Seyhan Kurt

Seyhan Kurt
Born	(1971-12-16) December 16, 1971 Grenoble City, France
Occupation	poet, writer
Nationality	French-Turkish
Genre	contemporary poetry
Literary movement	Humanism, Mysticism, Pacifism, Sufism Symbolism, existentialism, Futurism

Seyhan Kurt is a French-Turkish poet, writer, anthropologist and sociologist.

Biography

Born in Grenoble, Isère, France, he started his primary education at La Verpillere, Ecole Les Marronnier (Grenoble) and completed it at Ecole Jean Jaurès in Lyon. He graduated from Dumlupinar High School in Mersin and continued his education in Selçuk University in Konya and studied French Language and Literature and Sociology. He completed his master's degree in Anthropology at Ankara University, Faculty of Language, History and Geography. He is a member of the International Association of Writers (International PEN).

His poetical works have been published in literary magazines: Varlık, Journal, Turkish Language, Le Poete Travaille, Tohum, Çalı, and Türk Dili.

Kurt is a mystical, humanist, existentialist and sufist poet. All of his poems are written in Turkish and French and his work has come to form a sense of questioning the place of man and his deeds in his world. His tone of voice is severe but melodic. His third book Hüznün Sözyitimleri (Speechlessness of Sadness) was publishing in 1998. It consists of three parts "Deterritorial, Agnostic and Incognitae". We are given the loneliness, alienation, individualism and rebellion created by modern world. The subject matter gives Kurt's poetry its peculiar quality. As the author casts these subjects into his lines,he uses a sharp and complex style. His stanzas variegate in length and his poetry disturbs and re-forms the routine language. The word combinations strikingly violate the order with outstanding, unexpected images. His free-verse often depends on the cadence or grouping of phrases, and the reading depends on either a slowing down or a speeding up till it reaches an emphasis in the final lines. There is a yearning for a better and meaningful life. He pictures man lost in a universe sometimes conscious of his own position. For Seyhan Kurt, man has made the worst of himself and therefore is helplessly lonely. For his art, we can conclude that "the surface of the world and mankind have lost their privacy." One feels driven into a world which he has no control of.

Fighting without weapons in Kurt's poetry

For Seyhan Kurt the ideologies of profiteering for war is the most dangerous paradigm in this age. Kurt processed; human freedom, destructiveness of war, fascism, capitalism, racism and sexual discrimination, loneliness and pure love, basically in his works. Has worked to implement the theory of the "superior love" against the Nietzsche's idea of "superior human" in his poems. According to him,love is over religion and do not have nationality, race and have no country. In this regard; he emphasizes the need to oppose the war and every kind of oppression, discrimination. According to Kurt, the 20th century is the most brutal century in human history. But the poet is not hopeless: is trying to explain that, the thing which liberate, people is critical thinking and empathy. He sees art and philosophy as an aim rather than as a tool, just as Socrates, Gandhi, Rumi and other sufists.

Revolt in Seyhan Kurt's Speechlessness of Sadness

The subject that is treated densely from the beginning to the end of the work is revolt. In order to manage to explain his rebelliousness, the poet appeals to complex images. He is like wanting to "slap" the readers. This is why the expressions are sharp and hard. We come across the manner of Rimbaud in his Une Saison en Enfer, the expression of the union of the subject treated in Les Chants de Maldoror of Lautréamont in Hüznün Sözyitimleri. The situation in which the earth is and the powers of evil have whipped up the soul of the author. Armed men are invaded the world and innocent people are killed by their arms: "Öldürüyorlar (ölüyorlar). Her silah için ayrı bir uzmanlık dalı, her kurşun için milimetrik sayılar yaratılıyor" (p. 23) Death, for the poet, is going to reach everyone. But what is important is how this will occur. Seyhan Kurt complains that thousands of people are making efforts for arms. He thinks that mankind is unaware of what kind of a disaster they are able to cause. Besides this, the poet is restless of the comfort he has while expressing this: "Korkunçluk burada değil; bunu yazabilmemdeki rahatlıkta" (p. 23) He is trying, too to express the dangers for the future of children. The arms from now on are reaching children, too. There is no importance of this for capital owners. When we look at page 34, we have children facing arms more dangerous than G3 or M16. These arms are what technology brings and they symbolize the degeneration of cultures.

Bibliography in Turkish

• (1993) Kapa Gözlerini "Shut Your Eyes"
• (1995) Destinos "destiny"
• (1999) Hüznün Sözyitimleri "Speechlessness of Sadness"
• (2002) On Jean Baudrillard (unpublished thesis)
• (2002) El Ilani "Hand-Out"
• (2004) Bizden Geçen Sular "Waters Running Through Us"
• (2012) Seyyah "The Voyager"
• (2017) Herkese ve Hiç Kimseye "To Everyone and No one"

Influences

• Humanism, Existentialism, Gandhism, Voluntaryism, Naturalism, Sufism, Islam and Buddhism, Pacifism, Futurism, Socialism, Surrealism, Mysticism.

References in English

• Alienation of The Individual Due To His Conflict With Modernity: Seyhan Kurt's "Speechlessness"

Faculty of Sciences and Humanities, English Language and Literature - Konya, 2002, by Emre Dagli, Ass. Prof. Dr. Gülbün Onur.

References in Turkish

• Interview with Seyhan Kurt on The Ethic of The Modern World, Dr. Ahmet Gogercin, Kurgu Review 10, Ankara, 2012.
• "Seyhan Kurt: Poete Maudit, An Essay on 'Waters Running Through Us'"- Hüseyin PALA, Ayraç Review 15, Istanbul,2011.
• "Hand-Out", Yasemin Şen, Sabah Journal, November 10, Istanbul, 2005.
• Turkish Language Journal, September 24, 2007, Feyza Hepcilingirler, Cumhuriyet News, October 11, Istanbul, 2007.
• "Interview With Seyhan Kurt", Prof. Mehmet Tekin, Ayraç Review 19, İstanbul, 2011.
• "The Artistic Delirium and The Poetics of Possibility", Polat Alpman, Sosyologos Review 6, Konya, 2004.