Ege University 19th International Cultural Studies Symposium: Risk Narratives, 2024
Not only a science fiction but all times literary classic, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a br... more Not only a science fiction but all times literary classic, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a brilliant dystopia that entails several narrations of risks. Usually interpreted in terms of censorship and the dangers of technology, the novel holds great potential to be studied as a risk narrative. As the title suggests, the main idea of the book revolves around how perilous books are, just like a loaded gun, waiting to be read and spreading knowledge in a society, where they are banned and burned at all costs. Several layers of risk storylines reveal themselves at this point. The risks of scholarly demise and concurrent social decay resulting from the abuse of technology as well as the lack of reading and intellectual stimulation become the first layer of the novel’s risk narrations. When the social level is surpassed, a more personal level exposes itself. The personal risks of reading are twofold in this dystopia; with the action of keeping a book, let alone reading it, a person not only resists the state and the laws but also carries the risk of annihilation by knowledge. Several characters are reluctant to take that risk, yet Montag, by “burning bright,” demonstrates a high level of courage when he faces the challenges of reading. In this context, this paper aims to scrutinize the risk elements Fahrenheit 451 involves, which reveal how unsafe a society might become due to not taking risks and how individuals can exist in such a society by being vulnerable to its dangers.
The Madness of Crowds (2021) by the Canadian author Louis Penny can be categorized as a pandemic ... more The Madness of Crowds (2021) by the Canadian author Louis Penny can be categorized as a pandemic novel, which imagines life after the official end of the Covid-19 pandemic. The novel’s core subject and dilemma revolve around a statistician, Abigail Robinson, who has a radical claim to refrain from experiencing similar horrors if any other pandemic or catastrophe ever occurs in the future. As a consequence of her statistical research, she claims the world can use its resources fairly and effectively only by letting go of its vulnerable members; a process which she defines as “mercy killing.” As a type of euthanasia, her proposal also bears an insinuation of eugenics and is thus rejected by several people and government officials, however, also attracts some defenders despite its morally ambiguous nature, which the author considers to be a” madness of crowds.” This ethical position and dilemma presented by the novel are followed by another, the right of free speech and the limits of tolerance to such atrocities. The idea of protecting Robinson’s right to address her ideas and research freely constitutes the ethics of tolerance that the novel presents. This idea is reinforced by further instances, but not just by Robinson’s case, which demonstrates a postmodern relativistic ethical outlook of tolerance and understanding “the other.” In this regard, this presentation aims to examine and discuss how Penny pursues to employ an ethics of tolerance in a fictional post-Covid period in The Madness of Crowds and advocates how such an ethical attitude may help people to live in a safer world. Keywords: The Madness of Crowds, Covid-19 pandemic, ethics of tolerance, freedom of speech, understanding “the other”
Jason Mott's Hell of a Book (2021), which became the 2021 National Book Award Winner, narrates th... more Jason Mott's Hell of a Book (2021), which became the 2021 National Book Award Winner, narrates the stories of two characters, a black author on a book tour and a black kid called "Soot" who tries to be Unseen. The book touches upon several compelling issues about racism, police violence, and the hardships of being black in America. However, when the daydreamer narrator with overactive imagination begins interacting with a hallucinatory tenyear-old boy, The Kid, the narrative gains another layer of meaning and interpretation. The "Black condition" that the novel refers to lays out the otherization and discrimination of African-American people not only with the stories of the two main characters but also with the desire of The Kid to be seen, particularly by the narrator. The "face-to-face" encounter between the author and the Kid forces him to confront with the Kid's alterity; his "impossibly dark-skin" nature creates a feeling of empathy within the narrator, particularly trying to imagine how it would be like him as a child. As a reference and example to this question, Soot, on the other hand, experiences his own "face-to-face" encounter with a white boy of his age on the school bus, yet his "impossibly dark-skin" does not create the same kind of empathy. On the contrary, the white boy gives him the nickname "Soot" and asks him why he stole all the darkness. Such encounters with "the other," whether it is within the same or different racial descents, create reference points for the characters in terms of defining their own identity and responsibility towards "the other" while at the same time questioning why some people choose to refuse this responsibility. In this respect, this study aims to interpret Mott's powerful novel Hell of a Book by examining the interaction of "the other" and "the self," particularly referring to the philosophy of Levinas, and to argue how the multiplicity of otherness creates a net of responsibilities both on the individual and social levels in the US.
Actual problems of literary and translation studies: issues of literary process, comparative literature, stylistics and linguistics, 2022
The Fall of Ideologies in Grapes of Wrath and Farewell Gul'sary!
John Steinbeck and Chingiz Ait... more The Fall of Ideologies in Grapes of Wrath and Farewell Gul'sary!
John Steinbeck and Chingiz Aitmatov, born in the years when the bipolar world order was prevailing and lived most of their lives under the domination of these ideological understandings, are two writers who most successfully revealed the destructive effects of capitalism and communism on human life. In Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939, Steinbeck tells the story of the Joad family who travels from Oklahoma to California in search of a better life. The farmer family, whose life is ruined by the Dust Bowl travels to the west only to find worse conditions. The capitalist venture forces the farmers to live on the edge of starvation; harsh living conditions and poorness force them to do desperate actions to survive. The premise of capitalism falls under the shadow of angry farmers who lost all they have to the dream of affluence. While this is the case in the US at the end of the 1930s, the other dream of prosperity also faces a fall. Kyrgyz author Chingiz Aitmatov narrates the hardships of his people during the 1940s that resulted from the errs of Soviet rule. The hardships Kyrgyz people face are masterfully narrated through the journey of Tanabai and his stallion Gul’sary. While the fall of the Russian Empire and the birth of the USSR gave Kyrgyz people a hope, the corruption and the pressures take that away very soon. In both poles of the world, American and Kyrgyz people endure the transformations and devastations of their lives under the promise of ideologies. In this regard, the aim of this study is to reflect the fall of ideologies and the devastation the promises of capitalism and communism create in human lives in two different nations, places, and moments through the works of the two great narrators of their nations.
