Journal Publications by Buket AKGUN
Litera, 2023
This article analyses the writers Steven Moffat and Sydney Newman and the director Farren Blackbu... more This article analyses the writers Steven Moffat and Sydney Newman and the director Farren Blackburn's Doctor Who Christmas Special episode titled "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" (2011) as a retelling of C. S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew (1955) and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) with cross-references to the two books in the light of ecocritical theory. Employing Jane Caputi's terminology, the article argues that "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" is an invocation of the "Mutha, '" that is, Mother Nature-Earth. The article asserts that as opposed to Digory's ill mother Mabel and not so brave or competent Susan and Lucy respectively in the first and second books and unlike what Father Christmas claims in the second book, Madge, akin to the "Mutha,'" demonstrates in the episode through her kindness, resilience, and wits that battles do not get ugly when women come to the aid of those that are in danger-be they human or non-human. It illustrates that the books accommodate both arcadian and imperial ecologies whereas the episode offers arcadian ecology as a countermeasure against imperial ecology. This article states that the episode not only condemns wars and ecocide like the two books do, but also refers to the imperialism and colonialism and rectifies the speciesism and sexism in the two books.
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Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 2020
This is the Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Graphic... more This is the Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics online on 17 January 2019 and in print in May 2020, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21504857.2019.1566155.
Through a gendered close reading, using classical reception studies as a springboard, this article discusses the reception and moe-ification of the female witch, warrior, and monster figures from classical mythology in Japanese seinen and shōnen manga at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It focuses on Flora and Schierke in Berserk (1990–); the Gorgon sisters in One Piece (1997–) and in Soul Eater (2004–2013); and Medusa in Witchcraft Works (2010–), all of whom are named and/or fashioned after Circe, the Amazons, the Gorgons, and Arachne. It points out to the intertextuality between these worldwide popular turn-of-the-century Japanese manga and classical mythology narratives. It discusses the moe-ification of these classical subversive monstrous female figures, formerly demonised and marginalised by the patriarchal discourse. It analyses how their reception in manga contributes to canonising the monstrous female. It illustrates how that offers the female readers of seinen and shōnen manga new ways of expressing and interpreting gender that liberate and restructure the female’s relationship to power.
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Hacettepe University Journal of Faculty of Letters, 2019
This article scrutinizes the reception of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)... more This article scrutinizes the reception of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1871) in the television series Orphan Black (2013-2017) through the lenses of posthuman and feminist theories. It argues that, reminiscent of Alice’s coming of age anxieties, in the series the self-aware female clones, called the Leda clones, go through their own identity crisis, which can be traced in their near-death experiences followed by metaphorical rebirths and in their conversations with their sestras through mirrors or mirror-like objects. It focuses on these clones’ process of becoming self-aware with regard to the demands of the posthuman condition and the call of Rosi Braidotti for new ways of subject formation. It analyses the clones’ process of becoming through Julia Kristeva’s theories of the mirror phase, the symbolic, and the semiotic. It suggests that these self-aware Leda clones might be read as Donna J. Haraway’s cyborg Alices, in that they explore cyborg female identities in the twenty-first century. These clones eventually overcome their existential crisis and their anxieties over shifting identities through community bonding. Meanwhile, the allusions to the Alice books serve as a source of symbolism and structure for the series. Like the guidance and council of the White Rabbit, the Caterpillar and the Cheshire Cat, they provide guideposts for the deepening, darkening, and branching Orphan Black universe to prevent the viewers from getting confused or lost as they follow the Leda clones deeper into the rabbit hole and through the looking glass.
