Sercan Hamza Bağlama
Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, English Literature, Faculty Member
- He completed his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Patricia Waugh at Durham University, UK. He visited the Universit... moreHe completed his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Patricia Waugh at Durham University, UK. He visited the University of California, Berkeley as a research scholar. He now works as an Associate Professor in the department of English Literature at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey. His research interests lie in Refugee Studies, Postcolonial Literatures, and political philosophy.edit
This book analyses the literary works of four different post-war writers in order to examine the issues of class, race, gender and nationality/locality in relation to social, political and cultural circumstances in the second half of the... more
This book analyses the literary works of four different post-war writers in order to examine the issues of class, race, gender and nationality/locality in relation to social, political and cultural circumstances in the second half of the twentieth century and suggests that one-dimensional identity politics paradoxically commodifies subjective ideas, homogenises the subordinated, eschews questions of economics and class relations and is solely concerned with recognition, tolerance and respect. The overall aim is to reconceptualise the broader economic, cultural and social framework of the processes of alienation and of escape mechanisms employed by the individual as defence mechanisms in capitalist cultures. Over the course of the book, it is also suggested that the concept of identity should be taken into account in a more radically intersectional manner and that one-dimensional postmodern identity politics is unable to give a materialistic articulation of poverty and subordination within the larger context of global economics. The book develops an anti-establishment, egalitarian and emancipatory framework in reading its authors: one which might also be implemented as part of a movement that aims to critique, resist and overthrow injustice and oppression.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Postcolonial theory perceives the world as divided between the coloniser and the colonised, thus indirectly reproducing the centrality of the West. For this reason, in literary studies, postcolonial theory fails to cover the literatures... more
Postcolonial theory perceives the world as divided between the coloniser and the colonised, thus indirectly reproducing the centrality of the West. For this reason, in literary studies, postcolonial theory fails to cover the literatures of those nations which were not colonised in a typical sense but rather occupied by Western imperialism, as was the case with Ottoman Turkey. This necessitates a convergent theoretical framework that might help evaluate the fictionalisation of the intersecting dynamics of oppression, violence, exploitation, and resistance in relation to the hegemonic narratives of imperialism and shape a new perspective regarding the politico-cultural dimension of imperial discourse. This article, in this respect, will critically develop the theoretical foundations of imperialism-oriented literary theory and construct it as an interdisciplinary field that has a potential to contribute to contemporary postcolonial theory and to encompass the intersectional dimensions of imperialism and imperial discourse for the articulation of the fictionalisation of imperialism-related issues in the under-considered corpus of modern Turkish literature.
Research Interests: Postcolonial Studies, Postcolonial Theory, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), Postcolonial Literature, History of Imperialism, and 8 moreTurkish Literature, Postcolonial Studies (Literature), Turkish Language, Imperialism, Modern Turkish Literature, Cultural Imperialism, Colonialism and Imperialism, and Postcolonialism
The hidden curriculum, which refers to the ideologies that remain implicit in educational content, is often studied in the context of developed countries with a colonial past where there are efforts to redress the historical injustice of... more
The hidden curriculum, which refers to the ideologies that remain implicit in educational content, is often studied in the context of developed countries with a colonial past where there are efforts to redress the historical injustice of the colonial past. In this paper, we examine the impact of the hidden curriculum on international students in a country with a toxic triangle of diversity. The toxic triangle of diversity describes a context where there is extensive deregulation, voluntarism without responsibilisation of organisations, and absence of supportive organisational discourses for diversity. Most studies of the hidden curriculum have taken place in countries where there are national laws for equality, institutional responsibility to bias-proof the curriculum, and supportive discourses for diversity. Drawing on a field study with nineteen international students (nine in the field of business studies and ten in other subject fields), we demonstrate how the hidden curriculum remains unattended and how it is legitimised through macro-, meso- and micro-level interactions that students have. We show that the hidden curriculum serves to silence different forms of exclusion, loneliness and discrimination that international students experience in the context of a toxic triangle of diversity. We suggest ways forward for undoing the damage done through the hidden curriculum in toxic contexts.
