Necip Fazıl and the concept of power: A Foucauldian perspective analysis

Authors : Kemal Şamlıoğlu

Pages : 983-993

Doi:10.30783/nevsosbilen.1675519

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Publication Date : 2025-06-27

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This study aims to analyze Necip Fazıl Kısakürek’s poem Letter to Mehmed from the Dungeon through the lens of Michel Foucault’s theories of power and confinement. Focusing on the disciplinary mechanisms of the 20th century, this article questions how the prison experience is not only viewed as an individual fate but also how it relates to modern power’s systems of control and surveillance. Foucault’s concept of the “great confinement” encompasses not only physical prisons but also the invisible boundaries that society imposes on the individual. In Necip Fazıl’s poem, the convict is not depicted merely as a body trapped within four walls but also as someone experiencing mental and spiritual imprisonment. By analyzing the voice in the poem, we see that confinement is not just a physical condition; it also controls the individual at the levels of thought and identity. This imprisonment goes beyond mere bodily restriction, merging with the control over thought and identity. The article examines the poem in the context of these disciplinary mechanisms and discusses how literature intersects with structures of power, as well as the ways in which the individual develops resistance against these structures. Paralleling Foucault’s concept of power this poem reveals how social control is internalized and simultaneously presents a form of rebellion and resistance against it. In this context, Letter to Mehmed from the Dungeon can be considered not only as a work describing the cry of a prisoner, but also as a profound text demonstrating how modern society shapes and confines the individual.
Keywords : Necip Fazıl Kısakürek, Zindandan Mehmed’e Mektup, Michel Foucault, iktidar, büyük kapatılma.

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