The Jazz Season (Paperback)

Edip Cansever

ISBN 10: 183738035X / ISBN 13: 9781837380350

Published by Shearsman Books, Exeter, 2026

About this Item

Paperback. Edip Cansever (1928-1985) was born in Istanbul. He grew up in a country transitioning from the Ottoman Empire into a modern Turkish republic. As a student of law and sociology he was widely influenced by Western modernism and Eastern mysticism. To the outside world, Cansever's was an unremarkable life, spending most of it in Istanbul's Covered Bazaar where he worked as an antiques dealer. It's entirely fitting that a poet who came to define Turkish modernity should have made his living among the residues of its past. His extraordinary poetry speaks of familiar twentieth-century conditions, of rapid change, migrations and transports, of historical realities and ethnic diversities. His language mirrors the unique human landscapes of his city, a geo-political crossroads, of people dispersed by conflict and poverty, renewing themselves in a world unmapped. Cansever's poetics are marked by simplicity and depth. Often colloquial and irreverent, his accessibility belies the turbulent sexual and emotional undercurrents that run through much of his work. He's off-hand and humorous just when he's at his most serious. He can be profound and silly in a single breath. Central to Cansever's poetic idiolect are the demands he makes on its linguistic resources, stretching the expressive capacity of language to breaking point, a kind of jazz, alive to its own fluid semantic possibilities and cognitive riffs.Cansever's poetics are marked by simplicity and depth. Often colloquial and irreverent, his accessibility belies the turbulent sexual and emotional undercurrents that run through much of his work. He's off-hand and humorous just when he's at his most serious. He can be profound and silly in a single breath. Central to Cansever's poetic idiolect are the demands he makes on its linguistic resources, stretching the expressive capacity of language to breaking point, a kind of jazz, alive to its own fluid semantic possibilities and cognitive riffs.Throughout the poems Istanbul emerges not merely as a backdrop but as a living entity that reflects the complexities of human interactions. The natural world is never far away, but it is a more urgent urban earthiness that Cansever so memorably places before the Turkish reader, a landscape of pimps, thieves, petty criminals, prostitutes, and vagabonds. It would have been familiar to many but rarely seen in Turkish literature before his time. Throughout the poems Istanbul emerges not merely as a backdrop but as a living entity that reflects the complexities of human interactions. The natural world is never far away, but it is a more urgent urban earthiness that Cansever so memorably places before the Turkish reader. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781837380350

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Jazz Season (Paperback)
• Publisher: Shearsman Books, Exeter
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 183738035X
• ISBN 13: 9781837380350
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Edip Cansever (1928-1985) was born in Istanbul. He grew up in a country transitioning from the Ottoman Empire into a modern Turkish republic. As a student of law and sociology he was widely influenced by Western modernism and Eastern mysticism. To the outside world, Cansever's was an unremarkable life, spending most of it in Istanbul's Covered Bazaar where he worked as an antiques dealer. It's entirely fitting that a poet who came to define Turkish modernity should have made his living among the residues of its past. His extraordinary poetry speaks of familiar twentieth-century conditions, of rapid change, migrations and transports, of historical realities and ethnic diversities. His language mirrors the unique human landscapes of his city, a geo-political crossroads, of people dispersed by conflict and poverty, renewing themselves in a world unmapped. Cansever's poetics are marked by simplicity and depth. Often colloquial and irreverent, his accessibility belies the turbulent sexual and emotional undercurrents that run through much of his work. He's off-hand and humorous just when he's at his most serious. He can be profound and silly in a single breath. Central to Cansever's poetic idiolect are the demands he makes on its linguistic resources, stretching the expressive capacity of language to breaking point, a kind of jazz, alive to its own fluid semantic possibilities and cognitive riffs.

Cansever's poetics are marked by simplicity and depth. Often colloquial and irreverent, his accessibility belies the turbulent sexual and emotional undercurrents that run through much of his work. He's off-hand and humorous just when he's at his most serious. He can be profound and silly in a single breath. Central to Cansever's poetic idiolect are the demands he makes on its linguistic resources, stretching the expressive capacity of language to breaking point, a kind of jazz, alive to its own fluid semantic possibilities and cognitive riffs.

Throughout the poems Istanbul emerges not merely as a backdrop but as a living entity that reflects the complexities of human interactions. The natural world is never far away, but it is a more urgent urban earthiness that Cansever so memorably places before the Turkish reader, a landscape of pimps, thieves, petty criminals, prostitutes, and vagabonds. It would have been familiar to many but rarely seen in Turkish literature before his time.

About the Author

Edip Cansever (1928-1986) was a Turkish poet associated with the Ikinci Yeni movement. Born in Istanbul, he worked as an antiques dealer in the city Grand Bazaar. His collected poems run to over 1,000 pages in print.