Tra voce e silenzio: soggettività, scrittura e potere in Latife Tekin e Aslı Erdoğan

Latife Tekin (b. 1957) and Aslı Erdoğan (b. 1967) are considered two of the most representative female writers in contemporary Turkish literature. In this paper, I will describe their personal and intellectual experiences as specific paths of literary dissent that emerged in the peculiar cultural climate of post-1980 Turkey. By comparing the forms and strategies exhibited in Tekin's and Erdoğan's works, special attention will be paid to the notion of language as an instrument of power as well as of inner resistance, social criticism and civic engagement. In doing so, I aim to highlight the controversial relationship between writing and female self-assertion in contemporary Turkish society, where cultural production still seems to be contested by a political authoritarianism with a strongly misogynistic attitude.