Opening a dossier in Varl\u0131k<\/em> on \u2018Popular culture in flux\u2019, Mutlu Binark\u2019 offers an overview of the hegemony of North American cultural products in the 1970s. According to Binark, an \u2018unjust communication network\u2019 was imposed on the Global South for decades. In the 21st century, by contrast, Bollywood, Korean television dramas, K-pop, and Nollywood have gone global, challenging northern cultural dominance.<\/p>\n Binark, a professor of communication and new media studies at Hacettepe University, ponders examples of cultural products, including Ne Zha 2 <\/em>(2025), <\/em>the Chinese animated fantasy action-adventure film written and directed by Jiaozi. Grossing more than $2.1 billion, which makes it the fifth-highest-earning film of all time, the movie has aligned with what President Xi Jinping described as China\u2019s \u2018cultural confidence\u2019. Binark notes how Chinese state actors have framed Ne Zha 2<\/em> as a \u2018a fresh window for the world to view China\u2019.<\/p>\n Opening with an epigram from South Korean cultural theorist Byung-Chul Han (\u2018If the ruptures are painful, the bonds are real\u2019), H\u00fcseyin K\u00f6se considers Baby Reindeer <\/em>(2024), The Banshees of Inisherin <\/em>(2022) as explorations of post-emotional human relationships in the era of digital culture.<\/p>\n From monachopsis<\/em> (the subtle but persistent feeling of being out of place) to benching, gaslighting, ego-surfing, submarining, haunting and situationship, the article offers a helpful glossary of contemporary emotional phenomena and tactics, mourning decrease in the existence of what Han has described as \u2018people worthy of love whose lives we fear\u2019.<\/p>\n Magazine Mockup 03 by Minimal Mockups. Free for personal and commercial use.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Finally, Tuba P\u0131rlant Y\u0131lmaz looks at the moral dilemmas of characters in series such as Breaking Bad<\/em>, Succession<\/em>, Mad Men,<\/em> The Sopranos <\/em>and Fleabag. <\/em>\u2018The characters in question attract attention not only with their contradictions but also with their psychological depth,\u2019 Y\u0131lmaz writes, quoting British actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge\u2019s description of her character in Fleabag<\/em> as an \u2018expression of the worst in us, but also the most honest part of us\u2019. This approach \u2018captures the essence of modern character design, expressing the desire of viewers to confront their shadow side,\u2019 according to Y\u0131lmaz.<\/p>\n Efe Murad writes on the recently departed Can Alkor\u2019s (1936-2024) lives as poet and translator. Alkor possessed \u2018a sense of mystery that we do not often encounter in Turkish,\u2019 writes Murad, an assistant professor at Ca\u2019 Foscari University. \u2018In addition to Alkor\u2019s word choice and meticulousness in language, interesting text-to-text parallels and overlapping themes can be noticed between his translations and the poems he wrote, and sometimes these two practices even intertwine.\u2019<\/p>\n The Turkish artist Bilge Alkor, wife of the poet, shared with Murad poems, poetry translations, essays and poetry theory drafts (most of which were unpublished) from Alkor\u2019s estate. Varl\u0131k <\/em>publishes a text touching on the works of Ezra Pound, Stefan George, Rilke and Quasimodo, the Italian poet whose \u2018contribution to modern Italian poetry was not so much in his poems as in his translations of ancient Greek poetry\u2019.<\/p>\n The short essay begins by asking: \u2018What is the difference between someone whose main occupation is poetry and who translates poetry in his spare time and someone whose main occupation is translation and who writes poetry in his spare time?\u2019 Murad, the author of six books of poetry and the translator of ten more, including the first complete translation of Ezra Pound\u2019s Cantos, <\/em>offers his own take on the question while he close-reads Alkor\u2019s text.<\/p>\n Elsewhere in the issue, Fatma Berber interviews Alev Eb\u00fczziya Siesbye, the Turkish-Danish ceramic artist who designed wares for the companies Royal Copenhagen and Rosenthal AG and received a Chevalier de l\u2019Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2009.<\/p>\n Eb\u00fczziya, 86, has led a fascinating life. From an early age, she was engaged in dialogues with key figures in Turkey\u2019s literary and art circles, including Sabahattin Ey\u00fcbo\u011flu and Tomris Uyar. \u2018I can\u2019t imagine a life without literature and music,\u2019 Eb\u00fczziya tells Berber, recounting an anecdote with Ahmet Hamdi Tanp\u0131nar (1901\u20131962), one of the most significant Turkish novelists of the twentieth century.<\/p>\n \u2018I was still a student in England during those years. And when I came back for a vacation, he asked me what I was reading. I replied that it was William Somerset Maugham\u2019s Of Human Bondage<\/em>. He was so impressed by how I shared my feelings about the book that I\u2019ll never forget how he looked at me.\u2019<\/p>\n Working with clay, Eb\u00fczziya considers simplicity to be the most complex aspect of her work. \u2018Because it requires reduction. It requires the essence, and the smallest thing stands out in that essence. I love simplicity very much, I hate ornamentation.\u2019<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.eurozine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Mockup_Varlik-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPoetry and translation<\/h2>\n
Applied arts<\/strong><\/h2>\n