The Structure of Horizon in the Poems of Nazim Hikmet: Obsession with Location

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Professeur Université Shahide Beheshti

Abstract

Nazim Hikmet (1901-1963), Turkish poet and a true believer of
Marxism, spent 12 years of his life in prison and nearly 20 years in exile, an
experience that profoundly changed his perception of  space and influenced the horizon structure of
his literary work. As Michel Collot explains, horizon structure considers the
phenomenological idea of “existence-in the world” and seeks the life character
or subject matter in the literary work; the character as an existent which is
always placed (positioned) in a certain location, from where it evokes the
world. This method assumes that each statement is built from three components:
World, Language and Me. With regards to Nazim Hikmet and his horizon structure,
we will see how the break in the perception of the prisoner from space is
visible in his poetry. This study will examine the traces of this rupture in
the structure of the poetry of Hikmet. How does its spatial descriptions differ
from others in the literature in which his poems are rooted? And how does he
reconcile this terminology of space with Marxist tendencies as a universal
human being? These are the questions we will try to answer. Next we will try to
draw the structure of horizon in the poetry of this poet.

Keywords

Research in Contemporary World Literature
Volume 17, Issue 2 - Serial Number 2
August 2012
Pages 111-129

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics