The loss of values and critique of modernism in Şükrü Erbaş’s poems

Abstract

The individual, suppressed, and controlled by modern life practices, gradually loses traditional values and becomes isolated both socially and internally. This stems from the fact that the structure of modern life alienates individuals from their reality and confines them to rigid norms. Cities, the primary habitats of modern life, intensify individual experiences of loneliness, distress, and alienation. Surrounded by concrete and steel and enveloped by towering skyscrapers, the individual’s relationship with nature and the natural weakens to the point of disconnection. This disconnection is not only physical but also brings about spiritual alienation and numbness. As modernization progresses, individuals become increasingly estranged from their essence and internal reality, they try to adapt to the chaotic and destructive atmosphere of the city. In the mechanical daily actions, they become alienated from both themselves and their surroundings. Caught in a constant rush and immersed in the complex and intense atmosphere of urban life, the city dweller loses their self-awareness and is deprived of nature’s healing and calming effect. As their social values weaken, their spiritual bonds also unravel. The psychological dilemmas of the alienated and desensitized city dweller are among the important thematic values of literary works. Contemporary Turkish poet Şükrü Erbaş addresses in his poems the loneliness, pains, dilemmas, and distress of the modern urban individual, while also highlighting the tragedies of people from different segments of society. Erbaş thematically explores the loss of values in city life with diversity, focusing on the effects of urbanization on the individual, including the mental and physical pressures of modern life. Praising natural life as purity and goodness, Erbaş implies that urbanization transforms the individual into a selfish and insensitive personality. The city dweller, who submits to the impositions of modern life, expresses the standardized and monotonous lifestyle through a critique of modernity in his verses. This study examines, from a sociological perspective, the psychological crisis and loneliness of the urban individual who transforms into a new personality through modern life in Şükrü Erbaş’s poems — one who loses their identity and submits to the impositions of the modern order.