Broken Masculinities
Broken Masculinities portrays the post-dictatorial novel of the 1970s in all its complexity, and introduces the reader to a 1968-era Turkey, a period which challenges Turkey’s now reinforced Islamic image by portraying the quest for sexual liberation and critical student uprisings. Günay-Erkol argues that the literature written after the 1971 coup in Turkey constitutes a coherent sub-genre and needs to be considered together. These novels share a common ground which is rich in images of men and women craving for power: general isolation, sexual-emotional frustration, and a traumatic sense of solitude and alienation.
This book is an original and significant contribution to two major fields of study: (1) gender and sexuality with respect to formation of subjectivity through literature, and (2) modern literature and history through the study of Turkish literature. The chief concern in this book is not only literature’s response to a particular period in Turkey, but also the role of literature in bearing witness to trauma and drastic political acts of violence—and coming to terms with them.
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1 / Quixotic and Hurt: Victimized Men as a Stable Ground
Men Under Surveillance: Coming of Age in Çetin Altan’s Büyük Gözaltı
Masculinity as a National Preoccupation: Torture and Emasculization in Erdal Öz’s Yaralısın
Masculinity Under Escalating Military Bureaucracy: Quixotic Sacrifice in M. C. Anday’s İsa’nın Güncesi
Chapter 2 / On the Post-Dictatorial Stage: March 12 by Women Writers
Marxist, Feminist, Exiled: Female Masculinity in Sevgi Soysal’s Şafak
Greywolves as Traumatized Heroes: Fear from the Feminine in Emine Işınsu’s Sancı
Friend or Foe: Revolutionary Men as Husbands and Valentines in Pınar Kür’s Yarın Yarın
Emasculated by Modernity: Clash of Rural and Urban Masculinities in Sevinç Çokum’s Zor
Chapter 3 / Masculinity and Modernization: Does Love Emasculate?
Institutionalized Masculinities: Military and Marriage in Adalet Ağaoğlu’s Bir Düğün Gecesi
Urban Guerilla in Love: Masculine Affirmation in Tarık Buğra’s Gençliğim Eyvah
Conclusion
Chronology
Bibliography
Index