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Mythlore, Apr 2016
Compares the use and resolution of Minotaur and Labyrinth themes and imagery, and the identificat... more Compares the use and resolution of Minotaur and Labyrinth themes and imagery, and the identification of the Theseus hero-figure with the monster, in Victor Pelevin’s novel The Helmet of Horror and the sixth season Doctor Who episode “The God Complex.” https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol34/iss2/7/
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Litera, 2010
(This journal issue was published in 2012. However, it was published as a back issue with an old ... more (This journal issue was published in 2012. However, it was published as a back issue with an old date [2010] because the journal was running behind schedule. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/iulitera/issue/1239/14539)
In Doris Lessing’s short story “To Room Nineteen,” published in her collection of tales titled A Man and Two Women (1963), when Susan Rawlings, a middle-aged woman, married with four children, starts questioning her marriage and all the decisions she has made regarding her marriage, she realizes that she has lost her subjective individuality. The death of her subjective individuality leads Susan to become estranged from herself, her husband, and her children and ultimately to commit suicide. This article scrutinizes Susan’s death in metaphorical and literal terms--her loss of subjective individuality and her eventual suicide--along with the reasons that pave the path to this seemingly inevitable end.
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Doris Lessing’in, A Man and Two Women (Bir Erkek ve İki Kadın) (1963) adlı öykü kitabında yer alan “To Room Nineteen” (“19 Numaralı Oda’ya”) başlıklı öyküsünde, orta yaşlı, evli ve dört çocuk annesi Susan Rawlings, evliliğini ve evliliğine dair aldığı tüm kararları sorgulamaya başlayınca öznel bireyselliğini yitirdiğini farkeder. Öznel bireyselliğinin ölümüyle birlikte kendisine, kocasına ve çocuklarına yabancılaşması Susan’ı intihara kadar sürükler. Bu makalede, Susan’ın öznel bireyselliğini yitirişiyle ve onun peşi sıra gelen intiharıyla, hem mecazi hem de gerçek anlamda ölümünü ve onu bu duruma ve kaçınılmaz gibi görünen sona sürükleyen nedenleri irdeleyeceğim.
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Book Chapters by Buket AKGUN
Contemporary Literary Criticism vol. 482, 2021
Compares the use and resolution of Minotaur and Labyrinth themes and imagery, and the identificat... more Compares the use and resolution of Minotaur and Labyrinth themes and imagery, and the identification of the Theseus hero-figure with the monster, in Victor Pelevin’s novel The Helmet of Horror and the sixth season Doctor Who episode “The God Complex.”
Reprint of my article (2016) published in Mythlore https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol34/iss2/7/
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Brill's Companion to Prequels, Sequels, and Retellings of Classical Epic, 2018
This chapter discusses how Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad as a continuation of Homer's The Odys... more This chapter discusses how Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad as a continuation of Homer's The Odyssey uses gender as a means to subvert the male-forged myths of masculinity and femininity.
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The Language of Doctor Who: From Shakespeare to Alien Tongues, May 16, 2014
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Edited Volumes by Buket AKGUN
Doğa ve Kent [Nature and the City], 2017
A collection of essays
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2. Korku Anlatıları Konferansı: Korku Anlatılarında Çocuk, 24-25 Mayıs 2012 [2nd Horror Narratives Conference: The Child in Horror Narratives], 2013
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1. Korku Anlatıları Konferansı: Yazınsal ve/veya Görsel Vampir Anlatıları, 2-3 Kasım 2009 [1st Horror Narratives Conference: Written and/or Visual Vampire Narratives], 2012
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Presentations and Proceedings by Buket AKGUN
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Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association 51st Annual National Conference, Virtual, April 13-16, 2022
For the revised and extended article based on this conference presentation see Akgün, Buket. “Doc... more For the revised and extended article based on this conference presentation see Akgün, Buket. “Doctor Who’s Ecocritical Revisit to Narnia.” Litera: Journal of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, vol. 33, no. 1, 2023, pp. 91-106. https://doi.org/10.26650/LITERA2022-1197505
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Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association 50th Annual National Conference, Virtual, June 2-5, 2021
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International Virtual Conference Identity: Myths, Memories, Communication and Cultural Narratives, November 28-29, 2020
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Myth and Dream/The Dreaming of Myth Conference, Bologna, Italy, May 23-24, 2019
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Evil Women: Women and Evil Conference, Vienna, Austria, December 1-2, 2018
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Kadın Yazısı, İstanbul, Türkiye, 14 Mart 2018. ║ Feminaming Writing, Istanbul, Turkey, March 14, 2018
Japon shounen ve seinen mangalarındaki kadın karakterlerin tasvirlerine odaklanan davetli konuşma... more Japon shounen ve seinen mangalarındaki kadın karakterlerin tasvirlerine odaklanan davetli konuşma. Tüm paneli bu bağlantıdan izleyebilirsiniz. Benim konuşmam 48:20'de başlıyor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnU24FSwcmo.
