The Republic Period
The authors and poets of the National Literature Movement shaped the first generation of authors in the Republic period. The victorious conclusion of the Turkish War of Independence and declaration of the Republic were the victory of the ideas that had inspired nationalism in literature. However, the real literary progress, which had been expected, was realized only after the Alphabet Reform of 1928. In the 1930s, the first examples of social-realist literature appeared. Most of the authors in this period wrote about the issues of recent history within the framework of the ideology of the Turkish revolution and tried to base their observations concerning political and social issues on social realities. Yesil Gece (Green Night), 1928, and Yaprak Dokumu (The Fall), 1930, by Resat Nuri Guntekin, Yaban (Savage), 1932, by Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoglu, Dokuzuncu Hariciye Kogusu (The Ninth Surgical Ward), 1930, and Fatih Harbiye, 1931, by Peyami Safa and Sinekli Bakkal (The Little Grocery Store with Flies), 1936, by Halide Edip Adivar were the major novels of this period. In poetry, a real renovation was initiated by Nazim Hikmet, who became the first representative of a new movement called free poetry, which ignored the traditional concepts of rhyme, meter and measure. Ziya Osman Saba, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar, Ahmet Muhip Dranas and Kemalettin Kamu wrote poems with syllabic rhymes, giving utmost importance to "poetic" expressions. In the second half of the 1930s, poets such as Cahit Sitki Taranci, Fazil Husnu Daglarca and Ilhan Berk tried to develop an independent poetic approach and Necip Fazil Kisakurek utilized surrealist elements in his poems in a unique and striking style.

In the 1940s, Sabahattin Ali developed the social-realist line further and Sait Faik Abasiyanik created an Žcole of his own, with his remarkable short stories which sensitively focused on the individual instead of social problems. Sabahattin Ali, wrote about the effects of cultural changes on individuals belonging to different social classes from a psychological point of view in his novels Icimizdeki Seytan (The Devil Inside Us), 1940 and Kurk Mantolu Madonna (Madonna with a Fur Coat), 1943. Other writers of the period such as Tarik Bugra, Oktay Akbal, Cevat Sakir Kabagacli, Haldun Taner, Cevdet Kudret and Samim Kocagoz produced realistic novels, plays and short stories. In poetry, the Garip Akimi, a movement which emerged as a reaction to not only the old rules of traditional poetry but also against some of the poetic ideas and approaches influenced by Nazim Hikmet, dominated the period.

Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoglu

The movement which was named after the book Garip (The Dispos- sessed), 1941, in which Orhan Veli Kanik, Oktay Rifat and Orhan Seyfi Orhon jointly published their poems which had no rhyme and measure and which depicted scenes and events from the daily life of common men and women, found many young followers and influenced the famous poets of the period such as Necati Cumali, Bedri Rahmi Eyuboglu and Behcet Necatigil. TheGarip poem, which focused on the human element in the environment of the Second World War where individual liberties were limited, also deals with social perception in its own evolution. In the second half of the 1940s, Ceyhan Atuf Kansu, Cahit Kulebi, Necati Cumali and Bedri Rahmi Eyuboglu developed a narrative poetry which was based on stylistic expressions and which attributed the utmost importance to sensitivity.

Yasar Kemal