A Critical Look at the Image of the East: Ali Canip Yöntem’s Poem “Horizons of the Orient”

Abstract

Ali Canip Yöntem takes a critical attitude towards the social life in which he lives while carrying social issues to his poem “Horizons of the Orient” with a sense of social responsibility. The poem approaches social relations through the characteristics that the East attaches importance to, and tries to show the corruption and alienation that permeates social life through poetry. The pessimistic atmosphere that draws attention throughout the poem is important in that it shows Ali Canip Yöntem’s perspective on society and the period on which social life was founded. The views that the poet analyses in the text are parallel to the sociocultural panorama of the period. Ali Canip Yöntem focuses on the dominant mindset in his environment with his expressions that suggest a long-standing inhibition and Western hegemony. Unlike most other poets who look for the causes of this situation in the West, Ali Canip Yöntem questions what Eastern societies can do. After referring to the loss of values and outdated tendencies of the Orient, which feels the grave influence of darkness in itself, the poet invites the society to a sharp revolt and calls for the elimination of superstitious thoughts that stand in the way of mass progress. Ali Canip Yöntem could not remain indifferent to the backwardness of the society of which he is a member. His poem “Horizons of the Orient” can be read as a text of social criticism with, which holds a mirror to social life. The primary starting point of the poem is the crisis that the Ottoman and Turkish world fell into and the pessimism that the poet experienced in the face of this situation. While analyzing the society he lives in, Ali Canip Yöntem also draws the map of changing this situation and being able to hold on in the contemporary world.

Ethical committee approval is not required for this research.

The author declares no conflicts of interest in this study.

This research received no external funding.