• The Garip (Strange) Movement: A Poetic Return to “Naturality” or a Deep Ecological Reappraisal of “Nature”?

    Author(s):
    Gulsah Gocmen (see profile)
    Date:
    2011
    Group(s):
    Ecocriticism, TM Literary Criticism
    Subject(s):
    Ecocriticism, Philosophy of nature, Turkish literature
    Item Type:
    Book chapter
    Tag(s):
    modernist, poetry
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M60C19
    Abstract:
    In 1941, Orhan Veli Kanik, Melih Cevdet Anday, and Oktay Rifat Horozcu, published a poetic manifesto, called Garip (or Strange), that heralded a new period in modern Turkish poetry, known as “The Garip Movement.” In the manifesto, Kanik, Anday, and Rifat declared a total aesthetic break from the conventions of the classical Ottoman poetry, and challenged its formalistic rules such as rigid prosodic structure, syllabic meter, and rhythmic pattern. Instead, they introduce a new conception of poetry which is purified from rhetorical language, elaborated diction, and formalistic patterns, and which is entirely based on free verse. Integrating their distinctively socialist perspective with their poetry, these rebellious poets reject the aesthetical movement that reinforces strict boundaries between the artist and the audience, and they insist that poetry must be written about and for the common man with a colloquial language that mirrors up the immediacy and naturality of everyday world. While the Garip poets specifically reveal the complexity of human relationships with their environment using a particular local area – generally Istanbul and its neighbourhood – as their setting, within a universal panorama of their themes, they also emphasize how human beings as a species are involved in a web of connections with other living and non-living beings in their habitat. Kanık, Rifat, and Horozcu offer different representations for this return to naturality/nature in their individualistic poems. In other words, each Garip poet has his own particular contribution in the process –what can be called– “the greening of the modern Turkish poetry” with their distinctive styles. The poets’ contributions are analyzed here within the line of the deep ecological theory, formulated by the Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess upon the basic principles of “ecocentrism,” “richness and diversity of life forms” (68), “Self-realization,” and “universal symbiosis” (80).
    Metadata:
    Published as:
    Book chapter    
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    5 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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