ROMANTIC HISTORIOSOPHY IN NÂZIM HIKMET’S NOVEL “LIFE IS A BEAUTIFUL, MY BROTHER”: THE DIALOGUE OF REVOLUTIONS AND CULTURES

Abstract

The article analyzes the romantic discourse in Nazim Hikmet’s novel “Life Is Beautiful, My Brother” (1964). The research is relevant in the context of rethinking the socialist realist canon and identifying the complex interactions between ideology, historical narrative, and individual authorial romanticism. The objective of the study is to identify and analyze the structural and poetological features that form Hikmet’s unique “romantic historiosophy” – his artistic method of comprehending the revolutionary era. The main methods employed are comparative historical analysis, an imagological approach (studying the images of Moscow and Ankara), motif analysis (march, Mesnevi), and close reading. The result of the research is the deconstruction of the novel’s key binary oppositions (Lenin – Mustafa Kemal Pasha; Moscow – Ankara; “march” – “Mesnevi”), which are considered not merely as historical parallels but as elements of a unified artistic system designed to overcome historical tragedy through romantic faith in the future and the affirmation of the value of the sacrificial individual. The scientific novelty lies in interpreting Hikmet’s novel as a synthesis of socialist realist factography and late romantic poetics, as well as in identifying the dialogue between revolutionary and Sufi discourses as the basis of the hero’s internal conflict. The conclusion is that romanticism in Hikmet functions not as a style but as a philosophical and aesthetic tool for comprehending history, allowing him to maintain faith in an ideal amidst its practical collapse.