This study examines the process and form through which Yahya Kemal Beyatlı’s life story was written by means of Nihad Sami Banarlı. The article interrogates the boundaries between biography and autobiography by analyzing the texts that the poet narrated to Banarlı over an extended period, subsequently reviewed, and explicitly approved. Within this framework, Yahya Kemal’s construction of his own literary image is explored through the concept of surrogate authorship, while footnotes, prefaces, postscripts, marginal notes, and correspondence are interpreted through the lens of paratextual theory. The scarcity of biographical and autobiographical works in Turkish literature produced through dictation and authorial approval renders this collaborative endeavor between Yahya Kemal and Banarlı distinctive. The study seeks to reconsider the generic boundaries of biography and autobiography, opening space for new approaches in the field, and to illuminate how authorship, mediation, and authorization function in the production of life narratives.
Yahya Kemal Beyatlı, biography, autobiography, surrogate authorship, paratextuality.