Türk Dili ve Edebiyatı

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A queer deviance in Turkish detective fiction:|The Hop-Çiki-Yaya series by Mehmet Murat Somer
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Yüce, Cüneyt.; Akyıldız, Olcay.
Detective fiction has often been labeled as the “stepchild of literature” or “cheap literature” by literary critics and it also has been looked down on by being considered as an “escapist fiction”. However, funnily enough, it is one of the most strictly prescribed genres of literature. As it has usually been stated, detective fiction, which is one of the entertainment tools of modern mass society, provides readers to be a part of conformity. And this conformity is based on white middle-class men’s morals. In this study, detective fiction genre, which takes its shape around masculinist conventions, is analyzed around institution and class-implying concepts such as genre and gender. In order to analyze these concepts, Mehmet Murat Somer’s Hop-Çiki-Yaya series, of which protagonist is a transvestite, has been chosen as primary fictional texts. Here, it is advocated that, our perception of gender and genre has been built through some certain repetitions; therefore, based on Judith Butler’s conceptualization, these two concepts are presented as performative and fluid becomings. On the other hand, it has been shown that, both the series and its protagonist are ultimately parts of certain borders. Not only queer notions and their intersections with detective fiction genre but also all of their reflections in Somer’s series have been chosen as the focal point of this research.
Beyond unity, between duality :|a queer perspective on Venüs as a hybrid construct
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Topal, İbrahim.; Akyıldız, Olcay.
This thesis, based on Şebnem İşigüzel's book Venüs, rebuilds itself as a hybrid form in terms of genre as well as fiction; and how it positions its in relation to concepts of standardisation and absoluteness. Venüs is a book which cautiously preserves the state of in-betweenness through the characters that are built, the selection of concepts of time, and space, language and style of storyteller, the process through which the work builds itself, and the perception of identification or disidentification created. This work, which presents a parody of being confined to certain boundaries and points to a state of disidentification as an alternative, is read in this thesis in comparison with Virginia Woolf's Orlando, and the analysis shows the role carried out by these kinds of works to build a perception of identification/disidentification in literature. This thesis shows how in this work which insists that confining the identity within certain forms in a world where there is a complex and multifaceted network of relations can only be the product of a parody and how in the work identity is undermined and deconstructed.
From historical figure to literary character :|representation of religious woman figures in literary texts
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Aykurt Orakçı, Merve.; Akyıldız, Olcay.; Altuğ, Fatih, 1977- .
In this thesis, I will dwell on how female figures who are prominent with their religious representation and have historicity were constructed and the role of the author’s ideology and biography, the genre of the text and also the conditions and politics of the period on this construction procedure. Thus, I will try to comprehend how religious female figures were reconstructed, transformed and differentiated by every rewriting without detaching the text from its context. To that end, I will discuss the female authors’ works through discourse analysis and close reading techniques while tracing religious female figures from Tanzimat period to recent period. Therefore, while analyzing the historical figures’ functionality in genre and transformation, I will try to illustrate how the characters with historicity have transformed into literary character.
Functions of genre in Bay Muannit Sahtegi’nin notları: The diary genre as a means of masculine domination and masculinist discourse
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2016., 2016.) Ulusman, Bilge.; Akyıldız, Olcay.
This thesis, centred upon the examination of the phallogocentric discourse in Vüs’at O. Bener’s novel, Bay Muannit Sahtegi’nin Notları (1991), shows how the dominant masculinist voice legitimizes itself through the generic functions of the diary genre. In this novel, the reproduced heteronormative reality of the first-person narrative brings about a categorical oppression of all female characters and makes masculine domination the only authority on female characters by intra-textual reality. All the dominating voices in the text (the protagonist, the narrator and the fictional rewriter of the diary) belong to the same person, Mr. Muannit Sahtegi. In this way, the narrator’s focalization restricts his addressees, categorically silencing all women, and declares his being as the only reproducer of reality. However, how and why does a masculine narrator make himself credible? According to Thomas O. Beebee, all genres provide a “use-value,” and all generic choices contain ideological functions. In this regard, this thesis shows how using the diary genre provides generic functions to legitimize the autodiagetic narrator’s masculinist voice in this novel. What does the form of diary, as a means of fiction, guarantee to the addressees, by using and transgressing Philippe Lejeune’s “autobiographical pact”? This thesis asserts that the novel of Bay Muannit Sahtegi’nin Notları uses the diary genre as a means of credibility for protagonist-narrator and fictional writer Mr. Sahtegi’s monopolized voice in order that it can make the addressee convinced to the masculinist discourse in this text. (See the Appendix for an extended abstract.)
