M.A. Theses

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Bernard Shaw's relations with woman in general and Ellen Tery
(Thesis - Robert College, 1953., 1953.) Çavdar, Tuncay.
A study of Astrophel and Stella
(1958.) Tamer, Ülkü, 1937-
Evidence of growth :|a study of the poetry of Theodore Roethke
(1966.) Gardner, Jacquelyn.; Roethke, Theodore, 1908-1963.
Courtly love :|Boccaccio and Chaucer
(Thesis (B.S.)- Robert College, 1966., 1966.) Alissandratos, Alexandra.
The time element in "four quartes": |a Bergsonian approach
(Thesis (M.A.)- Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 1988., 1988.) Akyüz, Sevda.; Sevgen, Cevza.
Relations and contraries in Charles Tomlinson's "The way of a world"
(Thesis (M.A.)- Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 1988., 1988.) Bulutsuz, Sema.; Taylan, Cem.
The cauldron of story : a theory of narrative
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2004., 2004.) Pavlik, Anthony John.; Sevgen, Cevza.
Stories are as old as the ability of human beings to communicate, and every culture both historically and geographically, appears to have its own body of narratives. Since the early Greeks, different theories of the nature of narrative have been advanced, but the general tenor of the arguments presented has usually been to view narrative as an inferior form of knowledge. This thesis aims to examine one theory of narrative that sets itself at odds with this position: Walter Fisher's "narrative paradigm". This theory seeks to re-unite mythos and logos through its notions of coherence and fidelity and the logic of good reasons, and, following an explication of the theory, it will be assessed through its application to a genre of literature, children's literature, in the form of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels.
National allegories in third world novels
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2005., 2005.) Sezer, Feride Evren.; Irzık, Sibel,
This thesis focuses on the national allegorical aspects in Salman Rusdie’s Midnight’s Children and Nuriddin Farah’s Maps. Although allegorical elements are explored here, the thesis concerns itself with the identification problem of the third world individual, which amounts to the encounter between the West and the East through colonial and postcolonial experiences. The aim is to study how the individual reflects on him/herself with reference to his/her conception of the outside world, and how the two novels criticize and deconstruct fixed meanings imposed on the third world individual.
"The brain-is wider than the sky-": nature and the sublime American self in Emerson and Whitman
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Graduate Institute of Social Sciences, 2005., 2005.) Sheridan, Michael Douglas.; Sevgen, Cevza.
This thesis̕ primary focus is on the relationship between nature and the development of adistinctly American selfhood, as revealed through the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson andWalt Whitman. The primary framework through which this relationship will be viewed is that of the notion of the Sublime, which over the centuries developed from being a mere rhetoricalmode into being a manner of ontological exploration and discovery. In the work of Emersonand Whitman, this manner became tied up with the then developing idea of a uniquelyAmerican self. This tying-up in turn allowed an oppositional conception concerning the relation of that self to American nature to evolve, and it is this oppositional conception, theway in which it was developed, and its ultimate consequences that this thesis explores.
Wallace Stevens & Melih Cevdet Anday: the poetics of supreme fiction
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Graduate Institute of Social Sciences, 2005., 2005.) Batu, Pelin, 1978-; Sevgen, Cevza.
The distance between the physical and metaphysical, the real and unreal cannot be measured, but it is precisely a preoccupation with this distance that creates the poems and fictions of Stevens and Anday. The focus of my thesis is the journey the poets take into the grey zones of life and poetry. The relationship of the poet to the world around him, to death, change and pleasure are subject matters that both poets are preoccupied with, thereby raising the status of the poet to the "artificer of life." In their works, the multifaceted layers of reality and history are brought into question only to be debunked and replaced. My thesis is an attempt to explore this tendency towards destruction and recreation, the breaking down of boundaries to be replaced by new ones which in their turn will be broken down.
Personal narratives of non-belonging
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Graduate Institute of Social Sciences, 2005., 2005.) Tuna, Özlem.; Irzık, Sibel,
This thesis is a comparative study of Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior and Eva Hoffman's Lost in Translation in the context of their particular concern and problematization of the role of memory and language in the conception of self and reality. With the help of close textual analysis, the specific textual strategies of these two examples of immigrant autobiography make it possible to lay bare the taken for granted capacity of the two cultures between which these writers -who are children of immigrant parents- experience self. My focus of study is the manner in which these writers represent their own experience through their unique translation of the two cultures that they are a part of. The act of translation is the act of non-belonging. The difficult position that their simultaneous concern for the impossibility of representing these cultures in their entirety puts them paradoxically provides them with an ever-changing, multi-perspective vision that transcends all other forms of self dictated by both cultures. The capacity of autobiography to make the past and the present coexist is instrumental in enabling the autobiographers with the experience of a self across the boundaries of two cultures.
Negative analysis: an application of negative theology for the analysis of poetry
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2007., 2007.) Yurdaün, Nejat Cihan.; Fortuny, Kim.
