Carnivalizing the Turkish novel

Ouz Atay's 1971 novel The Disconnected [Tutunamayanlar] is distinctly unique, but it can also be read as a response to Joyce's Ulysses a singular and a very Turkish response. Any review of The Disconnected begins with the humble acknowledgement of its vast frame of reference, the multiplicity of the voices and styles that it presents, and finally its resistance to being translated into another language. What makes it interesting for the readers of modern literature, however, is not only the variety of idiosyncrasies and verbal conventions, but also its critical attitude towards Turkey's project of modernity. Drawing on Bakhtin's theory of the novel, this study traces the echoes of carnival laughter in The Disconnected while establishing Atay's work as a «world text» in dialogue with the masters of the canon: Shakespeare, Goethe, Dostoevsky, Joyce, and others.

Autorentext
Meltem Gürle, assistant professor at Bogaziçi University (Istanbul), is a comparatist with a particular interest in the relationship of post-1950 Turkish literature to the masterpieces of the West. She earned her advanced degrees in both literature and philosophy. Her fields of research also include nineteenth-century German philosophy, theory of the novel, and the work of James Joyce.

Inhalt
Inhalt: The problem of totality from epic to novel The limits of national allegory Quixotes of the third world Turkey's project of modernity: the nightmare of history Hamletization of the Turkish intellectual Beyond the scope of Bildungsroman Dostoevskian problems of Atay's poetics Joyce and Atay: talking to the dead.