The aim of this book is to shed light on dystopia within the circle of twentieth century literature by analysing the development of totalitarianism and its detrimental effects, such as dehumanisation and social unrest that shattered the unity of society in three basic forms as reflected in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies (1953), George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). Thus, it explores the beginning of totalitarianism resulted from an inborn instinctive drive as reflected in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies (1953) first, then its formation and rise in George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945), then finally the ill effects of it in both society and in individuals in Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). Totalitarianism, together with “Fascism”, in the twentieth century can be confined to the period between 1922 and 1975. It starts with Mussolini; is followed by Hitler and Stalin, then ends with the death of Franco. It was during the rule of totalitarians that all ideals promising peace were abused to claim the rule, terror and fear factors were resorted to secure a totalitarian power at the expense of millions of deaths, torture and social unrest. In these novels, William Golding and George Orwell criticise how totalitarianism is established, and maintained by fear, manipulation and terror in the twentieth century.

In The Myth of the Female Hand: Forms of Female Power, Şeyda Sivrioğlu explores the symbolic representations and the significance of the female hand as a means to open up literary and critical space for the oppressed and marginalized female figure in different centuries and in different patriarchal cultures and genres. Inalterably, in a culture where creativity is defined purely in male terms, women “exist only to be acted on men, both as literary and sensual objects” (Gilbert and Gubar, 8). This comprehensive study, however, traces the origins of the female hand symbolism from a fairy tale to a play-text and finally to a science fiction novel in order to illustrate how, to borrow Margaret Atwood’s words, the hand as an extension of the brain, in this case the female brain, becomes an important tool for indicating the development of the power of women.

THE translations given in this volume, with the exception of the stormscene from Tolstoy in the First Lecture, are my own. The reader will please bear in mind that these Lectures, printed here exactly as delivered, were written with a view to addressing the ear as well as the eye, otherwise the book would have been entirely different from what it now is. When delivering the Sixth Lecture, I read extracts from Tolstoy’s “My Religion” and “What to Do,” illustrating every position of his I there commend; but for reasons it is needless to state, I omit them in the book. I can only hope that the reader will all the more readily go to the books themselves.

1889. P. GRAFTON, MASS., 1 July, 1889.

Sovyetler Birliği’nin dağılmasıyla bağımsızlığına kavuşan devletlerden birisi de Kırgızistan’dır. Bağımsızlığına kavuştuğu tarihten itibaren Türkiye ile Kırgızistan arasında sosyal, kültürel, ekonomik birçok alanda yakın ilişkiler kurulmuş; içe kapanık Sovyet yönetimi zamanında kopan bağlar, onarılmaya başlanmıştır. Bu gelişmeler Kırgız dili ve edebiyatı üzerine Türkiye’de çok sayıda çalışma yapılmasına olanak sağlamıştır.  Kırgız edebiyatının zengin kaynakları araştırmacıların ilgisini çekmektedir; fakat Kırgız çocuk edebiyatı üzerine Türkiye’de yeterince çalışmanın olmadığı görülmüştür. Bu çalışma, çocuk edebiyatı alanındaki boşluğu bir nebze de olsa kapatır, yeni araştırmalara kaynaklık eder düşüncesi ile kaleme alınmıştır. Çalışmada başlangıçtan günümüze Kırgız çocuk edebiyatının gelişimi hakkında bilgi verilmiş ve dönemin önemli eserleri tanıtılmıştır.