THE BELOVED UNVEILED: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN MODERN TURKISH LOVE POETRY (1923-1980) LAURENT JEAN NICOLAS MIGNON SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF LONDON THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF PHD ProQuest Number: 10731706 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10731706 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 2 Abstract The thesis explores the ideological aspect of modern Turkish love poetry by focusing on the works of major poets and movements between 1923 and 1980. The approach to the theme of love was metaphorical and mystical in classical Ottoman poetry. During the period of modernisation (1839-1923), poets either rejected the theme of love altogether or abandoned Islamic aesthetics and adopted a Parnassian approach arguing that love was the expression of desire for physical beauty. A great variety of discourses on love developed during the republican period. Yahya Kemal sets the theme of love in Ottoman Istanbul and mourns the end of the relationship with the beloved who incarnates his conservative vision of national identity. The Five Syllabists contrast treacherous and sensual love in the city with pure and simple love in the Anatolian countryside, thus reflecting the Anatolianism of the nationalist intelligentsia. Nazim Hikmet approaches the theme from a variety of angles. He explores the links between love and human solidarity and humanises the beloved by writing about her in a realistic context. The Bizarre movement discusses the theme of love in the framework of its subjective realism and focuses more on the effects of love on the individual than on love itself. Socialist poets do not approach the theme uniformly but all of them advocate a socially engaged realism and are opposed to the individualism of Bizarre . The movement of the Second Renewal equates love with sexuality and explores its impact on human relationships. Islamist poets too adopt a realist stance. They abandon the idealised gardens of the divan tradition and go on a mystical quest in the harshness of everyday reality. The ideological convictions of all these movements and poets are mainly expressed in the choice of setting of the relationship, in the image of the beloved and in the definition of love. 3 Table of Contents Acknowledgements 6 Introduction: Love and Modernity 7 Aim, objectives, methodology 7 Love in classical Ottoman poetry 12 Love in post-Tanzimat poetry. 14 Considerations on literary modernity 17 On the threshold of modernity: Ahmet Ha§im 20 Chapter I: Paradise Lost: Yahya Kemal Beyatli and the theme of love 28 Yahya Kemal Beyatli 28 A prophet without a book 29 Yahya Kemal and Turkish identity 32 Yahya Kemal and the theme of love 34 The geography of love: Places and people in Istanbul 37 The narrator 43 The beloved 47 Seasons and times of love 51 Yahya Kemal: Lover and exile. 54 Chapter II: Love Spelled, Syllable by Syllable: The Five Syllabists and the theme of love 57 Versions of National Literature 5 7 Development of National Literature: 5 8 The Five Syllabists 62 The theme of love in the poetry of the Five Syllabists 65 Folk songs and playful variations on the theme of love 67 Love in an urban environment 70 Love in the Anatolian countryside 74 Love and war 78 Conclusion 82 4 Chapter HI: Humane Portraits of Love: The Poetry of Nazim Hikmet 85 Nazim Hikmet: Life and poetry 85 Love in the life and poetry of Nazim Hikmet 88 Love and political engagement 90 The heloved as companion and the poetics of realism 98 Portraits of women 104 Humane portraits of love 107 Chapter IV: TheBizarre (Garip) group and the theme of love 110 History of the Bizarre movement 110 Bizarre and the theme of love 115 Orhan Veli Kamk 118 Dedikodn 118 $ofdrim Karisi 123 Sere Serpe 125 Melih Cevdet Anday 127 Sevda Ruzgan 127 Miitluhik giirleri 122 36.7 130 Oktay Rifat 131 Ani§ 132 Uykusuzhtk 134 Karm a 135 Love, life and the people 136 Chapter V: The Social Reality of Love 138 Socialist poets and the theme of love 138 Hasan izzettin Dinamo 141 Mapusaneden Apk Sonnet 7 142 Attila ilhan 146 Ben Sana Mecburum 147 Karantina ’h Despina 151 Porno 154 Ataol Behramoglu 156 Bu A$k Bnrada Biter 152 Sevgilimsin 159 Love in a social context 160 5 Chapter VI: Beyond Love: TheSecond Renewal and the theme of love 163 Towards the definition of a trend in Turkish literature: The Second 163 Re?iewal Love and the Second Renewal 166 Cemal Siireya 169 Elma 169 Say mi 172 Striptiz 174 Edip Cansever 176 Yergekimli Karanfil 176 Bir GenelevKadmi ve... 1 BO Her Sevda 1B2 Love and beyond 184 Chapter VII: From Salome to Allah: Neo-Mystical Love Poetry 186 Islamist poetry in the republican era 186 Love in the works of Necip Fazil Kisakiirek and Sezai Karakop 188 Necip Fazil Kisakiirek 191 Kaldirmlar 191 Sezai Karako? 