Catherine AKÇA - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Catherine AKÇA
This paper examines the crucial role played by religion in the construction of the identity of St... more This paper examines the crucial role played by religion in the construction of the identity of Stephen Dedalus', protagonist of James Joyce's novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, as he makes the transition from childhood into young adulthood during a period in which loss of faith pervaded much of western European society, but in which the Catholic Church continued to be a potent cultural and political force in Ireland. It also considers the extent to which Stephen's eventual assertion that by embracing art he has freed his soul from the constraints of religion is justified by the text.
Transnational Literature, 2020
Epiphany, 2015
World War I was a cataclysm. Such global carnage, devastation and waste could not but result in i... more World War I was a cataclysm. Such global carnage, devastation and waste could not but result in international, intranational and individual change. One of the premises upon which war is sustained is the "otherness" of the enemy, attributed to various national, ethnic, geographical, social or cultural factors. This presupposes that the opposing force perceives its own identity as different from that of the enemy in some crucial way, sufficient to negate any variety in group affiliations within its own ranks, and to obscure the significance of characteristics held in common with the antagonist. The intensity of the experience of war, the need to validate the sacrifice involved, political imperatives and contingent propaganda all tend to reinforce perceptions of self-identity and "otherness" during the conflict, and in its aftermath. Where war is international, issues of national identity will predominate. During WWI, the Gallipoli Campaign set Allied invaders against Ottoman Turks. Between 1915 and the evacuation of the Allied troops in January 1916, both sides sustained terrible casualties and horrendous loss of life. The history, memories, commemoration and mythologisation of the Anzac troops, from Australia and New Zealand, and of the Turks at Gallipoli were to contribute to the forging of the postwar national identities of their respective countries. However, identity is both a multi-facetted construct and a process in flux, in which the present interacts with the past. Imperatives change, perspectives too. Cultural identity, the sense of belonging to a particular group, may transcend national boundaries; myths may be reworked. A century after the Gallipoli campaign, this paper examines poems from Robyn Rowland's This Intimate War: Gallipoli/Çanakkale 1915, in the light of the contemporary trend to move away from the mythologizing of the Gallipoli story on a national basis towards a more inclusive transnational approach based on shared experience and values.
The question of whether there are global duties of distributive justice find an affirmative answe... more The question of whether there are global duties of distributive justice find an affirmative answer from those political philosophers who may be called “global egalitarians. ” One striking feature of global egalitarians is that they tend to refuse the moral significance of boundaries and lay stress on the arbitrariness of the distribution of natural resources on the earth. The idea of arbitrary distribution of natural resources also constitutes the basis for Thomas Pogge’s proposal of a global resource tax for redistribution of wealth and resources. He maintains that each nation should pay a proportional tax on the natural resources such as oil, coal, etc. it extracts from the earth—he also holds that the same tax might cover reuseable resources like agricultural land, water and so on, that is, basic needs of the global poor can be met by funds obtained through global resources tax for him. But Pogge’s proposal faces serious difficulties as it is biased against natural resource-wise ...
Transnational Literature, Nov 6, 2020
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), 2008
This paper examines the crucial role played by religion in the construction of the identity of St... more This paper examines the crucial role played by religion in the construction of the identity of Stephen Dedalus', protagonist of James Joyce's novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, as he makes the transition from childhood into young adulthood during a period in which loss of faith pervaded much of western European society, but in which the Catholic Church continued to be a potent cultural and political force in Ireland. It also considers the extent to which Stephen's eventual assertion that by embracing art he has freed his soul from the constraints of religion is justified by the text.
International Journal of Psychology, Feb 1, 2011
T he cognitive resources available to the working memory system are finite. Under conditions of c... more T he cognitive resources available to the working memory system are finite. Under conditions of cognitive overload, a compromise may need to be made between the demands of storage and processing. Research suggests that the cognitive cost of partially automated transcription processes adversely affects written language production in children. Thus, children may be expected to perform the same task better orally than in writing. In order to determine whether this is the case in a Turkish context, three samples of participants, comprising 16 undergraduate students, 16 fifth-grade and 16 third-grade pupils, were required to perform oral and written serial recall of Turkish word lists. Recall mode did not interact significantly with age. In the adult sample, the combined samples of schoolchildren, and the fifth-grade sample of children written recall was significantly better than oral recall. This may reflect the transparency of Turkish orthography and/or the age of the participating children. However, when the test was administered in English, no effect of modality was observed in children. This suggests that when the additional cognitive costs of processing a less automated language are combined with transcription costs, the resources available to children in working memory for the storage of information are depleted.
Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 2008
In order to determine their motivation for learning English as a foreign language; their preferre... more In order to determine their motivation for learning English as a foreign language; their preferred learning activities; and, in particular, their attitudes towards learning English through the medium of storytelling, a questionnaire was administered to 21 students from the 4 th year of Kafkas University private primary school in Kars, Turkey. The results show that both story telling and grammar were perceived as very enjoyable by a majority of the participants, 71.43% and 52.38% respectively. Audio and visual teaching aids and comprehension questions were found to make a substantial contribution towards facilitating understanding of the stories. The participants demonstrated various types of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation towards learning English, in particular the belief that English would be useful, in some unspecified way, in the future (52.38% of respondents). The most popular learning activities were found to be first language games, second acting out the stories, and thir...
Edebiyat Fakultesi Dergisi, 2009
Marang: Journal of Language and Literature, 2011
This paper examines how Alan Paton reveals the impact upon a traditional rural African community ... more This paper examines how Alan Paton reveals the impact upon a traditional rural African community of the processes of industrialisation and urbanisation which arose out of colonialist capitalism. It focuses on the connection which Paton makes between the exploitation of the black urban migrants by the white minority, the loss of their traditional values and the social and psychological degeneration which arose out of the negation of the identity of the native as a human being. It examines Paton’s message that only through reconciliation and cooperation between the races can catastrophe be averted in South Africa, noting that Paton himself recognises that his solution leaves much to faith and human kindness. The paper examines evidence of paternalism in Paton’s attitude. In support of the idea that Paton’s solution, although well-intentioned, is too overtly Christian and over reliant on individual goodwill, the paper notes that, after a period in which Paton’s conciliatory ideas were unfashionable, they were revived in the 1990s by the integrationist government of the first black President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, but as part of a process of political change, with their Christian context transcended through assimilation into the traditional inclusive African concept of humanism, “Ubuntu”. Keywords: South Africa; colonialism; capitalism; identity
International Journal of Psychology, 2011
This paper examines the crucial role played by religion in the construction of the identity of St... more This paper examines the crucial role played by religion in the construction of the identity of Stephen Dedalus', protagonist of James Joyce's novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, as he makes the transition from childhood into young adulthood during a period in which loss of faith pervaded much of western European society, but in which the Catholic Church continued to be a potent cultural and political force in Ireland. It also considers the extent to which Stephen's eventual assertion that by embracing art he has freed his soul from the constraints of religion is justified by the text.
Transnational Literature, 2020
Epiphany, 2015
World War I was a cataclysm. Such global carnage, devastation and waste could not but result in i... more World War I was a cataclysm. Such global carnage, devastation and waste could not but result in international, intranational and individual change. One of the premises upon which war is sustained is the "otherness" of the enemy, attributed to various national, ethnic, geographical, social or cultural factors. This presupposes that the opposing force perceives its own identity as different from that of the enemy in some crucial way, sufficient to negate any variety in group affiliations within its own ranks, and to obscure the significance of characteristics held in common with the antagonist. The intensity of the experience of war, the need to validate the sacrifice involved, political imperatives and contingent propaganda all tend to reinforce perceptions of self-identity and "otherness" during the conflict, and in its aftermath. Where war is international, issues of national identity will predominate. During WWI, the Gallipoli Campaign set Allied invaders against Ottoman Turks. Between 1915 and the evacuation of the Allied troops in January 1916, both sides sustained terrible casualties and horrendous loss of life. The history, memories, commemoration and mythologisation of the Anzac troops, from Australia and New Zealand, and of the Turks at Gallipoli were to contribute to the forging of the postwar national identities of their respective countries. However, identity is both a multi-facetted construct and a process in flux, in which the present interacts with the past. Imperatives change, perspectives too. Cultural identity, the sense of belonging to a particular group, may transcend national boundaries; myths may be reworked. A century after the Gallipoli campaign, this paper examines poems from Robyn Rowland's This Intimate War: Gallipoli/Çanakkale 1915, in the light of the contemporary trend to move away from the mythologizing of the Gallipoli story on a national basis towards a more inclusive transnational approach based on shared experience and values.
