Prison themed poetry in Republican Period (1923-1980) of Turkey

As a venue, prison has a deep-rooted background in both World and Turkish history. For the protection of justice and continuity of sovereignty, prisons have an important place. In addition to those who are actually convicted of committing crimes, philosophers, artists, writers, and poets also appear to be in prison. The purpose of this study is to determine how poets who made a work in the Republican period (1923-1980) perceived the concept of prison, how it used and interpreted it as a metaphor. Performing such a research on literary works is important in terms of enabling us to learn about the psychological, sociological, educational, cultural and political life of the period. It is seen that poets who did not go to prison and wrote poetry with this theme, as well as poets who fell into prison. In this study, the prison-themed poems of 20 poets who wrote works in the Republican Period Turkish Literature between 1923 and 1980 were scanned. Content analysis was carried out as a method of poetry analysis. Based on the thesis that literary works reflect human life and society, it has been seen that prison can be examined in many aspects as a theme in poetry type. Striking information about the change in the physical conditions of the prison, its purpose and function, the states and characteristics of the prisoners are encountered. This information obtained is important in terms of shedding light on our history and culture. When all the poems of 20 poets who wrote between 1923-1980 were examined, determinations were made about the politics of the period, the pressure and prohibitions imposed by the government, the forms of punishment and the physical conditions of the prisons. When prison is considered as a training place, it is seen that prisoners have learned professions such as carpentry, tinning, and tailoring. It is also understood that prisoners learned to read and write. Spiritual change was not only limited to prisoners, but it was also found to include relatives of prisoners. When viewed as an image and symbol, it has been determined that it corresponds to meanings such as loneliness, death, separation from lover, night, darkness, black. Keywords: Prison, Republican Period Turkish Poetry, poetry