Bu konuşmanın temel aldığı makale için bkz.: https://www.academia.edu/38172606/Mythology_moe_ified_classical_witches_warriors_and_monsters_in_Japanese_manga.
Akgün, Buket. "Grafik Romanda Kadın Karakterler." Kadın Yazısı, Kadın Eserleri Kütüphanesi ve Bilgi Merkezi Vakfı, İstanbul, Türkiye, 14 Mart 2018.
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An invited panel talk which focuses on the depiction of female characters in Japanese shounen and seinen manga. You can watch the panel at this link (My talk starts at 48:20): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnU24FSwcmo.
For the article on which this talk was based, see: https://www.academia.edu/38172606/Mythology_moe_ified_classical_witches_warriors_and_monsters_in_Japanese_manga.
Akgun, Buket. "Grafik Romanda Kadın Karakterler [Female Figures in the Graphic Novel]." Feminaming Writing, Women's Library and Information Center Foundation, Istanbul, Turkey, March 14, 2018.
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The Asian Conference on Media, Communication & Film, Kobe, Japan, October 27-29, 2017
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Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association 47th Annual National Conference, San Diego, California, U.S.A., April 12-15, 2017
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Journal Publications by Buket AKGUN
Through a gendered close reading, using classical reception studies as a springboard, this article discusses the reception and moe-ification of the female witch, warrior, and monster figures from classical mythology in Japanese seinen and shōnen manga at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It focuses on Flora and Schierke in Berserk (1990–); the Gorgon sisters in One Piece (1997–) and in Soul Eater (2004–2013); and Medusa in Witchcraft Works (2010–), all of whom are named and/or fashioned after Circe, the Amazons, the Gorgons, and Arachne. It points out to the intertextuality between these worldwide popular turn-of-the-century Japanese manga and classical mythology narratives. It discusses the moe-ification of these classical subversive monstrous female figures, formerly demonised and marginalised by the patriarchal discourse. It analyses how their reception in manga contributes to canonising the monstrous female. It illustrates how that offers the female readers of seinen and shōnen manga new ways of expressing and interpreting gender that liberate and restructure the female’s relationship to power.
In Doris Lessing’s short story “To Room Nineteen,” published in her collection of tales titled A Man and Two Women (1963), when Susan Rawlings, a middle-aged woman, married with four children, starts questioning her marriage and all the decisions she has made regarding her marriage, she realizes that she has lost her subjective individuality. The death of her subjective individuality leads Susan to become estranged from herself, her husband, and her children and ultimately to commit suicide. This article scrutinizes Susan’s death in metaphorical and literal terms--her loss of subjective individuality and her eventual suicide--along with the reasons that pave the path to this seemingly inevitable end.
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Doris Lessing’in, A Man and Two Women (Bir Erkek ve İki Kadın) (1963) adlı öykü kitabında yer alan “To Room Nineteen” (“19 Numaralı Oda’ya”) başlıklı öyküsünde, orta yaşlı, evli ve dört çocuk annesi Susan Rawlings, evliliğini ve evliliğine dair aldığı tüm kararları sorgulamaya başlayınca öznel bireyselliğini yitirdiğini farkeder. Öznel bireyselliğinin ölümüyle birlikte kendisine, kocasına ve çocuklarına yabancılaşması Susan’ı intihara kadar sürükler. Bu makalede, Susan’ın öznel bireyselliğini yitirişiyle ve onun peşi sıra gelen intiharıyla, hem mecazi hem de gerçek anlamda ölümünü ve onu bu duruma ve kaçınılmaz gibi görünen sona sürükleyen nedenleri irdeleyeceğim.
