Journal Articles by Şule Akdoğan
Memory Studies, 2025
This article explores Ayfer Tunç’s The Highly Unreliable Account of the History of a Madhouse as ... more This article explores Ayfer Tunç’s The Highly Unreliable Account of the History of a Madhouse as a fiction of memory and proposes that the novel acts as a medium of memory as it not only represents but also actively constructs the past through its inclusive and comprehensive framework, giving voice to diverse and contesting perspectives regarding the interpretation of Türkiye’s past. I also argue that this inclusive and comprehensive framework is constructed through multi-perspectival narration which enables the coexistence of multiple perspectives and their intriguing interplay. By analysing The Highly Unreliable Account of the History of a Madhouse as a multi-perspectival fiction of memory, I thus emphasize that the multi-geographical and multi-temporal scope of the narration draws attention to the importance of inclusive storytelling practices and their worldmaking potential to create representations countering hegemonic, biased, and narrow interpretations of the past.
Women's Studies International Forum, 2023
In this article, I compare the literary representations of women care workers in Maggie Gee's My ... more In this article, I compare the literary representations of women care workers in Maggie Gee's My Cleaner, Ece Temelkuran's Muz Sesleri and Leïla Slimani's Lullaby through the concept of borderlands which, especially since Gloria Anzaldúa's Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, has come to represent a space surpassing geographical borders in ways to bring attention to crossroads of challenging yet promising encounters of personal, cultural and political spaces. I also argue that when feminism and literature meet in a comparative frame, they might have the potential to facilitate a space to contextualize women's lives and understand similarities and differences among women within a non-hegemonic frame. I thus propose that a comparative analysis of the literary representations of women care workers in these novels denotes such a fruitful crossroads where relationality can be discussed as a nuanced concept affording space to discuss the complexity of women's experiences and enhance the frame of feminist solidarity.
Middle Eastern Literatures , 2021
Adalet Ağaoğlu's Ölmeye Yatmak (Lying Down to Die, 1973) and Leylâ Erbil's Tuhaf Bir Kadın (A Str... more Adalet Ağaoğlu's Ölmeye Yatmak (Lying Down to Die, 1973) and Leylâ Erbil's Tuhaf Bir Kadın (A Strange Woman, 1971) are significant examples of Turkish literature that situate the female body within Turkish national history and discourse.1 Their protagonists lock themselves in hotel rooms where they get closer to their body and sexuality, and reveal critical insights related to their society, particularly laying bare the intriguing relationships between different ideologies such as Islam, modernization project and socialism. I argue that these novels dauntlessly show the flawed, conflictual and oppressive nature of these ideologies in their attitudes towards women and their bodies, which is emphasized through the protagonists' problematic and unstable relationships with these discourses and their bodies. As the protagonists begin to voice their repressed sexual desires and reclaim the female body as a source of pleasure and autonomy, a space to break away from imposed configurations of womanhood is created
Women's Studies: An Inter-disciplinary Journal, 2021
Diane Elam argues that feminism’s reliance on a universal notion of women is a drawback for its p... more Diane Elam argues that feminism’s reliance on a universal notion of women is a drawback for its politics and proposes that women need to embrace a “collective uncertainty” which does not deny differences and has a place for a “groundless solidarity” that is based on “undecidability.” Within this frame, I argue that Angela Carter’s The Passion of New Eve and Fay Weldon’s Praxis call for a “groundless solidarity” which has place for differences and multiplicity, and embrace undecidability as a thematic and narrative strategy. I propose that the novels’ transgressive, unstable and indeterminate characters are endowed with a grotesque power as they shatter the boundaries of normativity generated by both patriarchal and feminist attitudes. Thus, the indeterminacy incited by grotesque representations encourages a space of undecidability featuring a subversively vibrant feminist stance, which is reinforced through the playful narrative strategies adopted in these texts.
Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction , 2020
Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies , 2020
In this paper I propose a transnational feminist reading of Turkish writer Ece Temelkuran’s 2013 ... more In this paper I propose a transnational feminist reading of Turkish writer Ece Temelkuran’s 2013 novel Women Who Blow on Knots through Lugones’s “Playful- ness, ‘World’-Travelling, and Loving Perception.” First of all, I argue that the concept of “world”-travelling Lugones recommended to women of color in the US continues to offer valuable insights to women across the world, especially within the frame of contemporary transnational feminist practices. Increasing geographical mobility, enormous circulation of ideas across cultures, and intriguing encounters of local and global paradigms continue to generate complex and nuanced “worlds,” while also bringing new forms of oppression, assimilation, and stereotyping, hence new guises of “arrogant perception.” Accordingly, travelling to “worlds” of ours and other wom- en’s and recognizing differences, plurality, and historical specificity becomes truly in- dispensable in creating feminist coalitions. Within this frame I argue that the trope of travel in Women Who Blow on Knots underlines the “world”-travelling of four women whose encounter with one another brings forward a transnational understanding of solidarity—one that is not a pernicious totalizing unity but a coalition constructed with a deep understanding of the nuanced plurality of different locations and histo- ries. While the content presents a pluralistic context of a loving attitude, the playful narrative strategies constantly allow space for creative plurality and offer possibilities for a transnational, decolonial feminist writing.
