Abstract
This article theorizes a dialectical relationship between poetics and craftsmanship as a central dynamic of the metamodern sensibility. Through a case study of the Turkish rock band Adamlar, it argues that a poetics of ontological unsettlement – characterized by oscillation, postirony, and a search for “depthiness” – is sustained by an ethic of artisanal settlement. The analysis first explicates Adamlar’s lyrical poetics, identifying the ‘seesaw’ of in-betweenness as a core trope for the contemporary subject. It then interrogates the band’s production philosophy through Sjoerd van Tuinen’s framework of the “cosmic artisan,” demonstrating how their commitment to craft functions as a practical and ethical anchor. The study concludes that craftsmanship does not resolve the contradictions of the metamodern condition but constitutes a praxis for navigating its inherent instability. In bridging the analysis of aesthetic form with the ethics of production, this work offers a methodological contribution to metamodern studies while also addressing its geographical and generic biases by focusing on lyrical expression within a non-Western context.