Abstract
Psychobiographical Approach to Ghazals of Şahi (Bayezid): A Sorrowfull Poet in Exile
It is possible to have an insgiht about people who left their marks in history via an interdisciplinary research method, psychobiography. In psychobiography, art pieces are evaluated thorough concious and/or unconicous manifestations in the piece. Since psychobiography is an interdisciplinary method, history, biography and literary works must be investigated collectively. Historical information and artifacts are evaluated, analyses about the person are performed and certain conclusions are reached. Poetry, primarily as a literary genre, is a manner of self-expression. It reveals the reflections of the open conscious or subconscious of the poet by the combinations of poetry, sound, words and meanings. Besides the known life stories of poets, it is possible to analyze the unknowns with the method of psychobiography.
Şahi (Bayezıd), who is a historical figure, has a life full of struggle. The ghazals he sang in the classical Turkish poetry tradition are the projections of emotions in his life story. The most basic emotion that shapes Şahi's works is grief, might be considered as a theme and a psychobiographical evaluation may be performed through aforementioned agony. With this method, unknown aspects of Şahi as well as his known biography are revealed.
Keywords
Şahi (Bayezıd), grief, psychobiography, ghazal.