Cigdem Mirol

 

Çiğdem Y. Mirol

English Studies
Department of Literature
Ghent University
Blandijnberg 2

9000 Ghent
Belgium

 

 

Çiğdem Y. Mirol is currently preparing a PhD on authorship and Gertrude Stein under the supervision of Prof. Marysa Demoor and Prof. Gert Buelens in the context of RAP. The focus of her research is to re-read authorship in Stein within certain paradigms and structures of privilege and authority, aesthetics and readership, as well as dissemination and distribution. Conceptually, both queer and gender readings as well as effects of narrative psychology on modernist literary texts and forms are integral to the task of understanding her authorship. Special attention is given to re-opening discussions in and around Stein’s social identity and literary fame, to her writing and being read: How does her authorship as an aesthetic performance give a place to diverse readership(s) at the beginning of the 20th century? That is, the question of authorship as cultural performance might be one that has to grapple with matters of address: 'who's reading?'

 

Çiğdem holds an MA in Turkish Literature (2011) and a BA in American Culture and Literature (2005) from Bilkent University, Ankara. Her MA dissertation, entitled, 'In An Archetypal Journey, In The Form Of A Narcissistic Book: The White Castle,' is on Orhan Pamuk’s only 'nouvelle'. In this study, she argues that the 'implied author' of the book, by engaging narcissistic narratives, stimulates diverse creative readings. So, the implied reader(s) of the book may gain authority to both deconstruct and then reconstruct the book, and eventually, to take part in rewriting its story. Through her act of creative reading, for instance, love is reinvented as a textual affair between 'the author' and 'the reader' in The White Castle.

Çiğdem’s other ongoing project is the theoretical construction of  “kitaperformans” (bookperformance) which aims to offer a new theoretical approach to the issue of literary genre(s). Yüzüm Kitap (Myface Book) is her first bookperformance that has recently been published in Turkish. It is also the first part of Çiğdem y Mirol Quartet that is concerned with the textual love-relationship between author and reader as well as the effects of technology on bodies and texts in this affair (www.cigdemymirol.net).