Abstract
Atilla İlhan is one of the most important authors of the Turkish Literature in the Republican Period and his novel Tip of the Knife, published in 1973, is the first novel of the seven-book Inside the Mirror series, which tell Turkey in the period covering between years 1909-1960. In his novel Tip of the Knife, İlhan presented the political and social events and situations Turkey had experienced in the period from January to May 1960, observing from the point of view of the intelligentsia in Turkey. In this novel, the spirit of the time during the military coup that took place on May 27, 1960 is expounded through the main characters of the novel, Suat and Halim. In general terms, researchers have not made a clear assessment of whether the novel is for or against May 27. Moreover, his views on the revolution, coup and gender issues are often conveyed as they are without being evaluated by the researchers or these issues are briefly mentioned. This article has been written in order to critically scrutinize the issues of “revolution”, “coup” and “gender” in Attila İlhan’s novel Tip of the Knife, considering the facts and conditions of the author’s own period.