Kurdish Contemporary Literature in Search for Ordo Amoris -Some Reflections on the Continuity of the Kurdish Literary Tradition and Ethics

Year 2014, Volume: 1 Issue: 1, 35 - 54, 01.03.2014

Zanîngeha Jagiellonianê Joanna Bocheńska

Abstract

Kurdish contemporary literature is often analyzed by the prism of the national identity ideas. However, as exemplified many times in novels and short stories identity can not be separated from ethical and philosophical dimensions of human reality. Being based on Max Scheler’s concept, ordo amoris, this article concentrates on the hierarchy of values, which seems a very meaningful continuation of ethic and literary tradition that has formed Kurdish culture for a long time. According to Max Scheler it is the distortion of harmonious “order of Love” that can make a visible sense of it. By exploring the state of weakness and many dark sides of man’s soul by the prism of its oral, classical and mystical background Kurdish literature becomes a part of the world’s important literary heritage. However, to understand it adequately one should be aware of the still alive motifs and values constructing the continuity of Kurdish culture

Keywords

Kurdish contemporary literature, Kurmanji, ethics, philosophy, values