Literature as Witness to the History of Democratization in Turkey: Military Interventions and Novels (15 October 2014-15 April 2017, 114K137)
Project Manager:
Çimen Günay-Erkol
Section:
Humanities and Social Sciences
Research Areas:
testimonial narrations, gender, medical humanities, masculinity studies
Project Start Year:
2014
Project End Year:
2017
Phone:
+90(216) 564 9378
E-Mail:
About the Project:
This project aimed a comparative reading of the historical testimonies hidden in literature, by carrying out an analysis of the novels with military coups in Turkey at their explicit focus. In this context, a chronology of military coups in Turkey is prepared through an examination of historical writings of different camps, and novels are positioned in this chronology in terms of the historical landmarks they focus on. Hence, Turkey’s democratization process is analyzed from a literary perspective, following the multi-directionality of memory along a discussion on trauma and literature.
Project Finding:
This project is funded by TÜBİTAK, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, and analyzed the effects of military intervals on literature, following the theoretical advancements in memory/testimony studies, which opened new horizons in literary studies through the study of trauma. A chronology of the military coups in Turkey and a list of the novels built upon the surrounding events around the coups, are prepared. This project contributed to attracting global interest to military interventions in Turkey and the literature they initiated. Although novels are promoting the idea of competitive memory as a zero-sum game, we found traces of multi-directionality, of ongoing negotiation, cross-referencing, and borrowing between them.