Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) Faculty of Education, Department of Turkish Language Teaching hosted a panel titled “Feminine Language in Literature”. Organized on the occasion of the 8th of March International Women’s Day and the 21st of March World Poetry Day, the panel took place at Mustafa Afşin Ersoy Hall.
The panel searched for an answer to the question “Can a woman as a subject speak with her own language rather than using the language of daily life and literature comprised of masculine codes?” EMU Faculty of Education, Department of Turkish Language Teaching academic staff member Asst. Prof. Dr. Emel Kaya Gözlü was the moderator of the panel that also touched upon the sub-heading “Woman that does and says”. Poets Asuman Susam and Duygu Kankaytsın were panellists at the event respectively presenting the topics “Calling Out from the Borderline of Language: Poetry as a Minority Language” and “When Poetry Manifests Itself”.
The panel touched upon the relationship between language and power. Describing poems as the effort to form the truth from the language of truth, the panel discussed this possibility. It touched upon noticing the female zone which is integrating, connecting and inviting to the primary. This zone stands against the masculine mind which is divisive, dispersive and categorizing. The panel highlighted the importance of speaking in the female zone. Feminine language construction was discussed as a language that invalidates gender and sexuality definitions, limited ground and the two sided contrast that it breads. Its correspondence with literature and communal life were also touched upon as well as what it can produce.