Journal of American Studies of Turkey, 2018
This article analyzes Joanna Russ’s The Female Man (1975) within the frame of science-fiction gen... more This article analyzes Joanna Russ’s The Female Man (1975) within the frame of science-fiction genre and her feminist concerns. Being a science-fiction writer and scholar, in her literary and critical works, Russ recurrently emphasizes that although science-fiction has the potential to create new contexts to present alternative realities, most science-fiction texts are written by men from and for a male perspective. In such texts, there is no room for a female identity that has power and agency. For Russ, revisiting the thematic and formal conventions of the science-fiction is urgent to challenge misogynist attitudes towards women. Within this framework, this article argues that The Female Man reflects Russ’s aspiration to reshape the content and form of science-fiction, which makes itself apparent in her engagement with themes, plot and narrative techniques that she experiments with in her aspiration to create a more liberating context for women.
Journal of Narrative and Language Studies (NALANS), 2018
In literary history, 1970s appears as a decade when discussions of feminist consciousness, women ... more In literary history, 1970s appears as a decade when discussions of feminist consciousness, women writers and women readers became quite significant especially within the frame of American feminist literary criticism. Concerns such as consciousness-raising and political nature of personal stories were frequently voiced in literary works which were considered as powerful tools in generating feminist awareness among women. Accordingly, the 1970s observed the appearance of a great number of literary works which particularly focused on women and encouraged the scrutiny of patriarchal oppression and stereotypically produced passive and inferior images of women. Published in 1977 with a cover announcing that “this book will change lives,” Marilyn French’s best-seller The Women’s Room is one of the novels where the personal stories of the protagonist highlight their political nature and depict her consciousness-raising towards a more liberated identity. In this paper, I argue that while generating the novel’s one of the main themes, consciousness-raising also functions as a plot device and is presented and reinforced through the use of the confessional mode which, as a subgenre of autobiographical fiction, is particularly used in feminist texts to accentuate the awareness of the sexual politics infused in seemingly mundane and private stories of women.
Book Reviews by Şule Akdoğan
Book Review: The Highly Unreliable Account of the History of a Madhouse, Ayfer Tunç
Book Review- Every Fire You Tend by Sema Kaygusuz, 2020
How can a novel be written in the language of figs? Sema Kaygusuz’s Yüzünde Bir Yer, recently tra... more How can a novel be written in the language of figs? Sema Kaygusuz’s Yüzünde Bir Yer, recently translated into English as Every Fire You Tend by Nicholas Glastonbury, offers an enchanting insight to this question. Every Fire You Tend is a multi-layered text in which myth, history, religion, guilt, pain, memory and sexuality, among many others, intermingle with each other in such skilful ways that an impressive polyphony becomes the core of the narrative. With its multiple appearances, the fig becomes a captivating narrative device in weaving and flowing the polyphonic spirit of the novel.
Book Chapters by Şule Akdoğan
Translating Women: Activism in Action (August 2020). Eds. Olga Castro and Helen Vassallo. Research e-book 2020, ITI Research Network, 2020
In this paper, I focus on three contemporary Turkish women writers in English translation, Aslı E... more In this paper, I focus on three contemporary Turkish women writers in English translation, Aslı Erdoğan, Sema Kaygusuz and Ece Temelkuran, to bring awareness to different forms of bias and reductionist perspectives which create various challenges for their encounters with publishers, readers, editors, journalists and scholars around the world. I argue that such perspectives also underline an often-voiced transnational feminist issue with crucial implications for translation: having a hegemonic attitude toward a culture and undermining its local specificities and diversity. Throughout this paper, I discuss that interplay of translation, feminism, and transnationality invites us to explore not only the challenges transnational communication comes across but also the ways to deal with these challenges and facilitate different forms of transnational feminist praxis.
To this purpose, I first discuss transnational feminisms’ relevance to translation studies.
