A review on Derviş Kemal: Life, art and poems

One of the literary accumulations revealed by the oral tradition poetry art is the literature of minstrels (ashiks). Representatives of oral tradition poetry art are called "ashik". Representatives of this literature have been given different names besides ashik, and one of them is "bard". Derviş Kemal, the subject of our thesis, is also a member of a literary tradition that calls himself a bard. In our study, Derviş Kemal Özcan's life, art and poems were examined in four parts by giving an introduction. In the introduction, information about the minstrel tradition is given and Derviş Kemal's place in the minstrel tradition is discussed. In the first chapter, information about Derviş Kemal's life is given and how he started to write poetry is explained. The elements included in his artistic identity are explained and Derviş Kemal's fame and influence in oral tradition poetry art is put forward. In the second chapter, his poems were examined in terms of form and the verse types of his works, which are a part of oral tradition poetry art, are explained. In the third chapter, Derviş Kemal's poems are divided into two sections as religious-mystical poems and religious-non-sufistic poems and the identified topics are examined in terms of content. In the fourth chapter, 125 poems written by Derviş Kemal Özcan are included and our study is concluded with a conclusion that expresses his scientific contributions to Turkish oral tradition poetry. Keywords: Derviş Kemal, Tradition of poet, bektashi