Abstract
Epic (epos), which is a bulky story that tells extraordinary heroic events of ancient ages, is one of the most archaic forms of narrative tradition of societies. When this long established genre’s adventure in Turkish literature is taken into account, it is seen that it maintains its existence in a flow that reaches from heroic epic to classical period poetry, and from ashik type of poetry tradition to modern Turkish poetry.
Epics are more of works that social, national issues are dealt with. Among those, Turkish war of independence, which happened almost a century ago, also takes its place. As a part of this, in the midst of those aforementioned epics, there are the ones most of them are consisted of single poems with various volume and types as well as there are some as a whole book volume. As a part of this, independence fight of Maras has been processed in many epics. In the midst of those aforementioned epics, there are the ones most of them are consisted of single poems with various volume and types as well as there are some as a whole book volume.
In this research, it is identified that there are 245 works/poems. The actual number is probably much more. At this point, the first name that attracts attention is Gulten Akin. Akin is the first person that has written modern poetic epic in a single book with her work “Epic of Maras and Okkes”. The other separate works that have textualized independence epic of Maras are Nihat Yucel’s Utku Turkuleri/Victory Ballads (Epic of Maras), Imran Kilic’s Epic of Kahramanmaras, Oguz Pakoz’s Epic of Maras, Nevzat Kirkpinar’s Epic of Maras Uzunoluk.
