“The Bridging Role of Literature: Displacing Fictions of Orhan Pamuk”
Hande Gürses (Department of English, Capilano University) will be discussing her recent book Displacing Fictions of Orhan Pamuk: Beyond the Bridge (2023) on Friday, January 24th @ 10 AM via Zoom.
Abstract: Displacing Fictions of Orhan Pamuk: Beyond the Bridge (Lexington, 2023) questions the prevailing relevance and violence of the bridge metaphor for the discipline of literature through new readings of Orhan Pamuk, an author who has been assigned the role of a bridge within the world literature canon. The bridge has been used as a universal metaphor of connection, unity, harmony, and reconciliation. It is with the expression “building bridges” that most attempts of mediation and reconciliation are depicted. Yet the prevalence of this trope with all its positive connotations, does not suffice to conceal its shortcomings. Despite its association with connection, dialogue, and reconciliation, the bridge is an inherently violent structure that controls and regulates movement. Yet, today, more so than ever, we live in an era of movement as geographical, cultural, intellectual, and political boundaries are being crossed. As people, lands, and ideas keep moving, why has it not been possible to move beyond the metaphor of the bridge? Focusing on the inherent violence of the bridge, I investigate new symbols and metaphors that can be more useful to understand and represent the realities of our contemporary world beyond the restrictions and violence of binary oppositions. Drawing on deconstruction and Jacques Derrida, with Beyond the Bridge I argue for a rethinking of the intrinsic connection between the bridge and the writings of Orhan Pamuk. Since the allegory of the bridge does not merely operate on the level of poetics but also has significant implications for the configuration of a political framework, it is important to consider how it operates in defining the role of literature. With Beyond the Bridge, I offer a glimpse into the multiplicity of new symbols, metaphors, and allegories that are available in Pamuk’s work to address the role of literature in representing the worlds that are constantly changing and remaining different.
Hande Gürses (PhD, University College London, 2013) comes to us from the School of Humanities in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Capilano University. Hande is scholar of comparative literature. Her primary research interests include contemporary world literature, cosmopolitanism, ecocriticism and critical animal studies. Hande is also interested in inclusive pedagogies and contemplative practices in higher education, and has taught courses on international short stories, migration, dystopian literatures and ecocriticism. Currently, she is working her second book project — tentatively titled Beasts of the Nation: Animals, Authority, and Citizenship — explores the representation of animals in nation-building narratives.