” established and concretized by consciousness, as emphasized in the works of Husserl and Ingarden. The scope of the study consists of selected stories by Ömer Seyfettin, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Sait Faik Abasıyanık, Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı, Orhan Kemal, Rıfat Ilgaz, and Tarık Buğra. The study employs text analysis and phenomenological interpretation techniques to examine stories in which chance, luck, lottery, or raffle are not merely used as elements within the narrative but are directly placed at the center of the plot, with the text constructed around these phenomena. Along with this, transformations in the perception of objects and space are traced in line with Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s concept of “being-in-the-world”; it is determined that the characters construct the ticket as an object of “not-yetbeing.” It has been understood that the moment this fiction collides with the plane of reality, it leads to a shocking “ontological rupture” explained by the concepts of Jean-Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger, condemning the subject to an experience of “homelessness.” Consequently, it has been argued that in the texts examined, the lottery and the phenomenon of prizes represent a “false exit” that offers no structural solution for the commoner within the modernization phase of Turkish literature, and that the subject is driven into an existential void along with the destruction of hope.