The Tash her Father Wore: World Literature, Joyce, Kafka and the Invisible in Kemal Kurt's <i>Ja, sagt Molly</i>

Abstract

This article studies the Turkish-German writer Kemal Kurt’s Ja, sagt Molly (1998) [‘Yes, says Molly’], an ironic meta-fiction to which little critical attention has been paid. Kurt questions the representation of Turks as untutored aspirants to Western culture and challenges the traditional images of exclusion and discrimination. Through a study of his use of pastiche and references to World Literature, in particular to Joyce’s Ulysses (1922), this article demonstrates the importance of Kurt as a commentator on the ambiguous place of Turkey in Europe and of Turkish-Germans in German culture.