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Yashar Kemal (Yasar Kemal Gökçeli) b. 1922 | |
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Prolific Turkish novelist, short-story writer, and essayist, one of the last great traditional storytellers, whose novel Ince Memed (1955, Memed, My Hawk) made him world famous. The book, which had several sequels, depicts a conflict between poor tenant farmers and rural landwoners, the Aghas. This struggle creates a young hero, a kind of mixture of Jesse James and Che Guevara, who becomes a famous outlaw and a legend of South Anatolia. "People have always created their own worlds of myths and dreams, perpetuating their lives in those imaginary worlds. At times of duress, they have created more such worlds, which have given them haven and facilitated their lives. In their transition from one darkness to another, having acquired the consciousness of death, they have realized their lives and the joy of living in the world of myths and dreams they have created." (Yashar Kemal in his acceptance speech of the 1997 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, trans. by Talat Salt Halman) Yashar Kemal was born Yasar Kemal Gökçeli in Adana, in autumn 1922, into a family of well-to-do landlords. His parents came originally from the shores of Lake Van, on the eastern frontiers of Turkey. After a long trek on foot, they settled on the South Anatolian plain of Cilicia, a region populated by big landowners, poor peasants, and the Kurds. This rocky and hot landscape of the Taurus Mountains became the background of several of Kemal's stories. At the age of five Kemal saw his father killed while praying at the mosque. During the same incident, Kemal lost one eye. Due to this traumatic experience, Kemal developed a stutter that lasted for years. He started to attend a school at the age of nine in a neighborhood village, and later went to stay with relatives who lived in Kadirli. After studying two years at a secondary school, Kemal ended his formal education. His four sisters died and Kemal was left alone to take care of his mother. In his teens and twenties Kemal worked in odd jobs. He was a cottonpicker, farmhand, construction foreman, clerk, cobbler's helper, and substitute teacher. During these years Kemal gained knowledge in Turkish folklore. His first book, published in 1943, was a compilation of folk elegies, which he had collected in his region. Kemal also wrote short stories and published poems in a local magazine in Adana and small magazines elsewhere. Kemal's experiences among peasants and workers made him a devoted defender of the underprivileged. After saving enough money, he bought a typewriter and started to work as a public petition writer. In 1950 Kemal was arrested on charges of disseminating Communist propaganda but he was acquitted at the trial that took place a few months later. However, it was not the last time Kemal would be held in prison. Early in his career he had joined the Turkish Workers' party and was subsequently branded as a Communist he was harassed by landowners and police. When his colleague, the famous poet Nazim Hikmet, escaped to the Soviet Union after political persecution, Kemal chose France his second home country. Later Kemal's works were translated into French by Hikmet's widow. In the late 1970s, the Kemals moved to Sweden, where they spent two years. During this period he wrote The Sea-Crossed Fisherman (1978), The Birds Have Also Gone (1978), and the first part of his autobiography, Kimsecik (1980). All these works described Istanbul. In 1952 Kemal married Thilda Serrero, they had one son. Before settling permanently in Istanbul in 1951, Kemal had visited the city only a few times. The first time was when he participated in a swimming contest. His specialty was the 1500 meter freestyle. In Istanbul Kemal joined the staff of the leading Istanbul daily, Cumhuriyet. He worked as a roving reporter and took the pseudonym Yashar Kemal. Later he became a columnist and special-feature writer. One of his most famous article series was about the homeless children living in the streets of Istanbul. Kemal left Cumhuriyet in 1963 to devote himself entirely to writing. He edited the Marxist weekly Ant and was a member of the Central Committee of Turkish Labour Party. When he was imprisoned in 1966, the British Socialist Member of Parliament Lena Jeger pleaded for his release in the Guardian. Again in 1971 he was held in prison - this time twenty-six days - for political views. His wife Thilda was in prison for a much longer time. In 1995 Kemal was imprisoned for an article that condemned the government's oppression of the Kurdish minority, and offered support to the Kurdish Workers' Party. Kemal's first and best-known novel, Memed my Hawk, was set on the Chukurova plain, Kemal's world of drama and tales, which has been compared to William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County and Gabriel García Márquez's Macondo. However, Kemal can also be linked to the tradition of social realism and its great practitioners, such as Honoré de Balzac, Stendhal, Maxim Gorky, and Mikhail Sholokhov. "Traditionally and temperamentally," Kemal has said, "I feel drawn to the art of Homer and Cervantes." The protagonist of Memed my Hawk, Ince Memed, runs away from his village's tyrannical rule as a boy, but he is soon found and beaten by the brutal Agha. Later in his youth he tries to escape to the mountains with his beloved Hatche, whom the Agha has promised to his nephew. Surrounded in their hiding place, Memed kills the nephew but manages only to wound the landlord. He joins a group of bandits, Hatche is imprisoned, and Memed's mother dies. Again Memed tries to kill his archenemy who is pulling all strings to crush Memed, already a legendary figure. After visiting the prison, where Hatche is being held, Memed arranges her escape. She gives birth to their son, but dies in a shooting with the police. A prisoner of his own fame, Memed is not able to accept amnesty he has been offered, but chooses instead revenge. He kills the Agha and disappears into tales. Although Memed, the Anatolian Robin Hood, is the hero of the story, the real winners are the poor peasants, who refuse his rebellious individualism, but learn to fight against injustice together. Coincidentally, this was also the conclusion of Akira Kurosawa's famous film Seven Samurai (1954). Memed my Hawk was translated into English in 1961 by Edouard Roditi. From Kemal's second novel, Ortadirek (1963, The Wind from the Plain), the author's wife Thilda Kemal translated several of his major works into English. The Wind from the Plain, a story of a peasant family traveling in search of work, is considered one of Kemal's best works. Üç Anadolu efsanesi (1967) Agridagi efsanesi (1970, The Legend of Ararat), and Binbogalar efsanesi (1971, The Legend of the Thousand Bulls) were based on Turkey's folk-tales. In the 1970s Kemal also wrote about the coastal towns in Algözüm seyreyle salih (1976, The Saga of a Seagull), a poetic story of a boy who tries to save a seagull with a broken wing, and Kuslar da gitti (1978, The Birds Have Also Gone), set in a fishing village. Kemal's several awards include the Varlik Prize (1956), the Ilhan Iskender Award (1966), the Internatonal Theatre Festival price (1966), the Madarali award (1973), the Foreign book proze (1979), Cono del Duca prize (1982), the Sedet Simavi Foundation award (1985), and the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (1997). After his colleague Orhan Pamuk won the Nobel Prize in literature in 2006, Kemal sent his congratulations, saying, "I'm so happy that you got the award that you had deserved. I believe that you will write new novels with the same passion." For further reading: Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, vol. 2, ed. by Steven R. Serafin (1999); 'Yashar Kemal' by Imre Szeman, in Encyclopedia of the Novel, vol.1, ed. by Paul Schelling (1998); Im Schatten der verlorenen Liebe by Mehmed Uzun (1998); Contemporary World Authors, ed. by Tracy Chevalier (1993); Kemal issue of Edebiyat: A Journal of Middle Eastern Literatures, V/1-2 (1980); Paul Theroux on They Burn the Thistles, in New York Times Book Review, 18 June (1978); K. Pollitt on The Undying Grass, in New York Times Book Review, 18 June (1978); World Authors 1950-1970, ed. by John Wakeman (1975); R. Blythe on Iron Earth, Copper Sky, in Listener, 13 June (1974) - For further information: - Yasar Kemal Homepage - Selected works:
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