Research Interests:
Home Fire (2017) by Kamila Shamsie fictionally reveals the security concerns and identity crises of British Muslims through the represented experiences of its minor and major characters from a Muslim background and literalises the process... more
Home Fire (2017) by Kamila Shamsie fictionally reveals the security concerns and identity crises of British Muslims through the represented experiences of its minor and major characters from a Muslim background and literalises the process in which the ‘otherised’ struggle to be recognised, acknowledged and included through the reconstitution of the ‘self’ in relation to the discursively ‘legitimate’ narratives of the mainstream ‘white’ society. In the novel, the Muslim characters who perform the requirements of a ‘proper’ Muslim image are accepted into the neo-colonial centre, while those who do not fit into the ‘proper’ Muslim image are demonised and criminalised. Considering the conditional inclusion of the ‘otherised’, this article will, in this context, attempt to investigate the operation of neo-racism in postmodern capitalism and focus on the construction of acceptable otherness within the context of the discursive hegemony of orientalist epistemological formations. The article will also attempt to contribute to and develop Hamid Dabashi’s concept of the ‘house Muslim’ in order to articulate the cultural and ideological interpellation of the Muslim colonial subject into the dominant logic of the metropolitan culture.
Research Interests: Discourse Analysis, Postcolonial Studies, Race and Racism, Colonialism, Islamic Studies, and 11 moreContemporary British Literature, Stuart Hall, Anti-Racism, Kamila Shamsie, Interpellation, culture Stuart Hall african cultural trauma race race relations social memory heritage slave trade, Neo-Racism, Contemporary Muslim society, Home Fire, The House Muslim , and the colonial subject
White Teeth (2000) fictionalises the realities that immigrants experience and reveals how they find themselves caught in a chaotic, fragmented and alienated world and seek to actualise themselves through similar escape mechanisms. Through... more
White Teeth (2000) fictionalises the realities that immigrants experience and reveals how they find themselves caught in a chaotic, fragmented and alienated world and seek to actualise themselves through similar escape mechanisms. Through a close
reading of the novel, this article, suggesting that a literary text subjectively mediates actual, imagined or reimagined histories in a given period and manifests specific historical contexts through an aesthetic individualisation of the socio-historical totality, attempts to theorise the concept of double alienation from a Marxist perspective and to justify its arguments in response to recent intellectual and political histories and theoretical interventions. In order to provide a different interpretation of the process of alienation and to discuss
the twofold escape mechanisms of the colonial subject, this article will, in this context, mainly focus on Samad M. Iqbal and his two sons, Millat and Magid, and analyse how they internalise the sociocultural and political orientations of white supremacy, run through a state of loss, atomisation, meaninglessness and powerlessness and struggle to escape from and nullify the negatives impacts of the process of double alienation in the colonial centre.
reading of the novel, this article, suggesting that a literary text subjectively mediates actual, imagined or reimagined histories in a given period and manifests specific historical contexts through an aesthetic individualisation of the socio-historical totality, attempts to theorise the concept of double alienation from a Marxist perspective and to justify its arguments in response to recent intellectual and political histories and theoretical interventions. In order to provide a different interpretation of the process of alienation and to discuss
the twofold escape mechanisms of the colonial subject, this article will, in this context, mainly focus on Samad M. Iqbal and his two sons, Millat and Magid, and analyse how they internalise the sociocultural and political orientations of white supremacy, run through a state of loss, atomisation, meaninglessness and powerlessness and struggle to escape from and nullify the negatives impacts of the process of double alienation in the colonial centre.