Book Chapters by Buket AKGUN
Reprint of my article (2016) published in Mythlore https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol34/iss2/7/
Edited Volumes by Buket AKGUN
Presentations and Proceedings by Buket AKGUN
For the book chapter on which this talk was based, see https://www.academia.edu/4506677/Brave_New_Words_Theatre_as_Magic_in_The_Shakespeare_Code_
Bu konuşmanın temel aldığı makale için bkz.: https://www.academia.edu/38172606/Mythology_moe_ified_classical_witches_warriors_and_monsters_in_Japanese_manga.
Akgün, Buket. "Grafik Romanda Kadın Karakterler." Kadın Yazısı, Kadın Eserleri Kütüphanesi ve Bilgi Merkezi Vakfı, İstanbul, Türkiye, 14 Mart 2018.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An invited panel talk which focuses on the depiction of female characters in Japanese shounen and seinen manga. You can watch the panel at this link (My talk starts at 48:20): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnU24FSwcmo.
For the article on which this talk was based, see: https://www.academia.edu/38172606/Mythology_moe_ified_classical_witches_warriors_and_monsters_in_Japanese_manga.
Akgun, Buket. "Grafik Romanda Kadın Karakterler [Female Figures in the Graphic Novel]." Feminaming Writing, Women's Library and Information Center Foundation, Istanbul, Turkey, March 14, 2018.
Through a gendered close reading, using classical reception studies as a springboard, this article discusses the reception and moe-ification of the female witch, warrior, and monster figures from classical mythology in Japanese seinen and shōnen manga at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It focuses on Flora and Schierke in Berserk (1990–); the Gorgon sisters in One Piece (1997–) and in Soul Eater (2004–2013); and Medusa in Witchcraft Works (2010–), all of whom are named and/or fashioned after Circe, the Amazons, the Gorgons, and Arachne. It points out to the intertextuality between these worldwide popular turn-of-the-century Japanese manga and classical mythology narratives. It discusses the moe-ification of these classical subversive monstrous female figures, formerly demonised and marginalised by the patriarchal discourse. It analyses how their reception in manga contributes to canonising the monstrous female. It illustrates how that offers the female readers of seinen and shōnen manga new ways of expressing and interpreting gender that liberate and restructure the female’s relationship to power.
In Doris Lessing’s short story “To Room Nineteen,” published in her collection of tales titled A Man and Two Women (1963), when Susan Rawlings, a middle-aged woman, married with four children, starts questioning her marriage and all the decisions she has made regarding her marriage, she realizes that she has lost her subjective individuality. The death of her subjective individuality leads Susan to become estranged from herself, her husband, and her children and ultimately to commit suicide. This article scrutinizes Susan’s death in metaphorical and literal terms--her loss of subjective individuality and her eventual suicide--along with the reasons that pave the path to this seemingly inevitable end.
---
Doris Lessing’in, A Man and Two Women (Bir Erkek ve İki Kadın) (1963) adlı öykü kitabında yer alan “To Room Nineteen” (“19 Numaralı Oda’ya”) başlıklı öyküsünde, orta yaşlı, evli ve dört çocuk annesi Susan Rawlings, evliliğini ve evliliğine dair aldığı tüm kararları sorgulamaya başlayınca öznel bireyselliğini yitirdiğini farkeder. Öznel bireyselliğinin ölümüyle birlikte kendisine, kocasına ve çocuklarına yabancılaşması Susan’ı intihara kadar sürükler. Bu makalede, Susan’ın öznel bireyselliğini yitirişiyle ve onun peşi sıra gelen intiharıyla, hem mecazi hem de gerçek anlamda ölümünü ve onu bu duruma ve kaçınılmaz gibi görünen sona sürükleyen nedenleri irdeleyeceğim.
Reprint of my article (2016) published in Mythlore https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol34/iss2/7/
For the book chapter on which this talk was based, see https://www.academia.edu/4506677/Brave_New_Words_Theatre_as_Magic_in_The_Shakespeare_Code_
Bu konuşmanın temel aldığı makale için bkz.: https://www.academia.edu/38172606/Mythology_moe_ified_classical_witches_warriors_and_monsters_in_Japanese_manga.
