This lecture is offered as part of the Arabic, Persian, and Turkish Language Institute (APTLI) and is open to to students and the public.
In this talk, Dr. Tasdelen will draw from prominent examples of works by Middle Eastern and North African authors writing in Arabic and Turkish to show how reading translated literature will help shape our understanding of the world in a global pandemic and the new reality we have been facing in the past year. Through looking at translation as an act of creation, she will point out to the ways in which languages and stories traverse the globe, and how studying the region through its languages and literatures can expand our worldview in unique ways.
Esra Taşdelen
A native of Istanbul, Turkey, Esra Tasdelen received her B.A. degree in Social and Political Sciences at Sabanci University in 2003. She received her M.A. degree in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago in 2005 and her Ph.D degree in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations in 2014. Her dissertation, “Literature As A Mirror Of History: A Comparative Study Of The Historical Fictions of Ahmet Hikmet Müftüoğlu (1870-1927) and Jurji Zaydan (1861-1914)” is a comparative analysis of the relationship between literature and history in Modern Turkish and Modern Arab literatures. She has most recently taught at North Central College and the University of Chicago, and in Fall 2021 she will be joining the faculty of the College of Dupage.
Among her areas of research interest are Late Ottoman Intellectual History (Late 19th – Early 20th Centuries), Modern Turkish Literature, Modern Arabic Literature, Print Capitalism in the Middle East, Translation Theory, Comparative Literature, Turkish Nationalism and Arab Nationalism.
