On January 31, 2022, Duygu Ula, Post-Doctoral Fellow and professor of First-Year Writing, published an article in Middle Eastern Literatures, titled “Milli etmek [Making national]: masculinity, queerness and disability in Murat Uyurkulak’s Merhume.” The article examines Murat Uyurkulak’s 2016 novel, Merhume, and how the narratives of two characters, Alper Kenan, a crime novelist with dwarfism, and Evren Tunga, a butch lesbian literary critic, demonstrate national and familial belonging in the Turkish state and affirm ableist, heterosexist, and masculinist ideals.
In her analysis, Ula explains that ideals of masculinity in Turkey are inherited through generational trauma that queer and disabled characters must negotiate to survive. Furthermore, Ula argues that Uyurkulak replicates sexist and ableist violence within the narrative through language and disables characters by questioning their narrative agency.