Award-winning writer Gürsel Korat met with literature enthusiasts

At the Literary Excavations talk organized by Nilüfer Municipality, Gürsel Korat met with readers under the moderation of Hakan Akdoğan. Korat conducted a profound conversation on literature, time, and space.

The ‘Literary Excavations’ talk, organized by Nilüfer Municipality Library Directorate since 2007, continues to bring together valuable writers of Turkish literature with literature enthusiasts from Nilüfer.

Award-winning author Gürsel Korat, who skillfully pens the cosmopolitan structure and history of the region with his observations on Anatolia, had an enjoyable conversation at the Literary Excavations talk moderated by Hakan Akdoğan.

Versatile artist Gürsel Korat, who has produced works in different genres such as short stories, screenplays, novels, essays, and plays, and is also known as an educator, journalist, and filmmaker, met with readers from Nilüfer at Akkılıç Library. Korat, through his novel ‘Unutkan Ayna,’ which he wrote in his unique style and perspective on the 1915 Armenian events, shared his thoughts on time, humanity, and literature with the participants.

Novels that stimulate the senses

Award-winning writer Gürsel Korat, who aims to write novels that stimulate the senses and make the reader feel like ‘they were there,’ expressed, ‘I try to write based on showing, making one feel, and sensory perceptions. I want to deliver a novel perceived through the senses into the reader’s lap.’

Stating that he is a writer who likes to tell his stories quickly, Korat said, ‘I value the flow of time. When narrating, I think about how the clock on the wall is ticking. It is essential to know how time flows when you start narrating. For example, while compressing 40 years into 220 pages in ‘Rüya Körü,’ I narrated 10 days in 330 pages in ‘Unutkan Ayna.’

Gürsel Korat emphasized that he tries to reflect not only the current states of his characters but also their pasts and the time they carry, saying, ‘The people we see are not just the people of the present. At the same time, there is a time within them, the time they carry. I addressed this through some characters in ‘Unutkan Ayna.’ In my literature, there is not only durations but also time itself. The connectedness of space and time also interests me. We are in the same space at different times. I came to Akkılıç Library in 2016, now I am here again, but the ‘me’ of 2016 is no longer here. Philosophically, this is where we stand. The issue is the place, that is, the presence of space. If there is a space, inevitably there is also time. So, where is time if there is space? Only in the present. While we live only in the present moments, how accurate is it to divide the past into now and the future?’

Emphasizing his desire to narrate the stories of ordinary people that no one had previously mentioned on the stage of history, author Gürsel Korat stated, ‘I used to hate history and literature classes in high school. I distanced myself from rote-based education. The new historical movement offered me a different perspective. I tried to reflect this perspective in all my books.’ He concluded his words by signing the books of the readers and answering their questions in the final part of the talk.