Abstract
THE FRAGMENTED BODIES IN THE WAR POEMS OF MEHMET AKİF ERSOY AND WILFRED OWEN
Mehmet Âkif Ersoy is an important poet who treats the First World War, which left deep wounds in the memory of Turkish history, in his poems. Âkif, who portrays the scenes of the war with social and cultural elements in his poems, intends to awaken the Turkish nation not only from a physical but also from a spiritual collapse. In this sense, he especially emphasizes national values in his poems such as "Çanakkale Şehitleri’ne" and "Hakkın Sesleri".
Wilfred Edward Salter Owen is another poet who, similar to Mehmet Âkif, created a panorama of the First World War in England. Owen also focuses on the negative effects of war on people. In his poems such as "The Spectacle" and "The Mental Case" he highlights the disintegrating power of war. When the figures fighting or exposed to war used in the poems of the two poets are compared, it is seen that the fictionalized bodies are created from different perspectives. While Âkif points to national values through dismembered bodies, Owen aims to reveal a depression that completely surrounds the individual.
The aim of this study is to reveal how the perception of the same war in different social environments differs in the poems of these two poets through the image of fragmented body.
Keywords
Mehmet Âkif Ersoy, Wilfred Owen, war, body.