Ali Karakajas priekšlasījums

Trešdien, 19. martā, plkst. 15.00 LU Literatūras, folkloras un mākslas institūta Latviešu folkloras krātuves lasītavā (Latvijas Nacionālās bibliotēkas 5. stāvā) notiks seminārs ciklā “Pētījuma poētika”, kurā uzstāsies Stenforda Universitātes pētnieks Ali Karakaja (Ali Karakaya) ar priekšlasījumu “From Margins to Mainstream: Periodizing Ukrainian Queer Literature” (No marginālijām uz pamatstraumi: ukraiņu kvīru literatūras periodizācija). Seminārs notiks angļu valodā, to atklās un diskusiju vadīs LU LFMI vadošais pētnieks Kārlis Vērdiņš.

Anotācija angļu valodā:

Periodization is central to literary historiography but presents challenges due to varied analytical frameworks. It necessitates balancing cultural influences and formal developments. Two key approaches emerge: the socio-cultural, which situates literature within broader historical contexts, and the formalist, which focuses on stylistic and structural evolution. Though distinct, these approaches often intersect, providing complementary insights into literary change.

Martin Putna, a prominent Czech literary historian, offers one of the few attempts at periodization of queer themes in Czech culture. In his collected volume “Homosexualita v dějinách české kultury,” Putna provides an almost linear historical narrative of homosexuality in Czech culture, primarily through the lens of representation in literature, drama, cinema, and art. His work marks a significant contribution to Slavic literary studies by framing queer identity as a historical and cultural phenomenon with a discernible developmental trajectory.

On the other hand, Vitaly Chernetsky, a scholar of Slavic literatures, has written his compelling article “Ukrainian Queer Culture: The Difficult Birth,” where he analyzes the development of Ukrainian queer culture post-1991. He draws on Foucault’s history of sexuality and Anderson’s imagined communities to argue that recognizing sexual orientation as an identity marker, not just behavior, is essential for the development of a queer culture.

How can these approaches be integrated into a cohesive, diachronic framework for analyzing Ukrainian queer literature? In what ways could the literary landscape benefit from such an approach? Furthermore, How does periodization enhance our understanding of the torminous dawn of queer literature—both by tracing its history and anticipating its future? Do Slavic queer literatures follow distinctive patterns compared to other traditions, such as Ancient Greek, Islamic, or Anglo-American? What national and transnational trends shape the rise of queer literature? How can we address these questions by focusing on a specific subset of cultures?

Addressing these issues, this lecture:

1. Proposes a periodization of Ukrainian queer literature into four distinct stages over the past century and a half: from disguise to invisibility to reemergence, and finally to activism,analyzing their defining characteristics, and recurring archetypes.
2. Uses the proposed periodization to examine Ukrainian queer literature's future, its role in broader movements for legitimacy and liberation, and its reciprocal influence on these movements.
3. Showcases a striking contemporary writer, Oles Barlih, as a case study of future trajectories.

By establishing a periodization, this study seeks to illuminate the development of Ukrainian queer literature, situating it within both Slavic literary traditions and global queer literary historiography.

Ali Karakaya completed his B.A.s in Russian Language and Literature and International Trade and Business, with a minor in Comparative Literature, at Yeditepe University in Istanbul. During his studies, he spent time at Moscow State Linguistic University in the Department of Ukrainian Studies and conducted research at the Ukrainian Free University in Germany.

He is currently a Ph.D. student in the Slavic Languages and Literatures department at Stanford University. His research focuses on the representation of gender and sexuality, particularly queer sexuality, in Slavic literatures. He also explores themes of hybridity and code-switching in the literatures of denationalized Slavic peoples of Eastern and Central Europe, as well as Russian and Ukrainian émigré literature produced in or about Istanbul.

In addition to his publications on contemporary Ukrainian literature, Ali actively translates to and from English, Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish, and Crimean Tatar. He is currently working on an annotated cycle of Crimean Tatar poems and an anthology of Ukrainian queer literature.

Pēdējo reizi labots: 12.03.2025 12:08:23