Department of Literature

 

The main goal of Department of Literature is to accompany our student writers in their process of development. During a three-year period of instruction, students will be equipped with a theoretical background, the knowledge of expert writers as told through their own experiences, and a sense of the importance of understanding the vibrant link between social life and literature. To this end students will be trained and encouraged to incorporate the production of modern literature into their own literary works. They will have the opportunity to participate in intellectually stimulating and lively debates with academics and other writers. The curriculum will include writing workshops, literary history, theory, and professional training courses. In each writing workshop (poetry, prose or criticism) each student will be responsible for submitting their own work to be focused on in the lesson. Teachers will, according to their own literary style and preferences, work to give a “critique” as opposed to merely correcting student's work. Each semester students will work with a different teacher. Workshop courses will form the basis of the student's literary development. Courses will focus on 20^th century literature, literary history, international poetry and prose, and Turkish poetry and prose. Intertwined with the analysis of a text will be its social history. In professional courses, students will focus on the roles undertaken by a writer in the literary environment as well as in different fields such as magazine writing, publishing, and journalism. The teaching of literature in Turkey does not, with some exceptions, have identifiable links to the actual production of literature. With the goal of developing young writers in Turkey, The literature department curriculum is setting out to address the need for educational forums for debates, and a comprehensive teaching of literature whose students will look at the world critically and from many different perspectives.