Critiques by a Dinosaur: Reading Virginia Woolf with Mina Urgan and Erich Auerbach

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8429878

Keywords:

Life writing, auto/biography, comparative literature, antisemitism, women’s studies, Erich Auerbach, Virginia Woolf, Mina Urgan

Abstract

The only monograph on Virginia Woolf in Turkish was written by a woman no less exceptional: writer, activist, and academic Mina Urgan (1915-2000). The monograph provides clues regarding Urgan’s thoughts on gender, mental stability, and what makes good writing; it also includes a note on antisemitism, and a nod to her teacher, one of the many German Jewish refugees who taught at Turkish universities during the Nazi regime, and one of the founders of comparative literature as a discipline, Erich Auerbach. Taking the relationality of identity as its departure point, this article suggests a dialogue between three writers, and between life writing and critique. Articulating context to critique, the comparisons in this article suggest new networks of meaning through the transnational connections of literary criticism in Turkey.

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Published

18.10.2023

How to Cite

Almas, Esra. 2023. “Critiques by a Dinosaur: Reading Virginia Woolf With Mina Urgan and Erich Auerbach”. Nesir: Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi, no. 5 (October):89-104. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8429878.

Issue

Section

Research Article (Off Topic)

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