Research Interests: British Literature, Marxism, Postcolonial Studies, Contemporary British Literature, Postcolonial Literature, and 10 moreSocial Inclusion, Postcolonial theory (Cultural Theory), Interdisciplinary research (Social Sciences), Intersectionality, Alienation, Zadie Smith, Zadie Smith White teeth, Globalisation, Double Alienation , and Escape Mechanisms
In Exit West, Mohsin Hamid fictionally reimagines and universalises migrant/refugee experience by providing a realistic snapshot of the social, cultural, economic and political circumstances in their specific historical forms and reveals... more
In Exit West, Mohsin Hamid fictionally reimagines and universalises migrant/refugee experience by providing a realistic snapshot of the social, cultural, economic and political circumstances in their specific historical forms and reveals the psychology of loss, displacement and unbelonging leading to the victimisation of the protagonists in a foreign land. In order to critically analyse the victimisation of the refugee characters at a linguistic level in relation to the narrative of the West about migration and refugees in the twenty-first century, this study will focus on Exit West and explore the development of the central bias against migrants and refugees construed through metaphorical delegitimisation and discursive stigmatisation within the framework of the dichotomous construction of “them” and “us”. Over the course of the study, through a critical reading of the novel, this study will also discuss that the social, cultural and economic interpellation of the refugee characters into the dominant system in a western country should be taken into account within the context of the depoliticisation process of the refugee “crisis” in the world since apolitical humanist arguments, unable to materialistically articulate the problems, reproduce the binary paradigms of the orientalist mind-set and practically perpetuate the cultural, social, ideological and economic domination of global capitalism.
Research Interests:
Refugee Boy (2001) by Benjamin Zephaniah literalises the refugee experience in contemporary society, reveals the psychology of loss, unbelonging and displacement and helps universalise the traumatic realities of the refugee phenomenon... more
Refugee Boy (2001) by Benjamin Zephaniah literalises the refugee experience in contemporary society, reveals the psychology of loss, unbelonging and displacement and helps universalise the traumatic realities of the refugee phenomenon upon innocent people in a 'remote' part of the world through its 14-year-old Eritrean-Ethiopian protagonist. In the novel, in order to be accepted and included into the mainstream 'white' society, the protagonist has a tendency to reshape and reconstitute his identity and personality in relation to what is presented as the proper and the superior. Such a sort of properness and superiority is discursively formed within the framework of the operation of the orientalist mentality and creates an ideal refugee identity, which resembles the case of the colonial subject in contemporary postcolonial fiction. In this context, this article, suggesting that the protagonist of the novel might be considered as a colonial subject, will investigate whether postcolonial theory might critically contribute to the analysis of contemporary refugee literature. This article will also attempt to theorise the process of postcolonial interpellation and explore the relevance of this conceptualisation in terms of articulating the refugee experience through a close reading of the novel.
Research Interests:
The objective of this article is to propose a Marxist reading of Barry Hines's A Kestrel for a Knave (1968) and to analyse the them-us contradiction through a close reading of the subjective experiences of the protagonist, Billy, in order... more
The objective of this article is to propose a Marxist reading of Barry Hines's A Kestrel for a Knave (1968) and to analyse the them-us contradiction through a close reading of the subjective experiences of the protagonist, Billy, in order to put forward that the antagonism between 'them' and 'us' is, despite the fact that it seems to comply with the Marxist conception of class and class consciousness, perceived more in cultural and personal terms than in economic terms. The article suggests that the lack of a class-conscious approach based on the exploiter and the exploited is, as in the case of Billy and his defiant and self-centred reactions to the world of 'them', unable to lead to a radical transformation of the money-oriented world, capitalism, and that this, on the contrary, interpellates Billy, a fictional representative of the socio-historical reality of the English working class, into the totality of the social relations of production and materialises the hegemonic and reductionist politics of power relations. This process will, over the course of the article, be referred to as the process of 'them'isation.