Keywords: Grapes of Wrath, Farewell Gul'sary!, ideology, capitalism, communism
Ege University 15th International Cultural Studies Symposium: Culture and Space, 2015
As intermingled as it can be, culture and space create our habitat to live and prosper. Since the... more As intermingled as it can be, culture and space create our habitat to live and prosper. Since the first fence that has been put around a piece of land to claim ownership, human beings have shaped their environment according to their needs and prospects. We have created our own space molded with our culture in the social and individual levels. In this respect, the relationship between culture and space seems to be the most decisive factor in our lives. This ongoing relationship of course changed its essence and route over the centuries and gradually had a more human-oriented course in which culture dominates the space instead of the way around. This change naturally depends on the advancement in technology, which allowed us to gain more control over the nature and alter it for our benefit. This phenomenon is exclusively seen in the concepts of house and home. As becoming the only space that we spend most of our limited lives, our houses are the places, which are the most affected and shaped by our cultural traits. As Alain de Botton suggests in his article "The Idea of Home", "We need a home in the psychological sense as much as we need one in the physical: to compensate for a vulnerability. We need a refuge to shore up our states of mind, because so much of the world is opposed to our allegiances. We need our rooms to align us to desirable versions of ourselves and to keep alive the important, evanescent sides of us." So, as well as giving us a physical protection, our homes also provide a psychological shelter. That's why, design or more importantly comfort of homes have the utmost importance, which is today supported by the technology. However, the excessive usage of technology in our homes, which are supposedly our physical and psychological shelters, seems to reverse this process in the postmodern society. While humans tried to create a space that holds the purpose of their comfort, today places design our way of living and habits. The technological advancement of houses controls every movement in our private spaces, and even alters our culture. This idea of houses, which has excessive technology namely, automated houses and how they affect human beings has been the subject of literature, especially postmodern fiction for decades now. Among many examples, Ray Bradbury attracts more attention with his successful futuristic narrations of this phenomenon. His short story, "The Veldt" published in The Illustrated Man (1951) questions the idea of home and house dichotomy with a brilliant example of an automated house and a dysfunctional family. How the space/place we shape according to our needs controls us is reflected and criticized by Bradbury in the most brilliant way. Yet, this criticism also poses another vital question in the relationship between culture and space: Does the space/place still exist without a culture living in it, or does it cease to exist and lose its function as a shelter? Bradbury tries to illuminate this question in another short story, "August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains" published in The Martian Chronicles (1950) in which he portrays the last automated house standing on earth after the human race is destroyed by a nuclear war. The futile efforts of the house to maintain its existence actually proves that space without the culture is not a valuable existence while the culture without the space also does not have means to be. All in all, in this presentation, the two futuristic short stories of Ray Bradbury will be examined and the dichotomy between the space and the culture will be analyzed to be able to understand the intermingled relationship of these two concepts.
Ege University 13th International Cultural Studies Symposium: Change and Challenge, 2011
Published in 1992, Paul Auster's Leviathan bears a great change and challenge in its theme and ch... more Published in 1992, Paul Auster's Leviathan bears a great change and challenge in its theme and characters. Though each character has a process of change, one grasps more attention, Benjamin Sachs. As the center of the major events, Sachs is a character, which symbolizes the change and challenge of American heroism. Though heroism was identified with patriotism before, we have an anarchist hero who does his actions against the state in order to make it better. He prefers to blow up Statue of Liberties all over the country to make his ideas heard. Apart from that, the independence concept gains importance within the actions of Sachs. Are independence and democracy to be protected or should citizens pretend to perform them? Named after Thomas Hobbes book, connected with the transcendentalist ideas and democratic ideals, the book and the character show the "true" American side of Sachs though he performs "anti-American" acts. So, the aim of this paper is to see how American heroism changed and defined in Paul Auster's Leviathan via the character Benjamin Sachs in terms of americanness and anti-patriotism.
Ege University 18th International Cultural Studies Symposium: Ageing, Surviving and Longevity, 2022
Snowpiercer (2020-…) is a post-apocalyptic dystopian science fiction TV series, based on Bong Joo... more Snowpiercer (2020-…) is a post-apocalyptic dystopian science fiction TV series, based on Bong Joon-ho's 2013 film that carries the same name and the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige published in 1982. The world in which the story of Snowpiercer takes place is a rather cold one; it is indeed a human-induced ice age. That being the case, two issues gain importance for the remaining humans who perpetually travel the iced wasteland of once Earth with their 1001 cars long train: first, survival, then longevity. While the eternal engine of the train keeps them alive, the rest depends on maintaining order inside the train. Just so, with a strict class segregation, the management of the train becomes an essential factor in ensuring survival and longevity of the train's inhabitants. In this context, this paper aims to examine how Snowpiercer constructs a narration of the survival and longevity by using political, social and technological manners.
This issue will host studies dedicated to reflections on Knowledge and its relations with the concept of Resistance. The questions that move us are: How does Resistance constitute a creative device and what Knowledge is activated when we need to resist contexts in which our freedoms are curtailed?
Works that discuss Resistance figures from the times of anti-colonial struggles and contemporary demonstrations, in various areas of Knowledge, will therefore be welcome. Papers can be written in Portuguese, English or Spanish.
This call proposes work in a broad perspective, considering different temporalities and spatialities, with the aim of bringing together studies with propositions and conceptual elaborations on the role of Resistance and its relationship with Knowledge. On the horizon of this issue are reflections through a literary approach in dialogue with other fields of knowledge such as Arts, History, Anthropology, Sociology, Geography, among others.
Editors: Ana Lilia Carvalho Rocha (Federal University of Pará - Brazil) Firuze Guzel (Ege University - Turkey) Mehrinigor Bahodirovna Akmedova (Bukhara State University - Uzbekistan) Yvonne Malambo Kabombwe (University of Zambia - Zambia)
The deadline for submitting articles for this dossier is June 31, 2023. Papers can be written in Portuguese, English or Spanish.
