Second Life

Every writer has, to a greater or lesser extent, the desire to create a place, to leave all other places behind and settle into writing. A literary homeland: I created this stony land, this vast steppe, these green hills, this mountain with snow-capped peaks. The fire burning on the mountain, the people gathered around the fire, the stories the people listen to, are my work. But it would be naive to expect a writer who speaks not only of a literary possibility but also of a life possibility to settle comfortably into a literary homeland.”

In Second Life, Nurdan Gürbilek reflects on the “sense of place.” She enters “place,” “homeland,” and “home” through the doors opened by literature, and sometimes cinema; she looks closely at origins and beginnings, at those who flee and those who return, at home and its secrets. On the other hand, she evaluates narration, style, and language around this main axis; she reflects on “linguistic homeland” and its boundaries.

Accompanied by some questions: Will the home turn into a compartment tightly shut off to others, a private refuge, a personal cell, or can we redefine that protective cell on a broad common ground? Are we being dragged into a “geography is destiny” that has built thick walls around itself, or can we reach a broader definition of homeland? 

Second Life consists of essays and fragments that invite us to reflect on the real and metaphorical, positive and negative meanings of home in a world where home has become the center of our lives today.