In pursuit of power relations :|fictional translators in the Turkish novels
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Canseven Efeler, Cansu.; Akyıldız, Olcay.
This thesis explores the power dynamics of fictional translators in the contemporary Turkish novel and focuses on three novels, Yerçekimi by Fatih Balkış, Zafiyet Kurami by Ersan Üldes and Mütercim by Alper Gürkan in order to analyse the employment of power in different contexts with an eye to translator’s translational activities and attitudes towards the relavant power. Using the terms “fictional turn” in Translations Studies, and “power” of Michel Foucault, this study reveals that literary texts suggest valuable insights into the position of translators within a given society and demonstrates that authorities with power win out over translators who are, in the end, turned into victims of their act of translation. And this study establishes a dialogue between fictional translators in contemporary Turkish novels and theoretical discourse, so power relations and translation-related activities in these three novels are examined to see how the power domain of translators has been defined and powered down in the presence of power as well as to determine how these characters fit into relevant translation and literary theories, with a focus on feminist discourse, authorship and ideology, respectively.
Messianic hopes in Oğuz Atay’s works :|representations of Jesus in Tutunamayanlar and “Beyaz Mantolu Adam”
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Kaplan, Yasir İslam.; Akyıldız, Olcay.
The image and the life story of Jesus narrated in the Scriptures has put into literary form faithfully or with varying degrees of transformation throughout the ages by authors of various literatures, each with differing worldviews. The interest was shown towards Jesus in pre-modern Turkish literature was shared by modern Turkish authors as well. Recently, Oğuz Atay is among those who deal most extensively with the literary representations of Jesus in its various aspects in his works. This thesis identifies the variety of representations of Jesus in Oğuz Atay’s Tutunamayanlar [The Disconnected] and “Beyaz Mantolu Adam” [The Man with White Coat] and analyzes their significance and functions in the context of each text. In addition, it demonstrates that the figure of Jesus, transformed by rewriting, adaption or parody assumes a critical tone in multiple contexts. It also argues that the life and certain sayings of Jesus set a good example for some of the characters. Finally, it discusses the various aspects of two different messianic thoughts that arise from the representations in each work.
Modern Turkish literary biography: A study of Beşir Fuat’s biographies of Victor Hugo and Voltaire
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2017., 2018.) Karabaşoğlu, İsa İlkay.; Akyıldız, Olcay.
The nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire is an exciting and revolutionary period for researchers working on this era and it was a turbulent, revolutionary, and giddy time for its residents. The same is true for biographical studies. While classical genres such as tabaqat, tadhkirah, and tarjama-i hal thrived in this period, works that are similar to today’s current concept of biography began to be formed by the works of writers like Ahmet Mithat, Beşir Fuat, and Fatma Aliye. The general judgement of these works is that they are “examples of biographies deviated from the traditional genre but nevertheless failed to be properly modern.” This thesis attempts to demonstrate the weaknesses of this statement through an examination of Beşir Fuat’s biographies of Victor Hugo and Voltaire and argues against claims that nineteenth century Ottoman biographical writing has much more complicated literary conventions than the two-dimensional models of traditional-modern, progressive regressive, and Western-Eastern. It compares Beşir Fuat’s biographies, with contemporaneous Turkish biographies alongside the “Western” and traditional genres. Contrary to the approach that weighs these works to determine which one is more “Westernized,” it treats them with different parameters such as the daimon of their authors, textual reflections of their political agendas, generic dynamics of biography, intertextuality, speech genres, and the social position of the biographer and biographical subjects.
Nationalist transformation of the historical novel :|Namık Kemal’s Cezmi as an example of rewriting
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Şimşek, Kübra.; Akyıldız, Olcay.
One of the government's primary goals in the republican era is to create a new Turkish nation/identity with a common language, culture and historical unity. The reflection of this goal in literature is to try to establish a national literary canon. With the Alphabet Revolution in 1928, the connection with the Ottoman-Islamic past was severed, and many pre-republican texts were left on the dusty shelves of history for a long time. The most remarkable texts from Ottoman literature included in the new canon are the early novels. Because although these works are the founding elements of modern Turkish literature, there are discursive/ideological differences between the empire in which they were written and the republican period in which they were republished. This situation brings to mind whether any interventions were made while bringing the texts to the canon. In this context, the focus of this thesis is Namık Kemal's historical novel Cezmi, which he introduced to the reader in 1880. Despite the author's reputation in the republican period and the popularity of his works, Cezmi was first translated into Turkish by Fazıl Yenisey in 1963. Moreover, when the text is examined, it is observed that many functional details in the original narrative, essentially historical, religious and cultural expressions, have been adapted to the nationalist understanding of the republic, and the novel has been rewritten with various additions, deletions and changes. This thesis aims to read the rewriting of Cezmi as a nationalist practice with a comparative analysis and reveal that Yenisey makes the text a tool to glorify the Turkish national identity.