Uludağ University Faculty of Arts and Sciences Journal of Social Sciences, 2023
In "Rail Road Standard Time" and "The Eat and Run Midnight People," published in the short story ... more In "Rail Road Standard Time" and "The Eat and Run Midnight People," published in the short story collection titled The Chinaman Pacific and Frisco R.R. Co. (1988), Frank Chin focuses on several issues such as cultural heritage and transmission, identity, railroad narrations, food, and masculinity. In the first short story, Chin is going to his mother's funeral, and during this journey, he jumps between his memories that help the reader to see the trails of his Chinese American identity formation. In the second story, Chin once more returns to his memories by taking up the role of the narrator and reveals the issues of double discrimination, masculinity, and the influences of American culture on his identity formation. The aim of this article is to analyze Chin's selected short stories from a thematic and social perspective. The article also aims to reveal how the author tries to maintain his ethnicity and reflect his identity molded by two different cultures.
In the United States, which emerged as a country of immigrants, individual and social conflicts h... more In the United States, which emerged as a country of immigrants, individual and social conflicts have been inevitable in the process of constructing new identities of various ethnic groups. While these immigrants want to preserve their culture, they also try to adapt to American culture and society. The level of acculturation and assimilation processes that progress parallel to their adaptation also determine the way the immigrants define themselves and how they are defined by their ethnic group members or other Americans. Mexican Americans, similar to other ethnic groups in American society, cannot stay out of this phenomenon of conflict. Being Mexican, American, or both influence their daily lives in every conceivable way. This situation is undoubtedly reflected in the literature of Mexican Americans, and it is observed in the works of many writers and poets of Mexican origin. The works of Gary Soto, one of the leading literary figures of Mexican American (or Chicano/a) literature, also contain intense traces of the aforementioned internal and social conflicts. In most of his works, the author conveys the experiences that push him into an identity struggle. Soto, who isgenerally regarded as a poet, also writes his memoirs in prose and the short stories titled “Looking for Work”, “The Jacket”, and “The Savings Book” are noteworthy works that describe his ethnic identity perception and formation during his childhood, adolescence, and youth-adulthood, respectively. The aim of this study is to examine the perception of ethnic identity and identity formation in the selected short stories by Soto, who is a member of the multicultural American society.
Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi, 2022
İnsanın ahlaki gelişiminde edebiyatın yadsınamaz bir rolü vardır. Küçük yaşlardan itibaren okunan... more İnsanın ahlaki gelişiminde edebiyatın yadsınamaz bir rolü vardır. Küçük yaşlardan itibaren okunan kitaplar ve duyulan hikâyeler, kişilerin bulundukları toplumun ahlaki yapısını anlamalarına ve kendi ahlaki tutumlarını geliştirmelerine yardımcı olur. Bu yönüyle edebiyat ve ahlak/etik arasındaki söz konusu ilişki, edebiyat eleştirmenlerinin incelemelerine de konu olmuştur. Ancak postmodernizm akımı ile beraber edebî eserlerde yer alan etik ile ilgili konular konuşulamaz hâle gelmiş, etik edebî eleştiri alanından dışlanmıştır. 1980lere gelindiğinde ise edebî etik analizi tekrar popüler hâle gelmiş, kendi içinde değişimlere uğrayarak yeniden biçimlenmiştir. Bu yeni edebî etik analizi, nesnel bir analiz yöntemi ve çeşitli metotlarla edebiyat eserlerini incelemiştir. Ancak bu çabalara karşın, yeni edebî etik analizi metodolojisi de edebî çevrelerce tam anlamıyla kabul görmemiştir. Bu makalede Karma Analiz Yöntemi başlığı altında bir edebî etik analizi metodu teklif edilmektedir. Çalışmada, öncelikle edebî etik analizi hakkında teorik bir inceleme yapılmış, devamında ise teklif edilen yöntem açıklanmıştır. Son olarak bu yöntem David Walton’ın Terminal Mind (2008) adlı bilim kurgu eseri üzerinde uygulanarak örneklendirilmiştir.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick is a brilliant science fiction novel that ... more Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick is a brilliant science fiction novel that tries to determine the thresholds of being human. In the book, the boundaries between being a human and an android almost do not exist except for one determinant: lack of empathy in androids. This alleged difference between humans and androids is the most important point of justification for destroying or “retiring” the latter. This brings out the discussion if these robots have any rights because they are portrayed as autonomous and sentient beings. In addition, the novel also questions if human beings can be deprived of their rights and if so in what cases this can happen. Measuring the worth of life then is one of the most significant discussions of the book because the author essentially forces the characters and the readers to contemplate the qualities that make one a human. Furthermore, animal rights also cover an important part of the novel. The difference between authentic and robotic animals as well as their symbolic connotations contribute to the novel’s main theme. In this context, this article aims to reveal how human, robot and animal rights are addressed in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Science Fiction Literature as Thought Experiment: An Ethical Analysis of Michael Crichton’s Prey, 2022
Science fiction literature, a product of unlimited imagination, often contains several philosophi... more Science fiction literature, a product of unlimited imagination, often contains several philosophical issues related to ethics within its narratives. Science fiction works, which sometimes function as a thought experiment, provide examples of how humanity may react in various situations with a controlled scenario. Michael Crichton's novel Prey (2002) is one of such works. Crichton's novel, which warns the reader about the probable dangers of irresponsible use of technology with a striking scenario, essentially functions as a thought experiment. This article aims to reveal the relationship and similarity between philosophical thought experiments and science fiction literature. In this context, Prey will be analyzed in terms of ethical theories, and how ethics becomes the subject of science fiction literature will be elaborated.
