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Carnivalizing the Turkish novel

Oğuz Atay’s dialogue with the canon in "The Disconnected</I>

by Meltem Gürle (Author)
©2012 Monographs 200 Pages

Summary

Oğuz Atay’s 1971 novel The Disconnected [Tutunamayanlar] is distinctly unique, but it can also be read as a response to Joyce’s Ulysses – a singular and a very Turkish response. Any review of The Disconnected begins with the humble acknowledgement of its vast frame of reference, the multiplicity of the voices and styles that it presents, and finally its resistance to being translated into another language. What makes it interesting for the readers of modern literature, however, is not only the variety of idiosyncrasies and verbal conventions, but also its critical attitude towards Turkey’s project of modernity. Drawing on Bakhtin’s theory of the novel, this study traces the echoes of carnival laughter in The Disconnected while establishing Atay’s work as a «world text» in dialogue with the masters of the canon: Shakespeare, Goethe, Dostoevsky, Joyce, and others.

Details

Pages
200
Publication Year
2012
ISBN (PDF)
9783653026665
ISBN (Softcover)
9783631634592
DOI
10.3726/978-3-653-02666-5
Language
English
Publication date
2013 (May)
Keywords
Modernity Self-consciousness National Allegory Individuality socialization
Published
Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien, 2012. 200 pp.

Biographical notes

Meltem Gürle (Author)

Meltem Gürle, assistant professor at Boğaziçi University (Istanbul), is a comparatist with a particular interest in the relationship of post-1950 Turkish literature to the masterpieces of the West. She earned her advanced degrees in both literature and philosophy. Her fields of research also include nineteenth-century German philosophy, theory of the novel, and the work of James Joyce.

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Title: Carnivalizing the Turkish novel