I underline that they have the potential to draw our attention to translation, publishing, and marketing strategies as well as the circulation and reception phases of these texts, which inevitably highlights transnational and intersectional interplays of gender, politics, economics, religion and location, among others. By focusing on Aslı Erdoğan, Sema Kaygusuz and Ece Temelkuran, I aim to introduce some of the thematic concerns and the multi-layered contexts they and their works accentuate as they encourage fruitful dialogues between feminisms and translation studies. I first refer to Aslı Erdoğan to emphasize how translation can promote activism, solidarity and critical enquiries of transnational relations. I also discuss how it can bring diversity to education, pedagogy and academia and allow the formation of a multi-layered platform for global conversation. Then I turn to Sema Kaygusuz to elaborate on the relationship between translation and global solidarity. I draw attention to Kaygusuz’s concerns about being defined through national literature and how it can cause reductionist monolithic perceptions within and across borders. I argue that Kaygusuz’s texts resist such perceptions and are significant in creating a more comprehensive understanding of Turkey. Lastly, I discuss Ece Temelkuran to underline how translation can help the articulation of alternative truths that challenge hegemonic and biased perspectives about women living in diverse contexts. I focus on her Women Who Blow on Knots as it provides insights into different forms of oppression such as patriarchy, sexism and Eurocentrism.
I conclude by emphasizing the empowering interplay of translation and transnational feminist practices. I underline that, as in the case of the three writers discussed here,
careful translations of the texts by women writers from Turkey, and comprehensive scholarly and pedagogical engagements with them can articulate multi-layered contexts for representations of women at local and global levels and facilitate liberatory cross-cultural dialogues.
Animals, Plants, and Landscapes: An Ecology of Turkish Literature and Film, 2019
Animals, Plants, and Landscapes: An Ecology of Turkish Literature and Film, edited by Hande Gürse... more Animals, Plants, and Landscapes: An Ecology of Turkish Literature and Film, edited by Hande Gürses and Irmak Ertuna Howison
Conference Presentations by Şule Akdoğan
Translating Women: Breaking Borders and Building Bridges in the English-language Book Industry, 2019
Talking Bodies 2019 Conference, Chester University, 2019
“Traces of Ecofeminism in D.H. Lawrence’s Birds, Beasts and Flowers.” Presented at 11th International IDEA Conference: Studies in English, Ankara, Turkey (April 2017). , 2017
D.H. Lawrence wrote the poems in Birds, Beasts and Flowers in 1920-23 mostly in Sicily where his ... more D.H. Lawrence wrote the poems in Birds, Beasts and Flowers in 1920-23 mostly in Sicily where his encounter with natural world deeply influenced his antagonism towards modern civilization and industrial culture in a post-war society. Non-human world of plants and animals are expressed with mythical, religious and sensuous sexual allusions and with Lawrence’s modernist stance. Post-humanist worldview of the poet becomes explicit through his exploration of the rottenness of the industrial world, celebration of nature and primitive world and the inextricable relation between men and women. In his frame, conceptualization of these Lawrentian themes in Birds, Beasts and Flowers echoes the ecofeminist treatment of nature and women which makes connections between the domination of nature and subjugation of women in a patriarchal society. Therefore, this paper aims to read these Lawnrentian themes from an ecofeminist perspective and lay bare the intricate traces of feminism in Lawrence’s encounter with natural world.
Presented at 1st AATT Conference (Nov 16, 2016), Harvard University, USA. , 2016
Literature has always been accepted as an authentic source of language and thus frequently used i... more Literature has always been accepted as an authentic source of language and thus frequently used in language classes as an effective method of teaching. This is mainly because literature provides students with a context they can practice the lexical, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic knowledge they have been exposed to in other courses. Nevertheless, literature is not only a means to enhance students’ language skills but also it gives insights about history and culture. Within this frame, this paper will explore the use of literature in teaching Turkish language. More specifically, Adalet Ağaoğlu’s Ölmeye Yatmak (Lying Down to Die) will be treated as a test case to reflect on the significance of literature in language teaching. Adalet Ağaoğlu is one the most influential Turkish writers; with her essays, plays and novels, she has contributed much to Turkish literature. Her intellectual and political stance was also detected in her works and undeniably in Lying Down to Die, as well. Scrutiny of Turkish republicanism and position on women in Turkish context are the most eminent themes of the novel awareness of which provides the reader with valuable insights related to Turkish culture. In this respect, this paper will explore the implications of the use of Lying Down to Die in teaching Turkish and will draw attention the challenges and opportunities in doing so.
“How Do We Read Virginia Woolf in 21st Century.” Presented at 24th Annual Conference on Virginia... more “How Do We Read Virginia Woolf in 21st Century.” Presented at 24th Annual Conference on Virginia Woolf, Loyola University Chicago and Northern Illinois University, Chicago, USA
Proceedings by Şule Akdoğan
“An Analysis of Patriarchal and Feminist Discourses in Angela Carter’s The Passion of the New Ev... more “An Analysis of Patriarchal and Feminist Discourses in Angela Carter’s The Passion of the New Eve.” Proceedings of the 8th International IDEA Conference: Studies in English. Eds. Çiğdem Pala Mull, et al. Muğla: Muğla Sıtkı Koçman UP, 2014. 234-39. Print.
