Modern Turkish Alevi Poetry: Symbol of Kemal Ataturk and Secularism
General Material Designation
[Thesis]
First Statement of Responsibility
Guerrero, Ezgi Benli Garcia
Subsequent Statement of Responsibility
Bovingdon, Gardner
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
Indiana University
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
2019
GENERAL NOTES
Text of Note
76 p.
DISSERTATION (THESIS) NOTE
Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree
M.A.
Body granting the degree
Indiana University
Text preceding or following the note
2019
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
This study situates the contribution of aşıks' performance of Alevi music in relation to Alevism and the Alevi identity. This study explores the poetic representation of secular values and Kemal Atatürk in the Alevi aşıklık tradition. It examines the Alevi aşıks' responses to political issues by focusing on the subjects and symbols that they use in their poems. The first chapter explores the Alevi interpretation of religion and politics by introducing Alevi beliefs and history. The second chapter explains the Alevi religious worship, Cem ritual, and the function of aşıklık tradition in Alevi communities. Considering the significance of aşıklık within the Alevi community, I inquire whether aşıklık and individual aşıks have any role in transmitting political ideas to the Alevi community. The aşık poems that I studied illustrates the long-existing suppression of Alevis, the nostalgic longing for the Atatürk and secularism. The analysis of the poems demonstrates the ever changing the dynamics of Alevi communities. In particular, the historical phases of Alevis demonstrates that Alevis are an interactive and self-aware group surviving in different political and social events by constructing Alevism according to particular movements and contexts.