Narratives of Confinement in American Literature and Popular Culture
Confinement is a phenomenon that presents itself in everyone's lives in one way or another. While... more Confinement is a phenomenon that presents itself in everyone's lives in one way or another. While people are confined to the circumstances of their births (e.g. being born to one's parents, siblings, country, culture, language or being abandoned at birth, etc.), more often than not they cannot escape these barriers very easily. People may be confined to the limits of their lifestyles, their jobs, their habits, addictions, families, or their physical as well as mental conditions. In the case of the United States, the types and degrees of confinement also become very diverse and complex. The phenomenon of confinement becomes a more urgent matter to be discussed when the history, society, and culture of America are considered. One of the ways of breaking out of confinement is through literary and aesthetic productions; these works tell the reasons, conditions, influences, and overall unique experiences of confinement that American people experience. This call for chapters invites contributors to address such issues regarding confinement in the American context.
Escape From Existence: Reflection of Existential Philosophy in Edward Albee’s Selected Plays, 2023
The questions about existence reveal themselves in every segment of art, literature, and philosop... more The questions about existence reveal themselves in every segment of art, literature, and philosophy. The main current of philosophical thought, however, is surely existentialism, which has become widely popular after WWII. While existential themes and questionings are reflected in numerous literary works in every genre, theatre grasps attention with respect to its structure, particularly The Theatre of the Absurd with its genuine interest in the human condition. In the United States, Edward Albee has been the most prominent representative of absurd theatre under the influence of existentialism and European absurdist drama. For that regard, this book aims to make analyses of Edward Albee’s selected plays, “The Zoo Story”, “Who is Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, “A Delicate Balance”, “The Lady from Dubuque”, and “The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?” within the framework of existentialist philosophy. That is why the first chapter introduces the ideas of the most established existential philosophers, whereas the second chapter illuminates the history and the characteristics of The Theatre of the Absurd. In the last chapter, the expression of existential concepts such as alienation, search for meaning, freedom, choice, responsibility, and authenticity are discussed through structural and thematic perspectives in the aforementioned plays.
Postmodern period, with its denial of reality, truth, and authority, has been associated with the... more Postmodern period, with its denial of reality, truth, and authority, has been associated with the rise of ethical relativism. While this relativistic understanding of ethics has been zealously embraced, it is also criticized because it is considered as a search of yet again an absolute code of ethics. As a result, arguments about the need and occurrence of a hybrid sense of ethics have been presented. It is possible to see the examples of such a hybrid sense of ethics in literature, particularly in the contemporary American science fiction literature. Science fiction does not hold a limit to its themes and dwells upon numerous ethical issues that arise in its fictional worlds. In these narrations, ethics become an essential tool for maintaining existence of humans, animals, nature, Earth, or the whole universe. In his regard, this book presents an interdisciplinary study of how the postmodern perception of ethics is reflected in contemporary American science fiction novels. It creates an intersection point of ethics, ethical literary analysis and science fiction, thus providing a wide range of discussions for its readers.
Ege University 19th International Cultural Studies Symposium: Risk Narratives, 2024
Not only a science fiction but all times literary classic, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a br... more Not only a science fiction but all times literary classic, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a brilliant dystopia that entails several narrations of risks. Usually interpreted in terms of censorship and the dangers of technology, the novel holds great potential to be studied as a risk narrative. As the title suggests, the main idea of the book revolves around how perilous books are, just like a loaded gun, waiting to be read and spreading knowledge in a society, where they are banned and burned at all costs. Several layers of risk storylines reveal themselves at this point. The risks of scholarly demise and concurrent social decay resulting from the abuse of technology as well as the lack of reading and intellectual stimulation become the first layer of the novel’s risk narrations. When the social level is surpassed, a more personal level exposes itself. The personal risks of reading are twofold in this dystopia; with the action of keeping a book, let alone reading it, a person not only resists the state and the laws but also carries the risk of annihilation by knowledge. Several characters are reluctant to take that risk, yet Montag, by “burning bright,” demonstrates a high level of courage when he faces the challenges of reading. In this context, this paper aims to scrutinize the risk elements Fahrenheit 451 involves, which reveal how unsafe a society might become due to not taking risks and how individuals can exist in such a society by being vulnerable to its dangers.
The Madness of Crowds (2021) by the Canadian author Louis Penny can be categorized as a pandemic ... more The Madness of Crowds (2021) by the Canadian author Louis Penny can be categorized as a pandemic novel, which imagines life after the official end of the Covid-19 pandemic. The novel’s core subject and dilemma revolve around a statistician, Abigail Robinson, who has a radical claim to refrain from experiencing similar horrors if any other pandemic or catastrophe ever occurs in the future. As a consequence of her statistical research, she claims the world can use its resources fairly and effectively only by letting go of its vulnerable members; a process which she defines as “mercy killing.” As a type of euthanasia, her proposal also bears an insinuation of eugenics and is thus rejected by several people and government officials, however, also attracts some defenders despite its morally ambiguous nature, which the author considers to be a” madness of crowds.” This ethical position and dilemma presented by the novel are followed by another, the right of free speech and the limits of tolerance to such atrocities. The idea of protecting Robinson’s right to address her ideas and research freely constitutes the ethics of tolerance that the novel presents. This idea is reinforced by further instances, but not just by Robinson’s case, which demonstrates a postmodern relativistic ethical outlook of tolerance and understanding “the other.” In this regard, this presentation aims to examine and discuss how Penny pursues to employ an ethics of tolerance in a fictional post-Covid period in The Madness of Crowds and advocates how such an ethical attitude may help people to live in a safer world. Keywords: The Madness of Crowds, Covid-19 pandemic, ethics of tolerance, freedom of speech, understanding “the other”
Jason Mott's Hell of a Book (2021), which became the 2021 National Book Award Winner, narrates th... more Jason Mott's Hell of a Book (2021), which became the 2021 National Book Award Winner, narrates the stories of two characters, a black author on a book tour and a black kid called "Soot" who tries to be Unseen. The book touches upon several compelling issues about racism, police violence, and the hardships of being black in America. However, when the daydreamer narrator with overactive imagination begins interacting with a hallucinatory tenyear-old boy, The Kid, the narrative gains another layer of meaning and interpretation. The "Black condition" that the novel refers to lays out the otherization and discrimination of African-American people not only with the stories of the two main characters but also with the desire of The Kid to be seen, particularly by the narrator. The "face-to-face" encounter between the author and the Kid forces him to confront with the Kid's alterity; his "impossibly dark-skin" nature creates a feeling of empathy within the narrator, particularly trying to imagine how it would be like him as a child. As a reference and example to this question, Soot, on the other hand, experiences his own "face-to-face" encounter with a white boy of his age on the school bus, yet his "impossibly dark-skin" does not create the same kind of empathy. On the contrary, the white boy gives him the nickname "Soot" and asks him why he stole all the darkness. Such encounters with "the other," whether it is within the same or different racial descents, create reference points for the characters in terms of defining their own identity and responsibility towards "the other" while at the same time questioning why some people choose to refuse this responsibility. In this respect, this study aims to interpret Mott's powerful novel Hell of a Book by examining the interaction of "the other" and "the self," particularly referring to the philosophy of Levinas, and to argue how the multiplicity of otherness creates a net of responsibilities both on the individual and social levels in the US.
