Yaşar Kemal as a Global Phenomenon

Yaşar Kemal is a truly global writer in his linking of Eastern and Western traditions, and in his joining of oral and written traditions, whereby he more than fulfils the early promise of Goetheʹs concept of Weltliteratur. In addition to espousing such global causes as the preservation of the environment and human rights in both his writings and his life, an even greater example of his universality is his depiction of the way emotions are transformed into words during intense human experiences, and the way in which those words then become preserved in traditional folk laments, which may in turn became particles of longer oral or literary works, including epics and novels. Several examples are given from Yaşar Kemalʹs epic trilogy Dağın Öte Yüzü (The Other Side of the Mountain), translated into English by Thilda Kemal as The Wind from the Plain trilogy.