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 Zcole 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.
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.
During the years which followed the transition to a multiparty system in 1950, many authors were mainly inclined to the village realities. This tendency was spread with various works of the writers who had their education in Village Institutes or who came from villages. Mahmut Makal's Bizim Koy (Our Village), 1950, and Fakir Baykurt's Yilanlarin Ocu (The Revenge of the Snakes), 1959, for instance, include penetrating observations into the social and socio-psychological relations in impoverished rural areas and villages. Yasar Kemal is another author who reflected his knowledge and experiences regarding rural life in his work. Yasar Kemal who started his literary career by collecting folkloric works in Adana, later settled in Istanbul where he published Ince Memed in 1955. This novel which was later translated into English (Memed My Hawk) and more than a dozen other languages, carries the traces of a style and approach which Yasar Kemal developed in his later works. Kemal Tahir, who attained recognition with his Gol Insanlari (The Lake People), 1955, also wove threads of observations about village life into the tapestry of the plots in his novels. However, the 1950s were by no means dominated by novels and short stories which were based on rural realities and village life. Far from it; the 1950s was a decade when urbanization accelerated, bringing in its aftermath a host of social and psychological problems and the problem of alienation exacerbated by the routine, mechanical and repetitive work patterns. The writers of the young generation influenced by existentialism, produced works which developed around the individual and focused on sense and speech. These were themes which found their expression in the works of writers such as Demir Ozlu, Ferit Edgu, Yusuf Atilgan and Nezihe Meric, who began to write between the years 1950-1960. There were also authors who regarded humor and satire as a suitable means for social criticism and produced in this genre. Aziz Nesin, who criticized social problems in a satirical and mocking manner by using daily events, produced works almost in every branch of literature as of 1955. By the end of his life, he had witnessed many of them being published abroad. He won numerous literature awards both in Turkey and abroad, including the Golden-Palm Award in Italy twice, in 1946 and 1957.
In poetry, the influence of the Garip movement continued in the first years of the 1950s. But the following years witnessed the development of the Second New Movement, which replaced the use of daily language in the poems of the Garip movement with a poetic expression derived from use of words with special references stemming from conceptual associations unique and peculiar to the poet. The poets of this movement were influenced by surrealism as well as by existentia- lism. Arif Nihat Asya, Cemal Sureyya, Edip Cansever, Turgut Uyar, Ilhan Berk, Ozdemir Asaf and Kemal Ozer produced some of the best examples of this movement. They had different tendencies in the following years.
After 1960, in the wake of the 27 May military intervention, social themes gained priority and the search for new techniques and forms contributed significantly to the enrichment of the Turkish language. In the mid-1960s, a renewal occurred in social poetry with the republication of books by Nazim Hikmet, which had not been published since 1936. Poets of this period mainly dealt with current themes and tried to give messages on social sensitivity. Although the influence of the Second New Wave, and the search for new forms, were apparent in the early works of young poets such as Yavuz Bulent Bakiler, Osman Atilla, Ayhan Inal, Feyzi Halici, Ataol Behramoglu, Ismet Ozel and Hilmi Yavuz who had started to write at the beginning of the 1960s, the poetry they produced later on was influenced by the dominant intellectual currents of the period. The short story and the novel of the period also focused on social themes, the life experiences of the urban and rural dispossessed, the human costs of rapid transformations in social structure and the like. Writers such as Orhan Kemal, Yasar Kemal and Kemal Tahir continued to produce and develop their own styles in the 1960s. Writers such as Samim Kocagoz, Atilla Ilhan, Tarik Bugra, Hasan Izzettin Dinamo and Ilhan Selcuk mainly dealt with recent history in their works.
The politicization that had started in the late 1960s intensified in the 1970s and the political polarization of society increased. Literature responded to this atmosphere and authors, whether they produced poetry or prose, increasingly focused on subjects such as social change, political issues, economic difficulties, alienation and the relations of the intellectual with his/her environment. Cetin Altan, Pinar Kur, Adalet Agaoglu, Selim Ileri, Bekir Yildiz and Ayla Kutlu revealed various aspects of the social transformation in their works.
The 1980s led to a depoliticization of society, and literary life was enlivened with the appearance of hundreds of new novelists, short story writers and poets who gathered together in different small groups. Meanwhile, when some large capital groups entered the field, comprehensibility was given priority. The development of Turkish literature, the point it reached and the problems it faced, were brought onto the agenda; the works were evaluated with the artistic, technical and informative criteria, rather than the ideology adopted by the author. Discussions on the level of creation and interpretation of literary works maintaining a realistic line were considered important. These developments influenced many writers and gave rise to the enhancement of the creative aspects of their works. Latife Tekin used a kind of "magic realism" which resembles that of Garcia Marquez; Orhan Pamuk, a novelist whose books sold well, wrote in a post-modernist style, which had been developed by western writers such as J. L. Borges and Umberto Eco. Yasar Kemal whose works were translated into several languages, strengthened his literary career. He received the "1997 Peace Award" from the German Publishers Union at the 49th Frankfurt International Book Fair. Meanwhile poetry continued its development. Many dozens of new poets who appeared in the 1980s enriched the genre with their unique personal touches and expressions deriving from their awareness and with their search for a synthesis between the depth of consciousness as a human being and complexities deriving from society, relations and mere existence. Meanwhile poetry as a tool for delivering political messages and slogans fell into disfavor.