Actual problems of literary and translation studies: issues of literary process, comparative literature, stylistics and linguistics, 2022
The Fall of Ideologies in Grapes of Wrath and Farewell Gul'sary!
John Steinbeck and Chingiz Ait... more The Fall of Ideologies in Grapes of Wrath and Farewell Gul'sary!
John Steinbeck and Chingiz Aitmatov, born in the years when the bipolar world order was prevailing and lived most of their lives under the domination of these ideological understandings, are two writers who most successfully revealed the destructive effects of capitalism and communism on human life. In Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939, Steinbeck tells the story of the Joad family who travels from Oklahoma to California in search of a better life. The farmer family, whose life is ruined by the Dust Bowl travels to the west only to find worse conditions. The capitalist venture forces the farmers to live on the edge of starvation; harsh living conditions and poorness force them to do desperate actions to survive. The premise of capitalism falls under the shadow of angry farmers who lost all they have to the dream of affluence. While this is the case in the US at the end of the 1930s, the other dream of prosperity also faces a fall. Kyrgyz author Chingiz Aitmatov narrates the hardships of his people during the 1940s that resulted from the errs of Soviet rule. The hardships Kyrgyz people face are masterfully narrated through the journey of Tanabai and his stallion Gul’sary. While the fall of the Russian Empire and the birth of the USSR gave Kyrgyz people a hope, the corruption and the pressures take that away very soon. In both poles of the world, American and Kyrgyz people endure the transformations and devastations of their lives under the promise of ideologies. In this regard, the aim of this study is to reflect the fall of ideologies and the devastation the promises of capitalism and communism create in human lives in two different nations, places, and moments through the works of the two great narrators of their nations.
Keywords: Grapes of Wrath, Farewell Gul'sary!, ideology, capitalism, communism
Ege University 15th International Cultural Studies Symposium: Culture and Space, 2015
As intermingled as it can be, culture and space create our habitat to live and prosper. Since the... more As intermingled as it can be, culture and space create our habitat to live and prosper. Since the first fence that has been put around a piece of land to claim ownership, human beings have shaped their environment according to their needs and prospects. We have created our own space molded with our culture in the social and individual levels. In this respect, the relationship between culture and space seems to be the most decisive factor in our lives. This ongoing relationship of course changed its essence and route over the centuries and gradually had a more human-oriented course in which culture dominates the space instead of the way around. This change naturally depends on the advancement in technology, which allowed us to gain more control over the nature and alter it for our benefit. This phenomenon is exclusively seen in the concepts of house and home. As becoming the only space that we spend most of our limited lives, our houses are the places, which are the most affected and shaped by our cultural traits. As Alain de Botton suggests in his article "The Idea of Home", "We need a home in the psychological sense as much as we need one in the physical: to compensate for a vulnerability. We need a refuge to shore up our states of mind, because so much of the world is opposed to our allegiances. We need our rooms to align us to desirable versions of ourselves and to keep alive the important, evanescent sides of us." So, as well as giving us a physical protection, our homes also provide a psychological shelter. That's why, design or more importantly comfort of homes have the utmost importance, which is today supported by the technology. However, the excessive usage of technology in our homes, which are supposedly our physical and psychological shelters, seems to reverse this process in the postmodern society. While humans tried to create a space that holds the purpose of their comfort, today places design our way of living and habits. The technological advancement of houses controls every movement in our private spaces, and even alters our culture. This idea of houses, which has excessive technology namely, automated houses and how they affect human beings has been the subject of literature, especially postmodern fiction for decades now. Among many examples, Ray Bradbury attracts more attention with his successful futuristic narrations of this phenomenon. His short story, "The Veldt" published in The Illustrated Man (1951) questions the idea of home and house dichotomy with a brilliant example of an automated house and a dysfunctional family. How the space/place we shape according to our needs controls us is reflected and criticized by Bradbury in the most brilliant way. Yet, this criticism also poses another vital question in the relationship between culture and space: Does the space/place still exist without a culture living in it, or does it cease to exist and lose its function as a shelter? Bradbury tries to illuminate this question in another short story, "August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains" published in The Martian Chronicles (1950) in which he portrays the last automated house standing on earth after the human race is destroyed by a nuclear war. The futile efforts of the house to maintain its existence actually proves that space without the culture is not a valuable existence while the culture without the space also does not have means to be. All in all, in this presentation, the two futuristic short stories of Ray Bradbury will be examined and the dichotomy between the space and the culture will be analyzed to be able to understand the intermingled relationship of these two concepts.
