The Construction of Collective and Resilient Hope in the Life and Poem’s of Necip Fazıl Kısakürek

Abstract

Although curiosity and attention to emotions have increased in recent years both anthropologically and sociologically, the study on this subject in Turkey is quite limited. In particular, the relationship of emotions with Islam is almost ignored. In this sense, I am focusing on the poet Necip Fazıl Kısakürek, who is regarded as one of the most influential and important figures of the Islamic/Islamist movement in Türkiye especially with the idea and journal of the Büyük Doğu (Great East). The study analyzes the intellectual and emotional change in Kısakürek’s life, the relationship of this change with his understanding of Islam, a detailed analysis of some of his famous poems and his contribution to the Islamic movement in his period through hope. Although the emotional change in his life allows for the analysis of many emotions, my interest in this study is limited with hope and love as a driving force of this hope. In this study, it is focused on his autobiography O ve Ben, in which he tells his life, and Çile, in which he collects all his poems. Analysis of Kısakürek's life and poems reveals that having an Islamic purpose and responsibility that came with the meeting his teacher Abdülhakim Arvasi, builds a collective and resilient hope. The article claims that this hope constructed by Necip Fazıl played a significant role in the Islamic movements in Türkiye.