Melancholy and Memory in Literature, with a Special Focus on Essays by Sema Kaygusuz

Description

This paper discusses how the discourse of melancholy has been evolving in modern Turkish literature whilst paying special attention to recent trends. Going beyond Orhan Pamuk’s discursive notion of post-imperial hüzün, Sema Kaygusuz connects melancholy with collective silence and the necessity
of remembering the past. Melancholic narratives in Turkish literature capture and evoke a commonly felt experience of loss connected to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. In many novels, the downfall of the Empire and the break from its cultural as well as political particularities appear as a projection surface for identification or as a counter-model to the societal and political shortcomings of today. Authors such as Orhan Pamuk, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, or Elif Şafak recall the pluralistic, multinational heritage, mourn the loss of imperial power, and lament the disconnection from Ottoman musical as well as literary traditions. Against the background of Europeanisation, the empire becomes a frame of reference to stress questions such as cultural authenticity or identity. By means of recent essays and short stories written by Sema Kaygusuz, this paper discusses how the discourse on melancholy has been widened and increasingly connected to the notion of memory as well as overcoming collective amnesia

Period	3 Nov 2018
Event title	Viribus Unitis: Myths and Narratives of Habsburg and Ottoman Multinationalism 1848-1918
Event type	Conference
Location	DenmarkShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International