Abstract

In 1896, when he was only 17 years old, Nureddin Ferruh ventured to publish his particular understanding of poetry as a manifesto in the presence of numerous masters in Ottoman literary scene. The intellectual foundation of this manifesto in which Ferruh offered a new understanding of poetry was based on Recaizade Mahmut Ekrem’s Talim-i Edebiyat (Discipline of Literature) which exercised significant influence on young authors; and Ferruh’s source of inspiration was the poetry written or translated by Abdulhak Hamid. As a matter of fact, when clarifying and justifying his particular understanding of poetry, Ferruh cites poems of Recaizade Mahmut Ekrem and Abdulhak Hamid thereby he attempts to legitimise his perspective and assumptions. Beyond taking this step, affirmingly a bold one considering his age, there lies the reason that Ferruh belonged to a new generation, that is to say, he was a postmodern child whose sense of hierarchy had been disrupted (or had not been formed at all) through the Western education.

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