Modernism in Turkish poetry

The thesis attempts to understand how Turkish poetry has changed with modernization and under what circumstances modernist poems were written. In order to undertand how poetry changed with modernization, the thesis deal with what kind of a literary instituition was constructed in the period that started with Tanzimat. For conceiving under what circumstances a modernist poem became possible, Second New (?kinci Yeni) was analyzed. The literary instituition was shaped through an opposition to autonomy of aesthetic, the denial of tradition and discovery of folk literature. During the construction process of this literary instituition, the poem was characterized with the social utility and attempts highlighting the individual usage of language were not allowed. Thus the poem was not seen as an autonomous structure and especially after 1911, it became a means of disseminating nationalist thought. In this period, it was believed that modern poem could appear only by denying the tradition and using the Hece (syllabic measure) which was regarded as the national measure. Poets such as Ahmet Hasim and Yahya Kemal objected to an utilitarian literary instituition but couldn?t manage to transform this instituition radically. The Garip poetry which adhered to the literary instituition in certain aspects, suspended the discussions about the poetical measure and language. Garip wrote an avante-garde poem in terms of the textual strategy and their poems became prevalent soon thanks to its objection to autonomous poetical language. The modernist poem which was not allowed by the literary instituiton because of its objection to aesthetic autonomy, could be written by ?kinci Yeni which drew upon an autonomous poetical language. Ikinci Yeni objected to the expectation of an understandable poetical language of literary instituition and characterized the poem as a structure independent from politics and morality. The autonomous poetical language used by ?kinci Yeni was met with a great resistance. In the resistance that was opposed to ?kinci Yeni, it is possible to see the reaction to modernist sensibility in Turkey.