ABSTRACT

Murat Uyurkulak’s 2016 novel, Merhume, centers stories of queer, disabled and otherwise marginalized characters and embeds them within a real and imagined political history of Turkey. Through the narratives of Alper Kenan, a crime novelist with dwarfism, and Evren Tunga, a butch lesbian literary critic, Uyurkulak lays bare how national and familial belonging is predicated upon ableist, heterosexist and masculinist ideals of the Turkish nation state. In this article, I analyze how these characters’ lives are shaped by historical narratives of violence and masculinity, and argue that the ideals of masculinity and Turkish nationalism become inherited generational traumas that these disabled and queer characters must negotiate in order to survive. Drawing on scholars of queer and disability studies, I further argue how Uyurkulak himself replicates some of that sexist and ableist violence within the narrative and through his language, and dis-ables his characters by calling into question their narrative agency.

摘要

穆拉特·乌尤尔库拉克 2016 年的小说《梅休姆》，以酷儿、残疾人和其他边缘化人物的故事为中心，并将它们嵌入土耳其真实和想象的政治历史中。通过侏儒症犯罪小说家阿尔珀·凯南和女同性恋文学评论家埃夫伦·通加的叙述，乌尤尔库拉克揭示了民族和家庭归属是如何建立在土耳其民族国家的能干、异性恋和男性主义理想之上的。在本文中，我分析了这些人物的生活是如何被暴力和男子气概的历史叙述所塑造的，并认为男子气概和土耳其民族主义的理想成为这些残疾和酷儿人物为了生存而必须克服的代代相传创伤。借鉴酷儿和残疾研究学者，