Negative theology is a branch of mysticism that is based on the conceptualization of God as an ultimate, transcendent and ineffable being. It creates its own language called Apophasis, which acting through a series of affirmations and negations, aims to approach the ineffable God. In a similar manner, poetry is a different language in language that aims to transcend the meaning capabilities of words in order to achieve purer relation with and through language. The unique experience the poet undergoes with language is also inexpressible in essence as every poet is a distinct being, and poet’s personal affiliation with language is singular. This study utilizes the concepts of negative theology in the analysis of poetry, grounding on this functional resemblance. The outcome is a method called negative analysis that works through diligent and close readings of poems. Negative analysis borrows concepts such as Apophasis, Cataphasis, negation, unknowing and inexpressibility from negative theology, and employs them in the analysis of poetry. Poems used in this study are G.M. Hopkins’ “Peace” and Emily Dickinson’s poem numbered 405 (It might be lonelier). In Hopkins, “silence” in its absence, and in Dickinson, “silence” in its presence, set the perfect ground to enable a study of these seemingly distinct disciplines, theology and literature, under a confluent gaze, with one method. This study aims to show that poetry is a special kind of language that demands a method of analysis befitting its special nature.
A Tourist's guide to the authority of presentation in travel narratives: classifying the other, aesthetizing the self
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2007., 2007.) Göze, Gülfer.; Fortuny, Kim.
This thesis is an endeavor to bring a new perspective to travel literature through a twofold classification of the narratives. The proposed classification differentiates two types of travel narratives according to the degree of the encounter that their writer goes through during the journey and/or the writing period. In this respect, it is an attempt to manifest how the first group of narratives, namely the public ones, are tainted by historical discourses, social prejudices and cultural myths, while the second group focuses more on the personal experiences of the writers and their aesthetical outlook on the visited place. The personal travel narrative is something more than a travel account; it is a search for the self, a search for one’s self in the foreign, in the other. This nuance between the public and personal narratives is the inspiration for and the essence of this thesis. However, before clarifying this distinction, a chapter on the history of travel literature along with a subsequent one on public narratives will serve as a background for the discussion on personal accounts. Within this framework, a variety of works by Henry James, Aldous Huxley, Lawrence Durrell, and Salman Rushdie will be used as primary sources, and the discussion will be bolstered by the theories of Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Edward Said, and Homi Bhabha.
Charlotte Bronte and Srpuhi Dussap: weaver mothers and palimpsest as grammer of female narration and plot
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2007., 2007.) Aktokmakyan, Maral.; Ceylan, Deniz.; Antikacıoğlu, Sosi.
The use of double-talk becomes the female discourse in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Srpuhi Dussap’s Mayda. This method as female literary strategy, also termed the style of palimpsest, gives the woman writer the opportunity to tell/ write whatever she likes, thinks and believes and at the same time avoid male criticism and reduction. As nineteenth century writers, both Brontë and Dussap constructed their novels in styles which seem to comply with conventional plots, themes and literary rules. The striking characteristic of both novels is the subversion of the apparent obedience they advocate through similar plots and thematic alternatives they offer. Only in this way is woman’s self-fulfilment achieved and she is promoted as a subject as opposed to her imprisonment in the role of the object. This study aims to discuss the reasons for their application of the palimpsest and the way they are applied in Jane Eyre and Mayda.
A mimetic and narratological reading of postmodern fiction
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2007., 2007.) Halaçoğlu, Halil İbrahim.; Öğüt Yazıcıoğlu, Özlem.
This thesis analyzes three postmodern pieces: “Scarlatti Tilt”, a short story by Richard Brautigan, The Body Artist, a novel by Don DeLillo, and Adaptation, a film by Spike Jonze, with an aim to prove that the structure of all three, though highly fragmented and complex, as well as the seemingly absent unified meaning eventually lead to a closure. A reinterpretation of mimetic theory and narratology is necessary to demonstrate how postmodern texts lend themselves to more meaningful interpretations. This thesis explores several mimetic approaches including ancient and contemporary ones to display that even postmodern texts are still referential in the sense that they reflect the perception of the postmodern era which itself is fragmented. Narratology analyzes texts in the light of sequentiality to attribute a narrative value to them; however, after reinterpreting the point of view, exposition and the communication model of narrative, which involves the participation of the implied author, the dramatized narrator, the model reader and the authorial reader, one can see that narrative quality does not necessitate a sequential order. Combining the reinterpreted narratological approaches mentioned above with the idea that mimesis continues to exist in postmodern fiction, this study claims that the fragmentation and emptiness in texts can reveal unified plots. The two-sentence-long short story “Scarlatti Tilt” narrates a murder which the text does not explicitly portray; the fragmented novel The Body Artist is the narration of a woman’s story by herself in the aftermath her husband’s death, and the film Adaptation displays that postmodern fiction may have to cooperate with conventional story telling, thereby being mimetic and narrative.
Shakespeare re-positioned: intertextuality and the demystification of the canon in contemporary drama
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2007., 2007.) Dedebaş, Eda.; Tekinay, Aslı.
