Çağdaş mesnevinin peşinde

Abstract

In this thesis, focusing on Nâzım Hikmet’s (1902-1963) Ferhad ile Şirin (1948) and Sezai Karakoç’s (1933- ) Leylâ ile Mecnun (1980), the two poets’/authors’ interpretation of these traditional love narratives is examined, as well as the characteristics and the reasons of these handlings. Until now, there has been a marked tendency to characterize the two poets’ attitudes towards traditional literature via the expression “to make use of tradition”. However, this is a common and an abstract expression. Throughout the thesis, the multiple characteristics of approaches to tradition are underlined. The embodiment of this multiplicity could be found in Nâzım Hikmet’s producing a counter-discourse by transforming the discourse of tradition from within. Sezai Karakoç, on the other hand, recalling a traditional literary production, tries to resist the negativity of “the moment experienced” and, eventually, envisions a resurrection of civilization through the negativity he has transformed. For instance, in Nâzım Hikmet’s abovementioned text, Ferhad, unlike his counterparts in traditional mesnevis, attains not the love of God through the metaphorical love of a particular beloved, but the love of society, which is all-embracing and metaphysical at once. As for Sezai Karakoç, he projects the conscience of his epoch onto his text and adds Islamic motifs that are not part of the original Leylâ ile Mecnun. The traditional love narratives are turned into places of struggle, reshaped according to the authors’ own ideologies. Another point emphasized in the thesis is that these two poets/authors who have hitherto been regarded as disparate in fact have a lot in common in the context of the texts mentioned above. Their resemblances could be summed up as follows: Nâzım Hikmet and Sezai Karakoç used similar means of expressing their differing discourses.