- Kemal, Yashar
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or Yasar Kemal orig. Kemal Sadik Gogçeliborn 1922, Hemite, Tur.Turkish novelist of Kurdish descent.At age five Kemal saw his father murdered in a mosque and was himself blinded in one eye. He was arrested several times for his political activism. He is best known for his stories of village life and for his outspoken advocacy on behalf of the dispossessed. His novel Memed, My Hawk was translated into 20 languages and was filmed in 1984. Other works include The Wind from the Plain (1960), The Undying Grass (1968), and To Crush the Serpent (1976)
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▪ 1996Stating that regardless of the consequences he would continue to express his thoughts, 71-year-old Turkish novelist Yashar Kemal was brought to trial in mid-July 1995. Kemal, whose name often appeared on the shortlist for the Nobel Prize for Literature, stood accused of "separatist propaganda" for the publication of his essay "Campaign of Lies" in the German weekly newsmagazine Der Spiegel. In his "terrorist" essay, he accused the government of waging a war of oppression against the Kurdish Workers' Party and the Kurdish people that had cost the lives of some 15,000 people over the past 11 years. Listing the myriad acts of violence and humiliation, he accused the government of practicing "the Oriental art of disguise and double talk" to conceal its "unbearable cruelties and coercions." Like more than 8,000 journalists, academics, and intellectuals, he was accused of "crimes of expression." His essay was a clear violation of the eighth article of the Turkish Law Against Terrorism, which forbids "written or spoken propaganda" that undermines the "indivisible integrity of the state."Kemal, himself of Kurdish descent, did not advocate a separate Kurdish state, the charges against him notwithstanding. He was born Kemal Sadik Gogceli in 1922 in Hemite, a small village in the Taurus Mountains of southwestern Turkey. At the age of five he saw his father murdered in a mosque and, during the same incident, was blinded in one eye. He left secondary school after two years and worked in a variety of jobs. He published two books of folklore in the early 1940s. Arrested in 1950 and 1971 for his political activism, he began to find a natural place for himself as a journalist. In the 1950s he also began to write fiction.He published a novella, Teneke ("The Tin Pan"), and what proved to be the first of a series of novels, Ince Memed ("Thin Memed"), in 1955. The latter, a popular tale about a bandit and folk hero, was translated into more than 20 languages—including English, as Memed, My Hawk (1961)—and made into a movie in 1987. It remained one of the best-known Turkish novels, and it established Kemal's mastery of the "village novel." Other novels of the type followed, including the trilogy Ortadirek (1960; The Wind from the Plain, 1960), Yer demir, gök bakir (1963; Iron Earth, Copper Sky, 1974), and Ölmez otu (1968; The Undying Grass, 1977); and Ince Memed II (1969; They Burn the Thistles, 1972). He also wrote short stories, essays, and several more volumes of folktales. Coastal villages and urban settings provided the backdrop for many of Kemal's later works, notably the novella Yilani Öldürseler (1976; To Crush the Serpent, 1991).(KATHLEEN KUIPER)* * *
▪ Turkish authororiginal name Kemal Sadik Gogceliborn 1922, Hemite, TurkeyTurkish novelist of Kurdish descent best known for his stories of village life and for his outspoken advocacy on behalf of the dispossessed.At age five Kemal saw his father murdered in a mosque and was himself blinded in one eye. He left secondary school after two years and worked in a variety of jobs. He was arrested for his political activism in 1950, and again in 1971, and in 1996 a court sentenced him to a deferred jail term for alleged seditious statements about the Turkish government's oppression of the Kurdish people.He published a novella, Teneke (“The Tin Pan”), and the novel Ince Memed (“Thin Memed”) in 1955. The latter, a popular tale about a bandit and folk hero, was translated into more than 20 languages—including English, as Memed, My Hawk (1961; filmed 1983). Other novels include the trilogy Ortadirek (1960; The Wind from the Plain); Yer demir, gök bakir (1963; Iron Earth, Copper Sky); Ölmez otu (1968; The Undying Grass); and the novella Yilani Öldürseler (1976; To Crush the Serpent).* * *
Universalium. 2010.