“Feminizing History in Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion.” History in Western Literature/ Batı Ed... more “Feminizing History in Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion.” History in Western Literature/ Batı Edebiyatında Tarih: A Selection of Papers from the 3rd International BAKEA Symposium. Ed. Zekiye Antakyalıoğlu. Gaziantep: Ürün Yayınları, 2013. 513-18. Print.
“A Postmodernist Feminist Reading of The Enchantress of Florence.” Salman Rushdie and His Work: 20th METU British Novelists Conference Proceedings. December 13-14, 2012. Ed. Elif Öztabak Avcı, F. Tuba Korkmaz-Karaman, Aslı Kutluk, Şule Okuroğlu-Özün, Ankara: Kardelen, 2013. Print. , 2013
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Journal Articles by Şule Akdoğan
Book Reviews by Şule Akdoğan
Book Chapters by Şule Akdoğan
To this purpose, I first discuss transnational feminisms’ relevance to translation studies.
I underline that they have the potential to draw our attention to translation, publishing, and marketing strategies as well as the circulation and reception phases of these texts, which inevitably highlights transnational and intersectional interplays of gender, politics, economics, religion and location, among others. By focusing on Aslı Erdoğan, Sema Kaygusuz and Ece Temelkuran, I aim to introduce some of the thematic concerns and the multi-layered contexts they and their works accentuate as they encourage fruitful dialogues between feminisms and translation studies. I first refer to Aslı Erdoğan to emphasize how translation can promote activism, solidarity and critical enquiries of transnational relations. I also discuss how it can bring diversity to education, pedagogy and academia and allow the formation of a multi-layered platform for global conversation. Then I turn to Sema Kaygusuz to elaborate on the relationship between translation and global solidarity. I draw attention to Kaygusuz’s concerns about being defined through national literature and how it can cause reductionist monolithic perceptions within and across borders. I argue that Kaygusuz’s texts resist such perceptions and are significant in creating a more comprehensive understanding of Turkey. Lastly, I discuss Ece Temelkuran to underline how translation can help the articulation of alternative truths that challenge hegemonic and biased perspectives about women living in diverse contexts. I focus on her Women Who Blow on Knots as it provides insights into different forms of oppression such as patriarchy, sexism and Eurocentrism.
I conclude by emphasizing the empowering interplay of translation and transnational feminist practices. I underline that, as in the case of the three writers discussed here,
careful translations of the texts by women writers from Turkey, and comprehensive scholarly and pedagogical engagements with them can articulate multi-layered contexts for representations of women at local and global levels and facilitate liberatory cross-cultural dialogues.
Conference Presentations by Şule Akdoğan
Proceedings by Şule Akdoğan
To this purpose, I first discuss transnational feminisms’ relevance to translation studies.
I underline that they have the potential to draw our attention to translation, publishing, and marketing strategies as well as the circulation and reception phases of these texts, which inevitably highlights transnational and intersectional interplays of gender, politics, economics, religion and location, among others. By focusing on Aslı Erdoğan, Sema Kaygusuz and Ece Temelkuran, I aim to introduce some of the thematic concerns and the multi-layered contexts they and their works accentuate as they encourage fruitful dialogues between feminisms and translation studies. I first refer to Aslı Erdoğan to emphasize how translation can promote activism, solidarity and critical enquiries of transnational relations. I also discuss how it can bring diversity to education, pedagogy and academia and allow the formation of a multi-layered platform for global conversation. Then I turn to Sema Kaygusuz to elaborate on the relationship between translation and global solidarity. I draw attention to Kaygusuz’s concerns about being defined through national literature and how it can cause reductionist monolithic perceptions within and across borders. I argue that Kaygusuz’s texts resist such perceptions and are significant in creating a more comprehensive understanding of Turkey. Lastly, I discuss Ece Temelkuran to underline how translation can help the articulation of alternative truths that challenge hegemonic and biased perspectives about women living in diverse contexts. I focus on her Women Who Blow on Knots as it provides insights into different forms of oppression such as patriarchy, sexism and Eurocentrism.
I conclude by emphasizing the empowering interplay of translation and transnational feminist practices. I underline that, as in the case of the three writers discussed here,
careful translations of the texts by women writers from Turkey, and comprehensive scholarly and pedagogical engagements with them can articulate multi-layered contexts for representations of women at local and global levels and facilitate liberatory cross-cultural dialogues.
Mustafa Kırca
Editor-in-Chief
Çankaya University, Turkey
[email protected]