Dogmas in Literature and Literary Missionary: Text, Reader and Critique

Literature does have an aspect that drags the readers, habitually burying them in its pages and blindly attaching them to itself. Blind devotion stems from the factors that are effective in determining the readers' faith. Theories of literature, similarly, might bring about the generation of blind adherence and dogmatic approaches. This book explores the existence of dogma in literature and some cult texts and writers and how dogmas in literature are conveyed to various audiences as a mission by some literary readers, experts, and academics.
Generally, dogma is a word related mostly to religion. In this frame, Mathew Arnold's 'Dogma in Religion and Literature' is of great importance as far as religion is concerned. However, there are dogmas in every field, literature being no exception. Virginia Woolf, for instance, wrote stupendous works that turned out to be well-known, and in 1928, she delivered a lecture at Cambridge University, where women were once not allowed, that formed the basis for the celebrated 'A Room of One's Own' (1929). Roland Barthes' 1967 'La mort de l'auteur' ('The Death of the Author') essay might be another text that some of its literary readers have developed a dogmatic commitment to.

In addition to revealing how dogma finds its place in literature, this book also discusses how literary writers and readers often unwittingly embrace 'literary missionary.' Focusing on the dogmatic elements of literature and the dogmatized literary theory and criticism through cult works of various authors, the book offers a striking and interesting contribution to literary theory and criticism and literature readings.

Acknowledgement
Preface
Introduction: Literary Blindness and Conviction: The Dogmatics of Literature and the Politics of Literary Missionary
Önder Çakırtas
Bingöl University, Türkiye

PART I :
Toward Monopolized Literature: The Dogmatization of Fiction and Theory

Chapter 1
The Amateur as De-Construction Worker: Demolishing Methodological Silos in Academic Literary Studies
Kristen Schiedel
Dalhousie University, Canada

Chapter 2
Rethinking Some Literary Dogmatic Views of Virginia Woolf and Vladimir Nabokov
Yesim Sultan Akbay
Süleyman Demirel University, Türkiye
Betüre Memmedova
Süleyman Demirel University, Türkiye

PART II:
Literary Representation and Literary Missionary of Dogma

Chapter 3
Undogmatic Perspective as an Antidote to the Imperial Hubris in J. M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians
Seçil Erkoç Iqbal
Đnönü University, Türkiye

Chapter 4
Brecht’s Epic Theatre: Demystifying the Dogmatic Tradition of Aristotelian Drama in the Western Theatre
Onur Ekler
Hatay Mustafa Kemal University, Türkiye

Chapter 5
Multiply Fabulous: The Sacred in the Feminine Body in Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion
Sezgi Öztop Haner
Dumlupınar University, Türkiye

Chapter 6
Sermons on Joint: Bob Marley, Bokonon and the Religio-lyrical Affair with State Apparatuses
Ankit Raj
Government College Gharaunda, India
Nagendra Kumar
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India

Contributors

Önder Çakırtaş is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Bingöl University, Turkiye. He particularly specializes in Modern and Contemporary British Drama and Literature with a keen interest in Political Theatre, Minority Theatre, Ethnic Theatre, Race-Oriented Theatre and Disability Theatre. In the 2018-19 academic year, he was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies at University of Roehampton in London. Currently writing his book ‘Staging Muslims in Britain: Playwriting, Performance and Representation’ (contracted with Routledge), Çakırtaş has prolifically written some recent works such as “Racializ-ed/ing identities on Stage: Muslims, Angst and Response in ‘Snokered’ and ‘Does My Bomb Look Big in this?’” (‘Performing Islam’, Volume 10, Numbers 1-2, December 2021, pp. 5-21). His latest book, ‘Ten ve Kimlik: Çağdaş Siyahi İngiiliz Tiyatrosu’ [Skin Colur and Identity: Contemporary Black British Theatre], was published in late 2020. His latest edited book, ‘Language, Power and Ideology in Political Writing,’ was published by IGI Global in Pennsylvania in late 2019. His other recent publications include a play-specific exercise that demonstrates how performance illuminates close reading of Wole Soyinka’s ‘Death and a King’s Horseman’ (with Miriam Chirico) (edited by Miriam Chirico, Kelly Younger, published by Bloomsbury in 2020), an analysis of Samuel Beckett’s ‘Endgame’ in relation to patriography and pathography (published by Peter Lang in Oxford), and an edited book on analysis of the link between literature and psychology published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. He has published in numerous journals, including ‘CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture’, ‘Litera: Journal of Language’, ‘Literature and Culture Studies’, ‘Forum for World Literature Studies’, ‘Hacettepe University Journal of Faculty of Letters’. Çakırtaş is a founding editor of ‘Essence & Critique: Journal of Literature and Drama Studies’. He is also among the editorial members of ‘Performing Ethos: International Journal of Ethics in Theatre & Performance’.

Dogmas in literature, literary missionary, reader’s response, literary theory, literary criticism