Donnerstag, 05. Juni 2025, 17:00 - 18:00 iCal
Ringvorlesung Turkologie im Sommersemester 2025
Contemporary trends in the study of modern Turkish literature
March 13th, 2025 - June 12, 2025, 5PM-6:30PM
Institut für Orientalistik, Hörsaal
Spitalgasse 2, Hof 4.1 (Campus Universität Wien), A-1090 Wien
Vortrag
What is Queer Turkish Literature?
İpek Şahinler (University of Texas at Austin)
Abstract
This talk delves into an emerging yet still undefined literary sub-genre by asking the following question: what is queer Turkish literature? To explore this, we will tackle the challenges of translating the term “queer” into both late Ottoman-Turkish and early modern Turkish, and highlight the cultural and linguistic tensions that arise in this process. Our focus will be on writers who have been both canonized and marginalized, with an effort to give equal attention to voices ofen lef out of dominant narratives. In doing so, we will uncover patterns in how Turkish literary works navigate the ideological currents of their language and culture. Here, we will not treat “queer” as a fixed category or simply as an umbrella identitarian term, but rather as an action, a verb—a way to disrupt and reshape norms. This approach, in turn, will echo Judith Butler’s early exhortation at the inception of queer studies to “let queer take on new meanings.” By the end of the talk, we will have addressed these key questions: What unfolds when we bring queer theory into conversation with Turkish literature? How can queer theory help us speak, not for, but about late-Ottoman and early-modern Turkish texts? Finally, what can Turkish literature offer to global conversations within queer thinking?
Bio
Ipek Sahinler is a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches courses on rhetoric and gender studies. Originally a translator from Istanbul who has worked with romance languages, her dissertation is about the Queer Global South, particularly modern Turkish and Mexican literature. To bridge queer theories and practices, she has been delivering free and open-to-the-public seminars at various cultural venues in Istanbul about what she conceptualizes as “müphem Türkçe edebiyat.” Currently, she is finalizing the introduction to a special issue she is guest-editing, titled “Queer Turkish and Ottoman Literature,” set to be published in Culture, Theory and Critique in April 2025. Her other writings have appeared in the Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, and in Routledge’s Global Perspective Series. Finally, she runs the “Turkish Literature in Translation Reading Group” alongside its adjacent podcast called “LiteraTurca.”
Zur Webseite der Veranstaltung
Veranstalter
Kontakt
Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Yavuz Köse
Department of Near Eastern Studies
+431427743430
yavuz.koese@univie.ac.at
Erstellt am Montag, 10. März 2025, 08:06
Letzte Änderung am Montag, 10. März 2025, 08:06