Varlik
Eurozine
Varlik
2009-01-16
Summary for Varlik 1/2009
E. Efe Çakmak
World literature in between
Bringing together international academics, students, literary critics and writers of world literature, the "World Literature in Between" symposium was held as part of Varlik's seventy fifth anniversary between the eighteenth and twentieth of December, 2008 at the SantralIstanbul campus of Istanbul Bilgi University with the support of Istanbul Bilgi University, Department of Culture and Tourism, Kültür A.S. and KA Research. The dossier we have compiled from the papers delivered at the symposium discuss the following issues: How is the "world" in world literature constructed? Where the centres and peripheries of this world, and what are the connections of this literature with the nation and with cosmopolitanism? How is world literature criticised? Does it or should it have a canon? Particularly, since the symposium is held in Istanbul, where Erich Auerbach and Leo Spitzer have "created" the world literature in exile, how should the relations between world literature and its predecessors, including Edward Said, be interpreted today?
Jale Parla
World literature, comparative literature and Franco Moretti
The article discusses Franco Moretti's "Conjectures on World Literature" published in New Left Review (2000) and his opinions developed in Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for a Literary History (2005), investigating the "remote reading" method, considered the taboo of comparative literature, and the criticism brought against this method. Jale Parla argues that, in order to access world literature, it may be possible to conduct a "joint reading" in cooperation with people who know this literature, and mentions "foreign influence" as a major sensitivity in the Turkish novel tradition, causing significant "national" concerns to writers who accept having been influenced by a foreign writer, and asserts that certain cultural prejudices and sensitivities, comprising the soft spot of all national traditions, must be cast aside.
Pascale Casanova
DomiNation
Casanova argues that literary power and reputation may only be achieved by remaining as disparate from national authorities and beliefs as possible, and asserts the concept of domiNation, which claims that the structure of world literature is being determined by relationships of sovereignty. The article suggests that the types of sovereignty existing in the World Literature Space may be better understood when viewed from a national perspective, and discusses issues like the inequality between national dimensions, the age of political nations, and the accumulation of literary capital.
David Damrosch
Auerbach in exile
The article discusses Auerbach's Mimesis and his opinions on the narrators of Dante, Cervantes, Rabelais and Proust, arguing that our own perspective may damage the works we seek to enliven, and that, while Auerbach may claim that our own perspective may never be eradicated, the only way to return to Mimesis is through the eradication of such perspective. Damrosch argues that we should be aware of the returns on the material we have at hand, while simultaneously forgo our will of power on this material. According to Damrosch, by writing his masterpieces in Istanbul, Auerbach has both reacted against his exile, and resisted succumbing to it.
Djelal Kadir
The place of comparative literature
Kadir argues that the comparative literature practitioner and theorist who must investigate the "betweenness" of literature "in between" should determine the two flanks of the interstitial locus of literature, and questions the place of comparative literature. The article claims that the binomial phrase "world literature" carries a historical complexity that is simultaneously time-and-place specific and perennial across cultures and histories.
Bruce Robbins
A hypothetical extraterrestrial observer: Chomsky and cosmopolitanism
Robbins argues that to see cosmopolitanism as ineluctably paradoxical is now the dominant American view, and that he too subscribes to this, adding "The belief today is that there exists no cosmopolitanism without some mode or degree of belonging. All cosmopolitanism is really "local" or "rooted" or "actually existing," to use some of the adjectives that have come to modify it, and therefore all cosmopolitanism is paradoxical. The question on which I would like to make some progress, if possible, is; what follows? Is there a next step -- not necessarily an escape from the paradox, but a different way of inhabiting it?"
Hasan Bülent Kahraman
The death of the book is imminent
In his diary in this issue of Varlik, Kahraman relates his impressions of the Frankfurt Book Fair, his opinions on the works of the poet, novelist and essayist Attila Ilhan, and expresses his views on avant-garde literature.
Mustafa Serif Onaran
Sadik Yalsizuçanlar and the Phoenix
The article investigates the Phoenix in Sufism and Turkish culture, and provides the writer's opinions on how Niyazi Misri is related in Yalsizuçanlar's novel Anka (The Phoenix).
Haydar Ergülen
What if I wasn't able to write again?
The article discusses the recent disputes in literature.
Tamer Kütükçü
The Voice of Women within Silence: "Kadindan Kentler"
Murathan Mungan's "Kadindan Kentler (Cities of Women)" is discussed in terms of areas associated with women.
Haluk Sunat
Conversation with the Late Mr Kemal Basmaci / III
A critique of Orhan Pamuk's latest novel Masumiyet Müzesi (The Museum of Innocence).
Bülent Usta
Mehmet Rifat and "Our Critics"
An article on the literary criticism tradition in Turkey.
Adnan Acar
The "Mustafa" and Mustafa the prophet dispute
A critique of Can Dündar's film on Atatürk, "Mustafa".
Hüseyin Yurttas
The notepad
The writer relates his opinions on the Frankfurt and Istanbul Tüyap book fairs.
küçük Iskender
Rimbaud's logbook
An assessment of works from aspiring poets and writers.