An Attempt of Classification in Contemporary Turkish Poetry: Cultural Poetry

Abstract

Culture, tradition, language and poetry are interrelated and interactive concepts. Culture and traditional knowledge are rich sources that nourish poetry. Using the rich cultural background of the poet whose material is language will also enrich his poetry. In Turkish poetry, after the Tanzimat, it is seen that the poets moved away from the rich traditional knowledge like classical literature with the westernization movement. However, with the Republic Period, some poets returned to the essence and benefited from our rich cultural background. The result is a type of poetry that we call "cultural poetry". The "poet of culture" who writes in this genre makes use of cultural elements such as folk culture, classical literature, history, religion, Sufism, philosophy, mythology, and music. Culture poetry does not only occur by using these elements as materials in poetry, but by transforming the material and creating a new product. In other words, the artist; tradition and culture should be reconsidered in the light of the age and in its own perspective, transforming it and creating original works. At this point, the culture poet should be aware of local and universal cultural diversity and master the tradition. Likewise, it is important for the reader to have a minimum level of knowledge about the subject while making sense of cultural poetry. In this study, based on Mehmet Kaplan's definition of "culture poetry", a classification attempt has been made in contemporary Turkish poetry and the concept of "culture poetry" is examined. In this context, the poems of Yahya Kemal Beyatlı, Asaf Hâlet Çelebi and Hilmi Yavuz, who were expressed to write "culture poetry" by various literature researchers, were analyzed within the framework of culture poetry.