Hikmet Afif Mapolar: About The Octopus Hunt

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35765/pk.2020.3003.16
Keywords: Turkish Cypriot literature, Hikmet Afif Mapolar, Mediterranean Sea, Cyprus

Abstract

Hikmet Afif Mapolar (1919–1989) was a Turkish Cypriot writer and journal­ist who contributed immensely to the development of Turkish-language prose, journalism, and the press in Cyprus. Tied to his native country all his life, and especially to his place of birth (the port city of Kyrenia on the Mediterranean Sea), he set most of his stories in coastal towns in the vicinity of Kyrenia, and his characters are inhabitants of this region: villagers and fishermen. This arti­cle discusses a short story by Mapolar, Ahtapot Avı [The Octopus Hunt], pub­lished in 1943, i.e., during the colonial period. The realism of the descriptions, which is typical of this writer, combined with the fast-paced and engrossing storytelling bring to mind scenes from a movie drama where the sea plays the lead role. Many plot elements in The Octopus Hunt evoke associations with Hemingway’s short story, The Old Man and the Sea, which leads me to formu­late a universal truth that sea people have similar desires and a similar fate no matter where they live, and that “their” sea is not a peripheral place, but a cen­tral one. For the inhabitants of the coastal region, the sea is the center of their world, the center of life, the meaning of life, and the determinant of fate.

Author Biography

Grażyna Zając, Jagiellonian University

Prof., Middle Eastern scholar, university lecturer, trans­lator, and since 2019 a professor at the Jagiellonian University. She is the author of three books in Polish and over 70 articles in Polish, Turkish, English, and Azerbaijani. She conducts MA seminars and lectures on Turkish and Turkish Cypriot literature. In her research, she specializes in contemporary Turkish literature, memoirs, and Turkish Cypriot literature. She supports the Polish Tatar community by preparing short translations from Turkish for the Tatar press in Poland.

References

Atun, S. (2010). Kıbrıs Türk Edebiyatı. Famagusta: Samtay Vakfı Yayınları.

Atun, S., & Fevzioğlu, B. (2004). Kıbrıs Türk Edebiyatında Öykünün 107 Yıllık Kronolojik-Antolojik Tarihsel Süreci, Vol. 1. Famagusta: Samtay Vakfı Yayınları.

Bozkurt, I., & Karakartal, O. (Eds.). (2019). Kıbrıs Türk Edebiyatı Tarihi 1571– 2017, Vols. 4–5. Ankara: Kıbatek.

Güneyyeli, D. (2003). Kıbrıs Türk Edebiyatında Hikmet Afif Mapolar’ın Yeri. Istanbul. http://nek.istanbul.edu.tr:4444/ekos/TEZ/38965.pdf

Mapolar, H.A. (2004). Ahtapot Avı. In S. Atun & B. Fevzioğlu, Kıbrıs Türk Edebiyatında Öykünün 107 Yıllık Kronolojik-Antolojik Tarihsel Süreci, Vol. 1. Famagusta: Samtay Vakfı Yayınları.

Nesim, A. (2011). Eserlerine Kıbrıs Kültürünü Yansıtan Yazarımız: Hikmet Afif Mapolar. In İz Bırakmış Kıbrıslı Türkler-6. Famagusta: Eastern Medi¬terranean University Press.

Soyalan, S. (2018, September 14). Yitirdiklerimiz: Hikmet Afif Mapolar. Kıbrıs Gazetesi. https://www.kibrisgazetesi.com/kibris/yitirdiklerimiz-hik¬met-afif-mapolar-h49214.html

Published
2020-12-20
How to Cite
[1]
Zając, G. 2020. Hikmet Afif Mapolar: About The Octopus Hunt. Perspectives on Culture. 30, 3 (Dec. 2020), 243-256. DOI:https://doi.org/10.35765/pk.2020.3003.16.
Issue
Vol. 30 No. 3 (2020): The Mediterranean Sea - the Center of the World or the Periphery?
Section
The Mediterranean Sea - The Center of the World or the Periphery?

Copyright (c) 2020 Jesuit University Ignatianum in Krakow

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Autor, zgłaszając swój artykuł, wyraża zgodę na korzystanie przez Wydawnictwo Uniwersystet Ignatianum z utworu na następujących polach eksploatacji:

  1. utrwalania utworu w formie papierowej, a także na nośniku cyfrowym lub magnetycznym;
  2. zwielokrotnienia utworu dowolną techniką, bez ograniczenia ilości wydań i liczby egzemplarzy;
  3. rozpowszechniania utworu i jego zwielokrotnionych egzemplarzy na jakimkolwiek nośniku, w tym wprowadzenia do obrotu, sprzedaży, użyczenia, najmu;
  4. wprowadzenia utworu do pamięci komputera;
  5. rozpowszechniania utworu w sieciach informatycznych, w tym w sieci Internet;
  6. publicznego wykonania, wystawienia, wyświetlenia, odtworzenia oraz nadawania i reemitowania, a także publicznego udostępniania utworu w taki sposób, aby każdy mógł mieć do niego dostęp w miejscu i czasie przez siebie wybranym. 

Wydawca zobowiązuje się szanować osobiste prawa autorskie do utworu.