Female «Othellos»

| 9 →

Acknowledgements

This book is primarily inspired by an undergraduate course titled “Adaptations and Rewrites in Contemporary Drama,” which I taught to Boğaziçi University (BU) Translation Studies students between 2010 and 2012 in İstanbul, Turkey. Coming from a purely literature background, this course enabled me to realize how the two concepts “adaptation” and “rewrite” are received differently in the two disciplines as well as in performance. A considerable part of this study was conducted during my one-year-long postdoctoral research carried out at De Montfort University’s Center for Adaptations in Leicester, UK, which provided me with an active research environment that included various lectures, seminars, conferences and workshops on adaptation theory, as well as a rich library. The library research conducted at the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon has also greatly contributed to my literature survey. The undergraduate elective course titled “Contemporary Adaptations and Appropriations of Shakespearean Tragedies,” which I taught to BU Western Languages and Literature students, and the graduate course titled “Intertextual Relations,” which I taught to İstanbul University (IU) American Literature students in fall 2014 and spring 2015, also contributed to this study, feeding my perspective through various discussions. Restaging ‘Othello’: Contemporary Women Playwrights also benefited from a six weeks’ research affiliation at the University of Leicester’s School of English. This study is supported by Boğazici University research project titled “Rewriting Shakespeare in Contemporary Intercultural Context.” (BAP project coded 15L00P1)

I owe my deepest gratitude to my dear drama teachers Aslı Tekinay and Özden Sözalan for making it all possible with their everlasting support. My heartfelt thanks go to Professor Aslı Tekinay for inspiring my “Contemporary Adaptations of Shakespeare” project with her invaluable recommendations, speedy feedbacks and great enthusiasm. I feel deeply indebted to my graduate thesis supervisor Professor Özden Sözalan whose expertise on dramaturgy and innovative perspectives I consulted at each and every stage of this project. ← 9 | 10 →

I would like to thank Professor Nursel İçöz whose very intriguing “Intergeneric and Interdisciplinary Relations” graduate course syllabus shaped most of the theoretical discussions in this study. Many thanks to Professor Cevza Sevgen for her incredible support during the literature survey. I would also like to thank Professor Suat Karantay and Professor Şehnaz Tahir Gürçağlar whose guidance and suggestions provided an interdisciplinary perspective on Adaptation Studies and Translation Studies.

I am indebted to Professor Deborah Cartmell and Dr. Emma Parker who hosted me in Leicester, De Montfort University Center for Adaptations and University of Leicester Department of English, respectively, offering many privileges and a friendly atmosphere in which to work. I owe a sincere gratitude to Professor Zeynep Naz Atay, the Director of BU School of Foreign Languages, for being very cooperative and supportive throughout the research project. I would also like to thank my dear colleagues at BU Advanced English Unit for their enormous support and understanding throughout this study. Many thanks to all my students at BU and IU for opening new horizons with vivid discussions.

Last but not least, my sincere thanks go to members of my family, my loving son Mert Tekin and my very supportive husband Dr. Bülent Tekin, who together accompanied me during my postdoctoral research in the UK, as well as my newborn baby Derin Tekin for her patience during the proofreading process. Many thanks to my dear sister Güller Pınar Bilgin who by now is also my colleague and my dear parents Professor Leman Bilgin and Servet Bilgin, whose academic enthusiasm and work ethics guided my studies.

In memories of my grandparents and my father-in-law…