200 Monna Rosa 201 Siirgim Ulkeden Ba§kentler Ba§kentine 207 Neo-mystical love poetry 212 Conclusion: 214 S ettings of love 215 Images of the beloved 216 Conceptions of love 218 Labelling of literary movements 219 Bibliography: 222 6 Acknowledgements I am greatly indebted to Dr Yorgos Dedes for his professional guidance and constructive criticism throughout my work on this thesis. This research was made possible by a Research Student Fellowship awarded by the School of Oriental and African Studies and a British Academy Postgraduate Studentship (Fees Only Award). I wish to record formally my thanks to those two institutions. My thanks also go to Dr. Nurullah £etin for his valuable comments and continuous encouragement. I wish to thank Hiiseyin Su and Omer Erdem for helping me to keep in touch with developments in the Turkish literary world by regularly sending me the periodical publications that they edit. Finally, I would like to thank my friends and family and particularly my wife Turkan for her moral support and endless patience throughout this project. 7 Introduction Aim, objectives, methodology The aim of the thesis is to uncover the ideological element in modem Turkish love poetry. Throughout the twentieth century Turkey has been, geographically and politically, a place where different worlds, civilisations and blocks met or sometimes clashed: Europe and Asia, the Western and the Islamic world, the Eastern and the Western Block, the developed and the developing world. Various understandings of nationalism, socialism and Islamism have shaped the political and the literary debates in Turkey, a country where most literati believe that not only the writer or the poet but also their works have to engage in the social and political realities of the world they live in. In the twentieth century the treatment of love, the preponderant theme in classical Ottoman literature, has evolved and has been affected by ideological concerns in modern Turkish poetry. Love could be defined as the expression of one human being’s desire for another. The definition is broad enough to encompass every form of desire from platonic love to sexual fantasies. Hence a love poem is a poem in which any aspect of human desire is explored. World-views affect the narration of love in poetry and are expressed in the settings of the poems, in the image of the beloved and in the definition of love. The study of the continuity and the changes in the narration of love could serve as a basis for later researchers for the re-evaluation of the labellings of literary movements in Turkey. Love has been an important theme in the three main phases of the history of Ottoman and Turkish literature, namely the pre-modem Ottoman period, the modernising post-Tanzimat period1 and the modem republican period. Each phase has been characterised by a particular approach to the theme of love. Mystical love was the central theme of Ottoman divan poetry. The theme of love became an occasional theme in the post -Tanzimat period and poets abandoned the metaphorical discourse on love that has been predominant in the classical period. Politically engaged poets gave up the theme altogether, since it was seen as incarnating the principles of the obsolete classical Ottoman tradition. Later poets, at a time of increased political pressure, conceived love as the expression of the desire for beauty that could be sublimated in artistic creation. Republican love poetry is characterised by a great variety of approaches that focus on every aspect of ordinary life and by an increased politicisation of the theme. 1 By post-Tanzimat period, I mean the literature of theTanzimat period (1839-1876), of the era of Sultan Abdiilhamit II (1876-1909) and of the period of the Second Constitution (1908-1923). The three periods mark different stages in Ottoman political history. Since the literary developments that are discussed in this section lasted throughout the three periods, it seems more suitable to study them under the general heading of post-Tanzimat literature. 8 Despite the importance of the theme of love in the history of Ottoman-Turkish poetry, surprisingly little research has been published on modem Turkish love poetry. Anthologies of Turkish love poetry, such as Asena 1997 or Celal 2001, have only short introductions that discuss more the purposes and selection criteria for the anthology than the theme of love.