Comparative Literature

Modernity and Modernism

19^th century Philosophy and German Idealism

Theory of the Novel

Bildung and Bildungsroman

Turkish Literature and Culture

James Joyce and Irish Literature

With advanced degrees in both philosophy and literature, Meltem Gürle is a comparatist whose focus is on the genre of the Bildungsroman, with a particular interest in the relationship of post-1950 twentieth-century Turkish literature to the modernist masterpieces of the West.  In 2017-2018 academic year, she was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship at The Trinity Long Room Hub (Trinity College Dublin) for her project “The return of children: A comparative study of contemporary Turkish and Irish novel.” In October 2018, she has commenced her position funded by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung at the University of Cologne and is working on her book project on the Turkish Bildungsroman.

Apart from her academic writing, Meltem Gürle is also the author of The Red Sweater (2017), a collection of essays on literature and everyday life, and Talking to Roko (2018), a philosophy book for children.

Books:

• Roko ile Konuşmalar [Talking to Roko: Children’s Book], İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2018.

• Kırmızı Kazak: Denemeler [The Red Sweater: A Collection of Essays on Literature], İstanbul: Can Yayınları, 2016.

• Ölülerle Konuşmak: Shakespeare’den Joyce’a Tutunamayanlar’da Edebi Miras Meselesi [Talking to the Dead: The Problem of Literary Heritage from Shakespeare to Joyce], İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2016.

• Carnivalizing the Turkish Novel: Oğuz Atay’s Dialogue with the canon in The Disconnected, European University Studies, Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2012.

Book Chapter:

• “Masumiyet ve Kader: Oyalanmanın Estetiğine Dair” [On the Aesthetics of Lingering in Zeki Demirkubuz Films] in Bir Kapıdan Gireceksin: Türkiye Sineması Üzerine Denemeler. Umur Tümay Aslan (ed.). İstanbul: Metis Yayınları, 2012.

Selected Articles:

• “Hermits, Stoics, and Hysterics: Turkish democracy and the female Bildungsroman,” NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction 47.1 (Spring 2014). Special issue: "Is the Novel Democratic?" (90-108)

• “Wandering on the Peripheries: The Turkish Novelistic Hero as Beautiful Soul,” Journal of Modern Literature Volume 36, Number 4, Summer 2013, 96-112.

• “Reasoning with the Murderer: The killing of Clarence in Richard III,” Journal of the Wooden O, Volume 11, Southern Utah UP, 2011, 51-67.

• “Cinema Grande and the Rhetoric of Illusion in Uyurkulak’s Har,” New Perspectives on Turkey, No. 36, Spring 2007, 125-144.

• “Tracing the carnival spirit in A Confederacy of Dunces: Modern reworkings of the grotesque in defying authority,” in Power and Victimization - The Rhetoric of Sociopolitical Power and Representations of Victimhood in Contemporary Literature, Istanbul, 13-15 April 2005 Berk, Oya und Sirma Soran Gumpert (eds.), ibidem-Verlag: Stuttgart. 2005, 31-45.

Selected Articles (Turkish):

• “Zor Hayat: Karanlık bir Çıkmaz Sokak” [The Hard Life: A dark cul-de-sac] Notos Dergi 68 – Flann O’Brien Special Issue (February-March 2018) 85-89.

•  “Ses Sese Karşı: Bir Hamlet Hikayesi” [Point Counterpoint: A Hamlet Story] Birikim 345/346 - Oğuz Atay Special Issue (February 2018) 107-111.

• “Poe’dan Dostoyevski’ye ‘Kötü İkiz’” [The Theme of Doppelgaenger from Poe to Dostoevsky] Notos Öykü 48 - Edgar Allan Poe Special Issue (October-November 2014) 36-39.

• “Gılgamış’ın Yolculuğu: Tutunamayanlar’ı Metafizik Bir Roman Olarak Okumak” [The Journey of Gilgamesh: Reading the Disconnected as a Metaphysical Novel] Ayrıntı Dergi 7 (November-December 2014).

• “Dublinliler: Gündelik Hayatın Anatomisi” [Dubliners: The Anatomy of Daily Life] Ayrıntı Dergi 5 (June-August 2014)

• “Ruh Fakirliği Üzerine Bir Deneme” [An Essay on Soul Poverty] Ayrıntı Dergi 1 (November-December 2013)

• “Ulysses’den Tutunamayanlar’a Öznel Anlatının Sınırları” Kitaplık 122 (December 2008) 103-110.

•  “Rabelais ve Dünyası” [Review: Rabelais and his World] Varlık 1180 (December 2005)

• “Karnaval Ruhunun Peşinde” [Tracing the Carnival Spirit] Virgül 88 (October 2005)