In some of the literary works around the world, the phenomenon of banditry has been mentioned, and this phenomenon has been included in works in different forms. One of the forms of banditry seen in these works is "social banditry" as Eric J. Hobsbawn tries to draw boundaries. In his study, Hobsbawn tries to understand how social thugs have changed the public imagination and become folk heroes. The origin of the social bandit in Turkish literature goes back centuries. Köroğlu, the subject of the epic remembered with his name, is the oldest known "social bandit" in Turkish literature. In our modern literature, novel heroes who can be included in the "social bandit" class emerged mostly in the Republican Era, were read by a wide audience and were appreciated by the novel readers. Yalnız Efe, which iswritten by Ömer Seyfettin and important in terms of containing one of the first examples of the bandit type that emerged in the Republican era novel, pioneered the introduction of the phenomenon of banditry into modern literature. However, despite this pioneering work, Yalnız Efe has not been sufficiently included in the studies of banditry because it is considered only as a story. In this study, the work will be evaluated within the framework of the concept of "social bandit" by referring to the story and novel form of Yalnız Efe and its impact on subsequent works will be examined.

Yalnız Efe, Ömer Seyfettin, social bandit, Hobsbawn, efe/zeybek.