The publisher Tabla brings together this Tuesday (12) three researchers to talk about literature and feminism in Turkey. The conversation, which takes place at 19:00 GMT, revolves around Turkish writer Leylâ Erbil and her novel “Uma Mulher Estranha”, published by Tabla in Brazil. Participating are writer and translator Luci Collin, professor Samira Adel Osman and doctoral student in sociology Flávia Paniz. The event – free of charge – will be broadcast on the publisher’s YouTube channel.
Leylâ Erbil (1931-2013) was one of the giants of Turkish literature. In her career, she militated in communist unions and organizations. “A Strange Woman”, originally published in 1971, is probably her masterpiece. The book deals with the plight of women and socialism, touching perhaps for the first time in the country on topics such as virginity, incest and rape. For her style, which defies the conventions of the Turkish language, she has been compared to the English Virginia Woolf. “What lies behind my quest for language is the discovery of the ‘golden tone’ of the essence of the text,” she said in one of her latest interviews. Once, according to the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, Erbil complained that language was insufficient to understand people. “I’m going to break these molds,” she said.
Created in 2020, the Tabla publishing house has brought to Brazil a varied menu of works from the Arab, Islamic and Middle-Eastern worlds. Among his releases are fundamental texts such as “Da Presença da Absência”, by Palestinian Mahmud Darwich, and “Correio Noturno”, by Lebanese Hoda Barakat. Tabla has also stood out for the formation of an impressive team of translators that includes veterans such as Safa Jubran and Michel Sleiman and – talented – newcomers such as Marco Calil and Felipe Benjamin Francisco.
