The poetics of Hayriye Ünal: Polyphonic poetry

This thesis aims to examine the poetic vision of the contemporary turkish poet Hayriye ÜNAL through the framework of polyphony (heteroglossia). Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of polyphony and dialogism, the study investigates how multiple voices, discourses, and ideological positions coexist within ÜNAL’s poetry. Rather than producing a singular, centralized meaning, her poems construct a conflicted, plural, and open-ended field of meaning. In this respect, polyphony is approached not merely as a formal technique but as an ethical and aesthetic poetic stance that distinguishes ÜNAL’s poetry from monologic modes of expression. The study employes close reading methods on selected poems from different poetry collections by Hayriye ÜNAL, analyzing themes such as cliché, pain, irony, sensory experience, liminality, freedom, and postmodern aesthetics from the perspective of polyphonic poetry. It explores how the plurality of voices in the poems transforms the relationship between text and reader, destabilizes the reader’s sense of security, and relocates poetry within a decentered semantic space. Ultimately, this thesis aims to demonstrate that Hayriye Ünal’s poetics, grounded in a polyphonic approach to poetry, both occupies a distinctive position within contemporary Turkish poetry and offers a possibility that expands the intellectual, ethical, and aesthetic boundaries of poetry.