“Lived Experience as Inspiration” Διάλεξη Καθηγήτριας Feride Çiçekoğlu, 22 Νοεμβρίου 2022, 7.00μμ Αίθουσα Β108

Abstract

My first novella Don’t let them shoot the kite (1986) was inspired by my lived experience in prison (1980-1984) during the military junta of September 12, 1980 in Turkey. It is in epistolary form, since I knew best how to write letters as a new storyteller. My second script and book The other side of the water (992) was inspired by the memories of my mother’s family who had to leave Thessaloniki due to the compulsory population exchange between Turkey and Greece in 1923. I grew up with these traumatic tales and I tried to combine them with stories of the military juntas in Turkey (1971, 1980) and Greece (1974). Both books have many new editions in Turkish and they were also translated into Greek among some other languages. I would like to highlight lived experience as inspiration for storytelling and as a source of transcultural relations focusing on these two novellas.

 Feride Çiçekoğlu has a background in architecture, literature and film. After getting her Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania, she started her teaching career in the field of architecture in Turkey but she was imprisoned during the military junta of 1980 because of her political opposition. The stint in prison was the inspiration for her first book Don’t let them shoot the kite, which she later adapted to screen. The film received a number of national and international awards, paving the way for a career in screenwriting. Çiçekoğlu continued to publish short stories and novellas, as well as writing for screen, and she built a new teaching career in film. Currently she is the director of the graduate program in Film and Television at İstanbul Bilgi University.

The lecture takes place within the framework of cooperation between the University of Cyprus and AntiLogos Theater with the common goal of development and the spread of culture.