Akgün, Buket. "Grafik Romanda Kadın Karakterler." Kadın Yazısı, Kadın Eserleri Kütüphanesi ve Bilgi Merkezi Vakfı, İstanbul, Türkiye, 14 Mart 2018.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An invited panel talk which focuses on the depiction of female characters in Japanese shounen and seinen manga. You can watch the panel at this link (My talk starts at 48:20): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnU24FSwcmo.
For the article on which this talk was based, see: https://www.academia.edu/38172606/Mythology_moe_ified_classical_witches_warriors_and_monsters_in_Japanese_manga.
Akgun, Buket. "Grafik Romanda Kadın Karakterler [Female Figures in the Graphic Novel]." Feminaming Writing, Women's Library and Information Center Foundation, Istanbul, Turkey, March 14, 2018.
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Vampir Avcısı Buffy (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Joss Whedon tarafından, 1992 yapımı aynı adlı filmin devamı niteliğinde yaratılmış ve 1997-2003 yılları arasında yayınlanmış yedi sezonluk bir televizyon dizisidir. Vampir Avcısı olduğunu öğrenen lise--ilerleyen sezonlarda üniversite--öğrencisi bir kız olan Buffy’nin maceralarını anlatır. Vampir Avcısı Buffy, Robin Wood’un tüm korku filmlerini kapsayan önermesindeki gibi, normallik, Canavar(lar) ve bu ikisi arasındaki ilişki üzerine kuruludur. Dizide, normalliği, yani Ötekiyi canavarlaştıran ataerkil kapitalist düzeni, aile, okul, kilise, polis ve gizli bir devlet organizasyonu olan İnisiyatif’in yanı sıra, Gözetmenler Konseyi, Canavar(lar)ı ise, vampirlerin ve iblislerin yanı sıra, Buffy ve arkadaşları temsil eder. Dizinin teması, ilk dönem korku anlatılarının aksine, aşırı bastırmanın vücut bulmuş hali olan Canavarların yok edilerek düzenin korunması değil bilakis düzenin alaşağı edilmesidir. Avcı ile Gözetmenler Konseyi arasındaki ilişkiler, tıpkı kapitalist düzendeki ilişkiler gibi, güç, egemenlik, sahiplik ve manipülasyona dayalıdır. Buffy’nin, artık Konseyden emir almayacağını, “Bir sonraki Avcı gelene dek dükkânı kapatabilirler” diyerek ifade etmesi Avcının kötülükle savaşından Konseyin maddi çıkar sağladığının altını çizer. Dahası, Konsey, Avcıları eğitmesi ve denetlemesi için atadığı Gözetmenlere maaş öderken Avcıdan “görev”ini karşılıksız yapmasını bekler. Ne de olsa ilk Avcıyı yaratan ve Gözetmenler Konseyi’nin kökeni olan Gölge Adamlar tarafından yazılan Avcı Mitine göre, “Her nesilde yalnızca bir Avcı doğar. Tüm dünyada tek bir kız. Seçilmiş Kişi. Vampirlerle savaşacak ve kötülüklerinin yayılmasını ve sayılarının çoğalmasını önleyecek güç ve yetenek ile doğmuş kişi.” Bu mitte Avcı tanımının, tek bir işleve--kötülükle savaşmaya--indirgenmesine rağmen, Buffy, bundan çok daha fazlasını başarabileceğini, eski lisesindeki “sorunlu” öğrencilere danışmanlık, potansiyel Avcılara koruyuculuk ve öğretmenlik yapmasının yanı sıra, Avcıları koruyan mistik kadınların sonuncusundan, Muhafızlık mirasını devralmasıyla kanıtlar. Nihayetinde, Gölge Adamların ilk Avcıyı yaratırken yaptıkları büyüyü ve aynı zamanda bir erkek söylemi olan Avcı mitinin yapısını bozarak, gücünü tüm potansiyel Avcılarla paylaşır. Böylece bu büyünün/mitin yarattığı kadın-erkek, Avcı-Gözetmenler Konseyi ve Avcı-kötülük arasındaki güç dengesizliğini ortadan kaldırır.