Recaizade Mahmut Ekrem as a Theorist and as a novelist: |Talim-i Edebiyat and Araba Sevdası with respect to the oppositions of east- west and romanticism- realism
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 1996., 1996.) Akyıldız, Olcay.; Esen, Nüket,
In this study, Recaizade Mahmut Ekrem's two works one of which is a part of and the other fictionalizes the Westernization movement launched in Tanzimat period, are analyzed with respect to the philosophical trends and the social structure of the period and Ekrem's other works. These two works are a book on literary criticism, Talim-i Edebiyat, and a novel, Araba Sevdası. They, being examined first one by one and then together on two different axes, present us a panorama of the period. In this examination Talim-i Edebiyat is read again and again in order to make a new sense out of it, then it is reviewed within the context of literary schools and the westernization project which aims at a synthesis of western and eastern cultures. In the second part Araba Sevdası is studied with a parallel view as a novel with its main character symbolizing pseudo-westernization and which reveals the incommensurability of eastern and western epistemological approaches. In what follows comes the conclusion and here it has been shown that Tanzimat literature which was articulated in Talim-i Edebiyat is criticized in Araba Sevdasl and that the mentality which has been held in the former is rejected in the latter.
Representations of masculinity In Yusuf Atılgan’s novels
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Çiflik Chamberlin, Rubabe Gökçen.; Akyıldız, Olcay.
The aim of this study is to investigate the narrative strategies in Yusuf Atılgan's novels, which critically address the male subject's perception of himself and his environment, gender roles, and the understanding of gender throughout Atılgan's literary life. The lives of the main characters in the novels Aylak Adam, Anayurt Oteli and Canistan are determined by the masculine codes they have experienced since childhood. These characters clash with their masculinity performances, which were shaped by gender roles from childhood. When the characters conform to masculinity roles, they gain power in society, and when they do not conform to these roles, they are excluded from society. In these novels, which deal with their characters’ adaptation to the codes of the patriarchy, one can see that all three male main protagonists correspond to overlapping masculinity roles or different states of masculinities. The similarities and differences between these different patterns of masculinity in Atılgan novels show that masculinity is not a static structure, on the contrary, it is a performance that changes and transforms with different socioeconomic and social situations. In this study, the narrative strategies, character transformations, language and narrator elements created by Yusuf Atılgan in his novels are examined and how gender roles in the narratives are represented are studied in detail. The aim of the thesis is to enrich masculinity studies in the context of Yusuf Atılgan literature by bringing a new perspective to Yusuf Atılgan literature. (See the appendix for extended abstract.)
Testimony, historiography, and atonement in the works of Leylâ Erbil
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2020., 2020.) Akbulak, Esra Nur.; Akyıldız, Olcay.
This thesis focuses on the experiences of disaster, which is the subject of Leylâ Erbil’s literature and which determines its ethical-political and poetic framework. Erbil turns calamities experienced in Turkey into a source of atonement through historiography. Her effort to turn witnessing into the subject of literature with a focus on calamities aims to not forget the massacres and genocides and to take over the history of the oppressed by sovereigns through historiography. In this thesis, the process of historiography, envisaged as a collective repair and healing, is discussed on the basis of historical philosophy from the perspective of Walter Benjamin. Accordingly, Erbil’s literature has been divided into three periods through a critical consideration of the changing political-cultural conditions in which the texts were produced and of the decreasing and changing nature of atonement awareness. Tuhaf Bir Kadın (1971), which marks the political sphere of the 1970s and the hope for collective repair, is regarded as “action and hope;” Karanlığın Günü (1985), whose topic is situated in the 1980s, when action and politics became idle, is characterized as “withdrawal and melancholy”; Cüce (2001), which accepts the absolute domination of the cultural market and is disenchanted with the belief in atonement, is labeled “grudge and resignation”. This thesis discusses how Erbil’s literature transforms the poetics of the changing ethical-political framework on the basis of experiences of calamities on the basis of Tuhaf Bir Kadın, Karanlığın Günü and Cüce.
Textual network in Sevim Burak:|The nonhuman beings of Ford Mach I
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Kutup, Selver Sezen.; Akyıldız, Olcay.