Ege University 13th International Cultural Studies Symposium: Change and Challenge, 2011
Published in 1992, Paul Auster's Leviathan bears a great change and challenge in its theme and ch... more Published in 1992, Paul Auster's Leviathan bears a great change and challenge in its theme and characters. Though each character has a process of change, one grasps more attention, Benjamin Sachs. As the center of the major events, Sachs is a character, which symbolizes the change and challenge of American heroism. Though heroism was identified with patriotism before, we have an anarchist hero who does his actions against the state in order to make it better. He prefers to blow up Statue of Liberties all over the country to make his ideas heard. Apart from that, the independence concept gains importance within the actions of Sachs. Are independence and democracy to be protected or should citizens pretend to perform them? Named after Thomas Hobbes book, connected with the transcendentalist ideas and democratic ideals, the book and the character show the "true" American side of Sachs though he performs "anti-American" acts. So, the aim of this paper is to see how American heroism changed and defined in Paul Auster's Leviathan via the character Benjamin Sachs in terms of americanness and anti-patriotism.
Ege University 18th International Cultural Studies Symposium: Ageing, Surviving and Longevity, 2022
Snowpiercer (2020-…) is a post-apocalyptic dystopian science fiction TV series, based on Bong Joo... more Snowpiercer (2020-…) is a post-apocalyptic dystopian science fiction TV series, based on Bong Joon-ho's 2013 film that carries the same name and the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige published in 1982. The world in which the story of Snowpiercer takes place is a rather cold one; it is indeed a human-induced ice age. That being the case, two issues gain importance for the remaining humans who perpetually travel the iced wasteland of once Earth with their 1001 cars long train: first, survival, then longevity. While the eternal engine of the train keeps them alive, the rest depends on maintaining order inside the train. Just so, with a strict class segregation, the management of the train becomes an essential factor in ensuring survival and longevity of the train's inhabitants. In this context, this paper aims to examine how Snowpiercer constructs a narration of the survival and longevity by using political, social and technological manners.
This issue will host studies dedicated to reflections on Knowledge and its relations with the concept of Resistance. The questions that move us are: How does Resistance constitute a creative device and what Knowledge is activated when we need to resist contexts in which our freedoms are curtailed?
Works that discuss Resistance figures from the times of anti-colonial struggles and contemporary demonstrations, in various areas of Knowledge, will therefore be welcome. Papers can be written in Portuguese, English or Spanish.
This call proposes work in a broad perspective, considering different temporalities and spatialities, with the aim of bringing together studies with propositions and conceptual elaborations on the role of Resistance and its relationship with Knowledge. On the horizon of this issue are reflections through a literary approach in dialogue with other fields of knowledge such as Arts, History, Anthropology, Sociology, Geography, among others.
Editors: Ana Lilia Carvalho Rocha (Federal University of Pará - Brazil) Firuze Guzel (Ege University - Turkey) Mehrinigor Bahodirovna Akmedova (Bukhara State University - Uzbekistan) Yvonne Malambo Kabombwe (University of Zambia - Zambia)
The deadline for submitting articles for this dossier is June 31, 2023. Papers can be written in Portuguese, English or Spanish.
Uludağ University Faculty of Arts and Sciences Journal of Social Sciences, 2023
In "Rail Road Standard Time" and "The Eat and Run Midnight People," published in the short story ... more In "Rail Road Standard Time" and "The Eat and Run Midnight People," published in the short story collection titled The Chinaman Pacific and Frisco R.R. Co. (1988), Frank Chin focuses on several issues such as cultural heritage and transmission, identity, railroad narrations, food, and masculinity. In the first short story, Chin is going to his mother's funeral, and during this journey, he jumps between his memories that help the reader to see the trails of his Chinese American identity formation. In the second story, Chin once more returns to his memories by taking up the role of the narrator and reveals the issues of double discrimination, masculinity, and the influences of American culture on his identity formation. The aim of this article is to analyze Chin's selected short stories from a thematic and social perspective. The article also aims to reveal how the author tries to maintain his ethnicity and reflect his identity molded by two different cultures.
In the United States, which emerged as a country of immigrants, individual and social conflicts h... more In the United States, which emerged as a country of immigrants, individual and social conflicts have been inevitable in the process of constructing new identities of various ethnic groups. While these immigrants want to preserve their culture, they also try to adapt to American culture and society. The level of acculturation and assimilation processes that progress parallel to their adaptation also determine the way the immigrants define themselves and how they are defined by their ethnic group members or other Americans. Mexican Americans, similar to other ethnic groups in American society, cannot stay out of this phenomenon of conflict. Being Mexican, American, or both influence their daily lives in every conceivable way. This situation is undoubtedly reflected in the literature of Mexican Americans, and it is observed in the works of many writers and poets of Mexican origin. The works of Gary Soto, one of the leading literary figures of Mexican American (or Chicano/a) literature, also contain intense traces of the aforementioned internal and social conflicts. In most of his works, the author conveys the experiences that push him into an identity struggle. Soto, who isgenerally regarded as a poet, also writes his memoirs in prose and the short stories titled “Looking for Work”, “The Jacket”, and “The Savings Book” are noteworthy works that describe his ethnic identity perception and formation during his childhood, adolescence, and youth-adulthood, respectively. The aim of this study is to examine the perception of ethnic identity and identity formation in the selected short stories by Soto, who is a member of the multicultural American society.
Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi, 2022
İnsanın ahlaki gelişiminde edebiyatın yadsınamaz bir rolü vardır. Küçük yaşlardan itibaren okunan... more İnsanın ahlaki gelişiminde edebiyatın yadsınamaz bir rolü vardır. Küçük yaşlardan itibaren okunan kitaplar ve duyulan hikâyeler, kişilerin bulundukları toplumun ahlaki yapısını anlamalarına ve kendi ahlaki tutumlarını geliştirmelerine yardımcı olur. Bu yönüyle edebiyat ve ahlak/etik arasındaki söz konusu ilişki, edebiyat eleştirmenlerinin incelemelerine de konu olmuştur. Ancak postmodernizm akımı ile beraber edebî eserlerde yer alan etik ile ilgili konular konuşulamaz hâle gelmiş, etik edebî eleştiri alanından dışlanmıştır. 1980lere gelindiğinde ise edebî etik analizi tekrar popüler hâle gelmiş, kendi içinde değişimlere uğrayarak yeniden biçimlenmiştir. Bu yeni edebî etik analizi, nesnel bir analiz yöntemi ve çeşitli metotlarla edebiyat eserlerini incelemiştir. Ancak bu çabalara karşın, yeni edebî etik analizi metodolojisi de edebî çevrelerce tam anlamıyla kabul görmemiştir. Bu makalede Karma Analiz Yöntemi başlığı altında bir edebî etik analizi metodu teklif edilmektedir. Çalışmada, öncelikle edebî etik analizi hakkında teorik bir inceleme yapılmış, devamında ise teklif edilen yöntem açıklanmıştır. Son olarak bu yöntem David Walton’ın Terminal Mind (2008) adlı bilim kurgu eseri üzerinde uygulanarak örneklendirilmiştir.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick is a brilliant science fiction novel that ... more Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick is a brilliant science fiction novel that tries to determine the thresholds of being human. In the book, the boundaries between being a human and an android almost do not exist except for one determinant: lack of empathy in androids. This alleged difference between humans and androids is the most important point of justification for destroying or “retiring” the latter. This brings out the discussion if these robots have any rights because they are portrayed as autonomous and sentient beings. In addition, the novel also questions if human beings can be deprived of their rights and if so in what cases this can happen. Measuring the worth of life then is one of the most significant discussions of the book because the author essentially forces the characters and the readers to contemplate the qualities that make one a human. Furthermore, animal rights also cover an important part of the novel. The difference between authentic and robotic animals as well as their symbolic connotations contribute to the novel’s main theme. In this context, this article aims to reveal how human, robot and animal rights are addressed in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Science Fiction Literature as Thought Experiment: An Ethical Analysis of Michael Crichton’s Prey, 2022
Science fiction literature, a product of unlimited imagination, often contains several philosophi... more Science fiction literature, a product of unlimited imagination, often contains several philosophical issues related to ethics within its narratives. Science fiction works, which sometimes function as a thought experiment, provide examples of how humanity may react in various situations with a controlled scenario. Michael Crichton's novel Prey (2002) is one of such works. Crichton's novel, which warns the reader about the probable dangers of irresponsible use of technology with a striking scenario, essentially functions as a thought experiment. This article aims to reveal the relationship and similarity between philosophical thought experiments and science fiction literature. In this context, Prey will be analyzed in terms of ethical theories, and how ethics becomes the subject of science fiction literature will be elaborated.
Narratives of Confinement in American Literature and Popular Culture
Confinement is a phenomenon that presents itself in everyone's lives in one way or another. While... more Confinement is a phenomenon that presents itself in everyone's lives in one way or another. While people are confined to the circumstances of their births (e.g. being born to one's parents, siblings, country, culture, language or being abandoned at birth, etc.), more often than not they cannot escape these barriers very easily. People may be confined to the limits of their lifestyles, their jobs, their habits, addictions, families, or their physical as well as mental conditions. In the case of the United States, the types and degrees of confinement also become very diverse and complex. The phenomenon of confinement becomes a more urgent matter to be discussed when the history, society, and culture of America are considered. One of the ways of breaking out of confinement is through literary and aesthetic productions; these works tell the reasons, conditions, influences, and overall unique experiences of confinement that American people experience. This call for chapters invites contributors to address such issues regarding confinement in the American context.
Escape From Existence: Reflection of Existential Philosophy in Edward Albee’s Selected Plays, 2023
The questions about existence reveal themselves in every segment of art, literature, and philosop... more The questions about existence reveal themselves in every segment of art, literature, and philosophy. The main current of philosophical thought, however, is surely existentialism, which has become widely popular after WWII. While existential themes and questionings are reflected in numerous literary works in every genre, theatre grasps attention with respect to its structure, particularly The Theatre of the Absurd with its genuine interest in the human condition. In the United States, Edward Albee has been the most prominent representative of absurd theatre under the influence of existentialism and European absurdist drama. For that regard, this book aims to make analyses of Edward Albee’s selected plays, “The Zoo Story”, “Who is Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, “A Delicate Balance”, “The Lady from Dubuque”, and “The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?” within the framework of existentialist philosophy. That is why the first chapter introduces the ideas of the most established existential philosophers, whereas the second chapter illuminates the history and the characteristics of The Theatre of the Absurd. In the last chapter, the expression of existential concepts such as alienation, search for meaning, freedom, choice, responsibility, and authenticity are discussed through structural and thematic perspectives in the aforementioned plays.
Postmodern period, with its denial of reality, truth, and authority, has been associated with the... more Postmodern period, with its denial of reality, truth, and authority, has been associated with the rise of ethical relativism. While this relativistic understanding of ethics has been zealously embraced, it is also criticized because it is considered as a search of yet again an absolute code of ethics. As a result, arguments about the need and occurrence of a hybrid sense of ethics have been presented. It is possible to see the examples of such a hybrid sense of ethics in literature, particularly in the contemporary American science fiction literature. Science fiction does not hold a limit to its themes and dwells upon numerous ethical issues that arise in its fictional worlds. In these narrations, ethics become an essential tool for maintaining existence of humans, animals, nature, Earth, or the whole universe. In his regard, this book presents an interdisciplinary study of how the postmodern perception of ethics is reflected in contemporary American science fiction novels. It creates an intersection point of ethics, ethical literary analysis and science fiction, thus providing a wide range of discussions for its readers.