The question of whether there are global duties of distributive justice find an affirmative answe... more The question of whether there are global duties of distributive justice find an affirmative answer from those political philosophers who may be called “global egalitarians. ” One striking feature of global egalitarians is that they tend to refuse the moral significance of boundaries and lay stress on the arbitrariness of the distribution of natural resources on the earth. The idea of arbitrary distribution of natural resources also constitutes the basis for Thomas Pogge’s proposal of a global resource tax for redistribution of wealth and resources. He maintains that each nation should pay a proportional tax on the natural resources such as oil, coal, etc. it extracts from the earth—he also holds that the same tax might cover reuseable resources like agricultural land, water and so on, that is, basic needs of the global poor can be met by funds obtained through global resources tax for him. But Pogge’s proposal faces serious difficulties as it is biased against natural resource-wise ...
Transnational Literature, Nov 6, 2020
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), 2008
This paper examines the crucial role played by religion in the construction of the identity of St... more This paper examines the crucial role played by religion in the construction of the identity of Stephen Dedalus', protagonist of James Joyce's novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, as he makes the transition from childhood into young adulthood during a period in which loss of faith pervaded much of western European society, but in which the Catholic Church continued to be a potent cultural and political force in Ireland. It also considers the extent to which Stephen's eventual assertion that by embracing art he has freed his soul from the constraints of religion is justified by the text.
International Journal of Psychology, Feb 1, 2011
T he cognitive resources available to the working memory system are finite. Under conditions of c... more T he cognitive resources available to the working memory system are finite. Under conditions of cognitive overload, a compromise may need to be made between the demands of storage and processing. Research suggests that the cognitive cost of partially automated transcription processes adversely affects written language production in children. Thus, children may be expected to perform the same task better orally than in writing. In order to determine whether this is the case in a Turkish context, three samples of participants, comprising 16 undergraduate students, 16 fifth-grade and 16 third-grade pupils, were required to perform oral and written serial recall of Turkish word lists. Recall mode did not interact significantly with age. In the adult sample, the combined samples of schoolchildren, and the fifth-grade sample of children written recall was significantly better than oral recall. This may reflect the transparency of Turkish orthography and/or the age of the participating children. However, when the test was administered in English, no effect of modality was observed in children. This suggests that when the additional cognitive costs of processing a less automated language are combined with transcription costs, the resources available to children in working memory for the storage of information are depleted.
Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 2008
In order to determine their motivation for learning English as a foreign language; their preferre... more In order to determine their motivation for learning English as a foreign language; their preferred learning activities; and, in particular, their attitudes towards learning English through the medium of storytelling, a questionnaire was administered to 21 students from the 4 th year of Kafkas University private primary school in Kars, Turkey. The results show that both story telling and grammar were perceived as very enjoyable by a majority of the participants, 71.43% and 52.38% respectively. Audio and visual teaching aids and comprehension questions were found to make a substantial contribution towards facilitating understanding of the stories. The participants demonstrated various types of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation towards learning English, in particular the belief that English would be useful, in some unspecified way, in the future (52.38% of respondents). The most popular learning activities were found to be first language games, second acting out the stories, and thir...
Edebiyat Fakultesi Dergisi, 2009
Marang: Journal of Language and Literature, 2011
This paper examines how Alan Paton reveals the impact upon a traditional rural African community ... more This paper examines how Alan Paton reveals the impact upon a traditional rural African community of the processes of industrialisation and urbanisation which arose out of colonialist capitalism. It focuses on the connection which Paton makes between the exploitation of the black urban migrants by the white minority, the loss of their traditional values and the social and psychological degeneration which arose out of the negation of the identity of the native as a human being. It examines Paton’s message that only through reconciliation and cooperation between the races can catastrophe be averted in South Africa, noting that Paton himself recognises that his solution leaves much to faith and human kindness. The paper examines evidence of paternalism in Paton’s attitude. In support of the idea that Paton’s solution, although well-intentioned, is too overtly Christian and over reliant on individual goodwill, the paper notes that, after a period in which Paton’s conciliatory ideas were unfashionable, they were revived in the 1990s by the integrationist government of the first black President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, but as part of a process of political change, with their Christian context transcended through assimilation into the traditional inclusive African concept of humanism, “Ubuntu”. Keywords: South Africa; colonialism; capitalism; identity
International Journal of Psychology, 2011