This thesis proposes to consider Sevim Burak’s Ford Mach I as a textual network or a network-text. The collective creation process of Ford Mach I is one of the elements that make a textual network possible. There are multiple authors/multiple texts incorporated into Ford Mach I. The collective process does not only pertain to the writing part, but the reader is also an integral element of the network. Each reader is able to dismantle this unfinished, “open” text only to montage it afterwards. A nonhuman being, that is the automobile, is put at the center of Ford Mach I. The way this network is organized providing a heterogeneous coexistence, is parallel to Deleuze&Guattari’s conception of assemblage. Assemblage does not represent anything apart from the arrangement of elements. Accordingly, nonhuman beings are not a symbol or metaphor, and they are not owned by humans. Guided by Actor Network Theory, we can follow Ford Mach I as a text that opens up space for the agency of nonhuman beings with their potential to transform every interaction, as well as the text itself. In this way, humans, nonhumans and their agencies are in mutual entanglement within the network of Ford Mach I.
The representation of sexual violence in Halide Edib Adıvar's novels
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Gümüş, Şeyma.; Akyıldız, Olcay.
This thesis focuses on the representation of sexual violence and its textual and political implications in Halide Edib Adıvar’s novels. By analyzing the narrative construction of sexual violence in Adıvar’s novels written from 1909 to 1923 through a feminist narratological approach, it discusses the relation between the form and the content and seeks answers to how and why sexual violence is represented, and who narrates it. Halide Edib’s early novels -namely Heyula (1909), Seviye Talip (1910), and Handan (1912)- represent sexual violence through ambiguities, silences, and gaps in the texts narrated exclusively by first-person male narrators whose discourses are challenged by the narratives of other characters. This narrative strategy allows Halide Edib to embed the unnarratable sexual violence in the novels and to distance herself as the author from the narrators of the texts. However, her two nationalist novels -Ateşten Gömlek (1922) and Vurun Kahpeye (1923)- written during the Independence War, mark a change in her choice of narrators from first-person male to third-person omniscient whose gender is unmarked. This change also reflects a switch in her style for representing sexual violence. Her narratives of harassment, sexual assault, or rape which were unnarratable in her first novels become narratable in a nationalist context and after the existence of an omniscient narrator, the ambiguities and silences no longer exist to signify sexual violence.
The representation of “Other Women” in Halide Edib Adıvar’s travel narratives
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Terzi, Maide Sena.; Akyıldız, Olcay.
In this study which evaluates to Mor Salkımlı Ev, Türk’ün Ateşle İmtihanı, Hindistan’a Dair by Halide Edib as travel narratives, it has been problematized that women’s issue grows into a main reference for ideological arguments and it is used as a discursive tool in defining the boundaries when it comes to contradictions established between “West” and “East”. Based on the idea that Halide Edib’s perception of the self/other - center / circle shaped by the East / West vision is the key matter that outlines the representations of women, the center and its boundaries where Halide Edip positioned herself has been discussed. As to representations of women used in defining the boundaries, they have been divided into two categories namely familiarization and alienation. This distinction is made based on the notion that the discourse of othering is not only recognised by the alienation of the other, but the texts produced by familiarizing the other can also contribute to the discourse. Accordingly, in this study which focuses on the representation of the “other woman” in Halide Edib's travel narratives, the English versions of the narratives has been also discussed within this framework. The differences between the Turkish and English versions of the narratives and their reasons has been elaborated. In this thesis, in focus of Arab women in Mor Salkımlı Ev, Anatolian women in Türk’ün Ateşle İmtihanı and Indian women in Hindistan’a Dair, it has been claimed that women are marginalized and instrumentalized as metaphors for other issues whether it be “familiarization” or “alienation”.
The split in Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca’s poetry: wandering into the valley of Çocuk ve Allah
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2015., 2015.) Narcı, Murat.; Akyıldız, Olcay.
This study focuses on the patterns of the construction of the distinction between the private sphere and public sphere, which becomes visible in Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca’s poetry book Çocuk ve Allah (1940). The distinction between the independent sphere of the aesthetics upon which the poetry of Dağlarca is built and the way the poet approaches the social, political and religious issues could also be observed in the memories of the poet. While the use and the position of infant in the poems of the poetry book, Çocuk ve Allah are considered in parallel with the poet’s childhood in this thesis, Allah is taken as an authoritative father who stands against this infant. From this point of view, this book is a product of an endeavour of poeticizing the split arising from the distinction between private and public spheres. The split, at the same time, has another reference: the use of infant in Çocuk ve Allah is in such a way that it renders Allah profane. As Giorgio Agamben mentions, this results from the disruption of the ritual of Allah, namely the authority, by the “play” of the infant. The move that causes the rupture in the authority of Allah, thus secularizing the poetry of Dağlarca, enables the poet to build his own private sphere. As a result, the distinction between the infant and Allah and the distinction between play and ritual, in other words the existence of the split adopts a characteristic that guarantees the independent sphere of the poet.

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