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Conference Presentations by Firuze Güzel
Keywords: The Madness of Crowds, Covid-19 pandemic, ethics of tolerance, freedom of speech, understanding “the other”
John Steinbeck and Chingiz Aitmatov, born in the years when the bipolar world order was prevailing and lived most of their lives under the domination of these ideological understandings, are two writers who most successfully revealed the destructive effects of capitalism and communism on human life. In Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939, Steinbeck tells the story of the Joad family who travels from Oklahoma to California in search of a better life. The farmer family, whose life is ruined by the Dust Bowl travels to the west only to find worse conditions. The capitalist venture forces the farmers to live on the edge of starvation; harsh living conditions and poorness force them to do desperate actions to survive. The premise of capitalism falls under the shadow of angry farmers who lost all they have to the dream of affluence. While this is the case in the US at the end of the 1930s, the other dream of prosperity also faces a fall. Kyrgyz author Chingiz Aitmatov narrates the hardships of his people during the 1940s that resulted from the errs of Soviet rule. The hardships Kyrgyz people face are masterfully narrated through the journey of Tanabai and his stallion Gul’sary. While the fall of the Russian Empire and the birth of the USSR gave Kyrgyz people a hope, the corruption and the pressures take that away very soon. In both poles of the world, American and Kyrgyz people endure the transformations and devastations of their lives under the promise of ideologies. In this regard, the aim of this study is to reflect the fall of ideologies and the devastation the promises of capitalism and communism create in human lives in two different nations, places, and moments through the works of the two great narrators of their nations.
Keywords: Grapes of Wrath, Farewell Gul'sary!, ideology, capitalism, communism
Papers by Firuze Güzel
https://periodicos.ufpa.br/index.php/nra
This issue will host studies dedicated to reflections on Knowledge and its relations with the concept of Resistance. The questions that move us are: How does Resistance constitute a creative device and what Knowledge is activated when we need to resist contexts in which our freedoms are curtailed?
Works that discuss Resistance figures from the times of anti-colonial struggles and contemporary demonstrations, in various areas of Knowledge, will therefore be welcome. Papers can be written in Portuguese, English or Spanish.
This call proposes work in a broad perspective, considering different temporalities and spatialities, with the aim of bringing together studies with propositions and conceptual elaborations on the role of Resistance and its relationship with Knowledge. On the horizon of this issue are reflections through a literary approach in dialogue with other fields of knowledge such as Arts, History, Anthropology, Sociology, Geography, among others.
Editors:
Ana Lilia Carvalho Rocha (Federal University of Pará - Brazil)
Firuze Guzel (Ege University - Turkey)
Mehrinigor Bahodirovna Akmedova (Bukhara State University - Uzbekistan)
Yvonne Malambo Kabombwe (University of Zambia - Zambia)
The deadline for submitting articles for this dossier is June 31, 2023.
Papers can be written in Portuguese, English or Spanish.
Bu makalede Karma Analiz Yöntemi başlığı altında bir edebî etik analizi metodu teklif edilmektedir. Çalışmada, öncelikle edebî etik analizi hakkında teorik bir inceleme yapılmış, devamında ise teklif edilen yöntem açıklanmıştır. Son olarak bu yöntem David Walton’ın Terminal Mind (2008) adlı bilim kurgu eseri üzerinde uygulanarak örneklendirilmiştir.
Books by Firuze Güzel
Keywords: The Madness of Crowds, Covid-19 pandemic, ethics of tolerance, freedom of speech, understanding “the other”
John Steinbeck and Chingiz Aitmatov, born in the years when the bipolar world order was prevailing and lived most of their lives under the domination of these ideological understandings, are two writers who most successfully revealed the destructive effects of capitalism and communism on human life. In Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939, Steinbeck tells the story of the Joad family who travels from Oklahoma to California in search of a better life. The farmer family, whose life is ruined by the Dust Bowl travels to the west only to find worse conditions. The capitalist venture forces the farmers to live on the edge of starvation; harsh living conditions and poorness force them to do desperate actions to survive. The premise of capitalism falls under the shadow of angry farmers who lost all they have to the dream of affluence. While this is the case in the US at the end of the 1930s, the other dream of prosperity also faces a fall. Kyrgyz author Chingiz Aitmatov narrates the hardships of his people during the 1940s that resulted from the errs of Soviet rule. The hardships Kyrgyz people face are masterfully narrated through the journey of Tanabai and his stallion Gul’sary. While the fall of the Russian Empire and the birth of the USSR gave Kyrgyz people a hope, the corruption and the pressures take that away very soon. In both poles of the world, American and Kyrgyz people endure the transformations and devastations of their lives under the promise of ideologies. In this regard, the aim of this study is to reflect the fall of ideologies and the devastation the promises of capitalism and communism create in human lives in two different nations, places, and moments through the works of the two great narrators of their nations.
Keywords: Grapes of Wrath, Farewell Gul'sary!, ideology, capitalism, communism
https://periodicos.ufpa.br/index.php/nra
This issue will host studies dedicated to reflections on Knowledge and its relations with the concept of Resistance. The questions that move us are: How does Resistance constitute a creative device and what Knowledge is activated when we need to resist contexts in which our freedoms are curtailed?
Works that discuss Resistance figures from the times of anti-colonial struggles and contemporary demonstrations, in various areas of Knowledge, will therefore be welcome. Papers can be written in Portuguese, English or Spanish.
This call proposes work in a broad perspective, considering different temporalities and spatialities, with the aim of bringing together studies with propositions and conceptual elaborations on the role of Resistance and its relationship with Knowledge. On the horizon of this issue are reflections through a literary approach in dialogue with other fields of knowledge such as Arts, History, Anthropology, Sociology, Geography, among others.
Editors:
Ana Lilia Carvalho Rocha (Federal University of Pará - Brazil)
Firuze Guzel (Ege University - Turkey)
Mehrinigor Bahodirovna Akmedova (Bukhara State University - Uzbekistan)
Yvonne Malambo Kabombwe (University of Zambia - Zambia)
The deadline for submitting articles for this dossier is June 31, 2023.
Papers can be written in Portuguese, English or Spanish.
Bu makalede Karma Analiz Yöntemi başlığı altında bir edebî etik analizi metodu teklif edilmektedir. Çalışmada, öncelikle edebî etik analizi hakkında teorik bir inceleme yapılmış, devamında ise teklif edilen yöntem açıklanmıştır. Son olarak bu yöntem David Walton’ın Terminal Mind (2008) adlı bilim kurgu eseri üzerinde uygulanarak örneklendirilmiştir.