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On
Adalet Agaoglu
by
Prof. Sibel EROL
Middle
Eastern Studies, NYU
"Philosophical",
"innovative", "playful" are some of
the adjectives that immediately come to mind in describing
the general features of Adalet Agaoglu's works. She is
one of the most prolific authors of our time. She has
so far published eight novels, plays (which were recently
put together in one volume), three short story collections,
one memoir which she describes as memoir-novel, and a
book of dreams. Her essays are published in several volumes.
One
striking characteristic of these works is their very diversity.
In fact, Agaoglu undertakes each work as a challenge for
technical and thematic experimentation that extends her
discoveries in writing her previous books. However, despite
this variety, there are also features that can be called
Adalet Agaoglu trademarks. One of the most important of
these trademarks is the creation of a delicate balance
between the depiction of external social reality that
grounds, motivates and explains the plot and characters,
and an internal poetry of emotions, ideals and music that
both complements the social framework, but also rejects
and transcends it.
Since
1973, Adalet Agaoglu has published eight novels. These,
in order of their publication, are: Ölmeye Yatmak
(Lying Down to Die-1973), "Fikrimin Ince Gülü"
("The Delicate Rose of My Thought"- 1976), Bir
Dügün Gecesi (The Night of a Wedding- 1979),
Yazsonu (Summer's End 1980), Üç
Bes Kisi (Curfew- 1984), Hayır (No- 1987),
Ruh Üsümesi ( Shivering of the Soul 1991)
and Romantik: Bir Viyana Yazi-
A Romantic Vienna Summer-1993). Lying Down
to Die, The Night of a Wedding and No
are parts of a trilogy which were recently released together
under the title of Dar Zamanlar- (Narrow Times),
which emphasizes the tightness of space, time and opportunity
that the characters in these novels experience. The allusion
is both to the stressful times she depicts, which could
be described as Hard Times and the shortness of
the actual duree of external events in the novels.
Agaoglu
accords to the novel the privileged function of bringing
life and thought together. She has defined the novel as
"the form" where life and thought find unity,
making it an indispensable weapon against fragmentation
in human life. Each novel is a gesture of defense and
resistance against threats to humanness, that is to human
dignity, consciousness, love and dreaming. She claims
that the novel will cease to exist only when life will
gain an inherent unity. This ambitious project of connecting
life and thought accounts for both the strong anchoring
in external, social and historical reality and the abstract
looseness, the lyricism, the evocative poetry of dreaming,
thinking internal voices in her novels.
_ . _
About Prof. Sibel EROL:
Sibel Erol is teaching Turkish and Turkish Literature
at NYU. She has a Ph.D.in Comparative Literature from
the University of California, Berkeley. She works on nationalism,
the novel and women authors. One of the authors she works
on is Adalet Agaoglu. She has published the following
pieces on Adalet Agaoglu: "Toplumsal Dis Gercekcilik
ve Kisisel Ic Siir: Adalet Agaoglu'nun Romanlarindaki
Ince Ayar" in Hayata Bakan Edebiyat edited by Nuket
Esen and erol koroglu; a biographical entry on Adalet
Agaoglu in Who's Who in Contemporary Women's Literature
edited by Jane E. Miller and a review of Curfew (the English
translation of Uc Bes Kisi) in the Middle East Studies
Association Bulletin (35).
-- For the Media Release of Three Lectures by Adalet AGAOGLU
-- For On the Changes of
1970-80 in the Turkish NOVEL by Adalet AGAOGLU
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