Literary Tradition and Artistic Creativity in Classical Kurdish Poetry with Reference to Middle and Northern Kurdish Poetry

Abstract

Classical Kurdish poetry has such a high level and coherent structure in terms of poetic images, subjects, concepts, words and terms that, one can argue, it would not have been rich without a background. There should have been a familiarity at work with the experiences that have emerged at such a level. From the point of view of intertextual theory, it can be demonstrated that a poetic background has played a role in the creation of visual, semantic, and structural layers of classical Kurdish poetry. Of all the possibilities that researchers may pay attention to, it can be demonstrated on the basis of in-text and out-of-text cues that the poetic background of Kurdish classical poetry goes back to classical Persian poetry. Many poetic motifs and images from the literary traditions of Persian classical poetry have entered Kurdish classical poetry. Although this can be observed in all three branches of classical Kurdish poetry, it is less common in Gorani poetry than in Middle and Northern Kurdish poetry. This study examines how classical Kurdish poets benefit from the literary traditions of Persian poetry to reveal that in what poetic subjects are the literary traditions mostly reflected and to what extent the level of creativity of Kurdish poets has been. The result of the research indicates that the reflection of literary traditions can be seen more in lyrical and mystical poetry, and Kurdish poets have tried to create creativity and innovation within these traditions. New theming and localization of images and poetic themes are the most prominent techniques that Kurdish poets have shown creativity in literary traditions.

Keywords

• kurdish classical poetry
• literary tradition
• artistic creativity
• poetic background
• intertexuality