Blogging Woolf

Poster for the Virginia Woolf in Turkey symposium, “Giving Voice to Woolf,” held Jan. 28, 2023, in Turkey. The symposium included an exhibition, a podcast series, and a performance — all focused on “A Room of One’s Own.” It was held in n collaboration with the British Council Turkey and the Museum Evliyagil.

Virginia Woolf is read and studied worldwide, but she has a newly expanded presence in Turkey due to the non-profit Virginia Woolf Studies in Turkey Initiative.

The organization promotes the study of Woolf and her work, along with the Bloomsbury Group, modernism, and the afterlife of Woolf in Turkey.

According to organizers, “It aims to create further links between Turkish specialists and their counterparts abroad. The Initiative welcomes scholars, writers, translators, artists, performers, publishers, students, and people who share a strong interest in Woolf’s works.”

The non-profit is dedicated to advance Virginia Woolf studies in Turkey from a comparative and critical perspective in several ways:

• by convening symposiums, conferences, and lecture series; (See the photo at right for details about the first, held today.)
• by publishing Woolf related studies; and
• by organizing various informal gatherings and workshops.

Topics to explore

The Initiative will provide a platform for an intellectually rich, open, and collaborative working atmosphere for the Woolfians to explore the following:

• Virginia Woolf’s works (fictional and non-fictional)
• Virginia Woolf’s biography
• Virginia Woolf as a reader, critic, and publisher
• Virginia Woolf and feminism
• Virginia Woolf as a philosopher
• Critical perspectives on Virginia Woolf
• Afterlife of Virginia Woolf in Turkey
• Translations of Virginia Woolf’s works into Turkish
• The Bloomsbury Group and art
• Virginia Woolf and her contemporaries
• Tracing Virginia Woolf in Turkish Literature
• Virginia Woolf in the context of the early twentieth century Britain
• Other relevant subjects

Co-founders of the non-profit are Mine Özyurt Kılıç, coordinator of the 2017 one-day exhibit at Harvard University, “A Press of One’s Own: Celebrating 100 Years of Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s Hogarth Press,” and Demet Karabulut Dede.

Join and get more information

The initiative welcomes new members and guests. To join the mailing list and/or get more information, email: info@virginiawoolfturkiye.org or Mine Özyurt Kılıç: mine@virginiawoolfturkiye.org or Demet Karabulut Dede: demetkrblt@virginiawoolfturkiye.org

#MaggieGee giving her wonderful speech on #VirginiaWoolf. #VirginiaWoolfinTurkey #Symposium pic.twitter.com/T159zG5YBk

— Türkiye’de Virginia Woolf (@WoolfTurkiye) January 28, 2023