With the emergence of many theories such as post-colonialism and feminism intertextual rewriting and the subversion of the canon in literature have been widely used in the twentieth century This study analyzes how intertextuality and the demystification process work in contemporary drama -especially in contemporary Shakespeare adaptations since it is impossible to exclude Shakespeare as the father of drama. The primary sources used in this paper are “Harlem Duet” by Djanet Sears, Goodnight Desdemona (Good morning Juliet) by Ann-Marie MacDonald, “A Branch of the Blue Nile” by Derek Walcott, “This Island’s Mine” by Philip Osment and “Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth” by Tom Stoppard. The bulk of this rewriting process and the theory of intertextuality are nourished through the idea of resistance. Therefore, this paper analyzes the idea of “resistance” -whether it defies patriarchy, colonialism, heterosexuality or the hegemony of language. It also discusses how rewriting appears as a form of resistance and how resistance functions in this rewriting process. Moreover, this study looks at how these “defiant” theories avoid becoming essentialist with the help of postmodernist elements. With the use of multiplicity of time, space, resistances, subjectivities and acting, the plays discussed in this study shun the mainstream. This study points out that these plays stand in a third position, which is situated between the canonical and the non-canonical, resistance and admiration, the center and the periphery, Shakespeare and non-Shakespeare.
Breaking the closure through language: the representation of oppression and resistance in Margaret Atwood's the Handmaid's Tale and Ursula K. Le Guin's the telling
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2007., 2007.) Kayışcı, Burcu.; Gülçur, A. Lamia.
This study aims to demonstrate how oppression and resistance are represented on the plane of language in the two examples of critical dystopias. The works that are chosen for detailed analysis are The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and The Telling by Ursula K. Le Guin. The study begins with a short survey of the most significant literary utopias and dystopias while simultaneously presenting the definitions and explaining the differences. In this respect, the transformation of the utopian and the dystopian genre through time is also delineated with the help of the comments of various utopian and dystopian critics. Then, the two novels are analyzed to illustrate the qualities that render them the examples of critical dystopias. The discourse of the hegemonic order is juxtaposed with the stories of the main characters which they tell in order to resist the closure of the regime. In the course of the analysis, Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of the “authoritative word” and Julia Kristeva’s “poetic logic” are employed to support the ideas presented. The manipulation of history and memory as well as the possibilities that the novels provide in terms of active political resistance is also included in accordance with the concerns of the critical dystopias.
Historiographic metafiction in postcolonial literature: Foe, Wide Sargasso Sea and Midnight's Children
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2007., 2007.) Turan, Ayşegül.; Ceylan, Deniz.
This M.A. thesis aims to scrutinize the use of historiographic metafiction in postcolonial literature. The imaginative (re)construction of the past provides the opportunity to tell alternate stories/histories which place the oppressed and the colonized in the center rather than the margin. The examination of the primary sources, Foe by John Maxwell Coetzee, Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys and Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie, raises the possibility of a “new voice” which will enable the oppressed/the colonized to represent himself and establish his authority. The issue of representation and the struggle over the narrative voice(s) form the focal points for the examination of texts. Through these media, the answers for the questions “who represents whom?”, “who can represent whom?” and “is it really possible to create a ‘new voice’?” are searched.
The limit-experience: following blanchot towards the other in speech and in Literature
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2008., 2008.) Kutelas, Vanina Berin.; Ertuğrul, Suna.
This thesis examines Maurice Blanchot's reflections on the human being's relation with the Other (Autrui) and/or Presence, notions that are impossible to experience and subsume under knowledge. Close readings of Blanchot's works "The Limit-Experience" and "Literature and the Right to Death" reveal human existence to be based on a duality of presencelabsence and investigate two modes of relation to Presence: speech and literature. Blanchot suggests that the human being's existence is based on exteriority while human life and human truth are oriented towards the reachievement of Unity- Identity. Thls need for Unity-Idenity causes the denial of the Other as such, manifested as the never-ending denial of Presence that is the basis for human action and knowledge. The limitexperience, Blanchot's interpretation of Bataille's "interior experience", signifies a moment of freedom from representation through which Presence offers itself As a way of reachmg the revelation of Presence, Blanchot proposes the game of "plural speech" wherein the space of attention generated between the interlocutors may allow for a glimpse of the "unlimited play of thought". Speech in general is postulated as a relation wherein the human being steps out of himself to receive the Other in the mutual space of attention, a space "in-between'' two human beings that allows for a glimpse of Presence. Literature, on the other hand, aiming to recreate the Presence of beings that is annihilated in language from notlung, serves to disclose the presence of language that is based on the absence of beings, mirroring the duality of presencelabsence at the heart of human existence.
Metamorphosing selves and narrations in The Interrogation and The Magus
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2010., 2010.) Günekan, Melis.; Sevgen, Cevza.
The present study focuses on metamorphosis as a trope in one French and one English novel, both of the twentieth century. (Trope is defined in this thesis as a figure rather than a motif or theme.) Both of these novel novels, The Interrogation by J. M. G. Le Clézio and The Magus by John Fowles, present the reader with protean characters and explore the identity crisis and anxious selfhood of modern individuals who withdraw from the society in which they live. This thesis is a comparative analysis of how the two novelists explore this theme using metamorphosis as a trope.

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