Existentialism has influenced a lot of literary works throughout history. Existentialism
can be studied in literary works by means of foregrounding the existential
themes and techniques. Some of these themes are being, change, freedom, selfcognizance,
isolation, responsibility, free-will, and alienation. Traversing the boundary
between philosophy and literature, this essay aims to analyse the existential
themes of Jean Paul Sartre’s No Exit or Huis Clos (1944) and Hasan Ali Toptaş’s
Shadowless1 or Gölgesizler (1993) with an intertextual and comparative approach.
This essay considers Sartre’s No Exit and Toptaş’s Shadowless as postmodern
texts. Before exploring the existentialist themes and techniques in No Exit and Shadowless,
this study aims to discuss the tradition of existentialism in literature. After
presenting an introductory review on such existentialist concepts in literature as
existence, essence, freedom, angst, and absurd, some recurrent themes in Sartre’s
and Toptaş’s works will be highlighted and analysed. After a brief exploration of
the influence of existentialism on Turkish literature, the essay will focus on the
textual analysis. No Exit will be analysed from the perspective provided by such
concepts as “being-for-itself”, “being-for-other”, “isolation and claustrophobic existence”; as for Shadowless, “being and nothingness” and “anxiety of uncertainty,
emptiness and meaninglessness” will serve as the existential themes reflected
in the novel. Within the framework of existentialism, an intertextual approach to
and a comparative analysis of Shadowless from Turkish Literature along with No
Exit from French Literature is an attempt of situating Modern Turkish Literature
within the broader regional and global context. As a last point, this paper also aims
to contribute both to critical studies on Sartre’s work and scholarship on the woks
of Hasan Ali Toptaş work whose works of fiction have rarely been discussed from
a comparative or world literature studies perspective.
Primary Language | English |
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Subjects | Creative Arts and Writing |
Journal Section | Articles |
Authors | |
Publication Date | August 1, 2019 |
Published in Issue | Year 2019 Volume: 25 Issue: 99 |
Journal website: https://folkloredebiyat.org
The journal’s publication languages are both English and Turkish. Also despite articles in Turkish, the title, abstract, and keywords are also in English. Turkish articles approved by the reviewers are required to submit an extended summary (750-1000 words) in English.
The journal is indexed by TR-Dizin, Web of Science (ESCI), DOAJ, and many other indexes and datebases.
Within the scope of TR DIZIN 2020 Ethical Criteria and as of the year 2020, studies requiring ethics committee approval must indicate Ethics Committee Approval details (committe-date-issue) in the article’s methods section. With this in mind, we request from our author candidates to edit their article accordingly before sending it to the journal.
Field EdItors
Folklore:
Prof.Dr. Hande Birkalan-Gedik
(Frankfurt University- birkalan-gedik@em.uni.frankfurt.de)
Prof. Dr. Arzu Öztürkmen
(Bosphorus University- ozturkme@boun.edu.tr)
Edebiyat-Literature
Prof. Dr. G. Gonca Gökalp Alpaslan (Hacettepe University - ggonca@
hacettepe.edu.tr)
Prof. Dr. Ramazan Korkmaz
(President, Caucasus University Association- r_korkmaz@hotmail.com)
Antropoloji-Anthropology
Prof. Dr. Akile Gürsoy
(Beykent University - gursoyakile@gmail.com)
Prof.Dr. Serpil Aygün Cengiz
(Ankara University - serpilayguncengiz@gmail.com)
Dil-Dilbilim/Linguistics
Prof.Dr. Aysu Erden
(Maltepe University - aysuerden777@gmail.com)
Prof. Dr. V. Doğan Günay
(Dokuz Eylul University- dogan.gunay@deu.edu.tr)