Research Interests: English Literature, Marxism, E. P. Thompson and 'The Making of the English Working Class', Marxist theory, Social Class, and 7 morePost-War English Novel, Marxist Literary Theory, Marxist Literary Criticism, The Dichotomized Discourses, Barry Hines, A Kestrel for a Knave , and the process of 'them'isation
Özet Britanya'da 1948 yılında alınan bir karar ile İngiliz Milletler Topluluğu üyesi ülkelerin vatandaşlarına Britanya vatandaşlığı ve Britanya'ya serbest giriş hakkı verildi. Bu, geçmişte Britanya sömürgesi olan ülkelerden Britanya'ya... more
Özet Britanya'da 1948 yılında alınan bir karar ile İngiliz Milletler Topluluğu üyesi ülkelerin vatandaşlarına Britanya vatandaşlığı ve Britanya'ya serbest giriş hakkı verildi. Bu, geçmişte Britanya sömürgesi olan ülkelerden Britanya'ya büyük bir göç dalgasını tetikledi. Birçok renkten, ulustan, inançtan ve kökenden göçmen İkinci Dünya Savaşı sonrasında piyasanın ihtiyaçları dâhilinde 'ucuz iş gücü' olarak kullanıldı; sonrasında ise, göçmenlerin yaşadığı sosyal, kültürel ve ekonomik sorunları konu edinen birçok edebi eser kaleme alındı. Bu noktada, bu çalışma, edebi eserlerin yazıldıkları dönemlerdeki sosyoekonomik, kültürel ve tarihsel 'gerçekliği' ve bütünselliği, dolaylı ve öznel bir şekilde de olsa, yansıttığı ve işlediği argümanından yola çıkarak, Sam Selvon, Zadie Smith ve Hanif Kureishi tarafından yazılan romanlardaki göçmen karakterleri inceleyip Marks'ın yabancılaşma kuramını yeniden yorumlamayı ve 'iki boyutlu yabancılaşma' sürecini kavramsallaştırmayı amaçlamaktadır. Başka bir deyişle, bu çalışma sömürgecilik sonrası İngiliz romanının önemli temsilcilerinden olan bu yazarların romanlarındaki göçmen karakterlerin hem sınıfsal hem de etnik kökeninden dolayı yaşamış oldukları anlamsız ve güçsüz hissetme durumunu 'iki boyutlu yabancılaşma' kavramı üzerinden rasyonalize etmeye ve karakterlerin, insanların birbirine yabancılaştığı kaotik bir ortamda, kendilerini benzer kaçış mekanizmalarıyla nasıl gerçekleştirmeye çalıştıklarını ve bu şekilde 'onlar'ın doğrularını içselleştirip 'beyaz kapitalizm'e kendi rızalarıyla nasıl eklemlendiklerini somutlaştırmaya çalışacaktır.
Research Interests:
By focussing on the dichotomized metaphorical strategy and myth creation, this study aims to analyze how the U.S. and the European Union (EU) media respond to the entrenched metaphor of migration and refugee “crisis”. In this respect, the... more
By focussing on the dichotomized metaphorical strategy and myth creation, this study aims to analyze how the U.S. and the European Union (EU) media respond to the entrenched metaphor of migration and refugee “crisis”. In this respect, the U.S. and the EU media sources covering the time period from 2015 to 2016 were collected and analyzed in the theoretical framework of conceptual metaphor theory and critical metaphor analysis. By applying the metaphor identification procedure, it has been determined that most of the media narratives contribute to further developing the central bias of migration by means of metaphorical delegitimization that is discursively construed through the binary opposition between “them” and “us.” The metaphorical representation has been grouped into two kinds of ideologically represented story lines: (a) the myth of dehumanization, realized through the metaphors of Objects and Commodities; and (b) the myth of moral authority, realized through the metaphors of Natural Phenomena, Crime, and Terrorism. The findings have shown that most of the media narratives both delegitimize and stigmatize the status of a migrant by deeper entrenching the “outsider” stereotype and, therefore, create the general feelings of instability and intolerance within the EU.
Research Interests:
Erbil, C., Özbilgin, M. & Bağlama, S. H. (2023). Duality of language as a tool for integration versus mobility at work: utility of a polyphonic perspective. In Lecomte, P., Vigier, M., Gaibrois, C. & Beeler, B. (Eds) Understanding the... more
Erbil, C., Özbilgin, M. & Bağlama, S. H. (2023). Duality of language as a tool for integration versus mobility at work: utility of a polyphonic perspective. In Lecomte, P., Vigier, M., Gaibrois, C. & Beeler, B. (Eds) Understanding the Dynamics of Language and Multilingualism in Professional Contexts: Advances in Language-Sensitive Management Research, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.