Yagmur Su Kolsal
Yagmur Su Kolsal

Representations of Academic Communities in "Dark Academia" Novels

picture of Yagmur Su Kolsal
© Y. Su Kolsal

Yağmur Su Kolsal is a PhD student at the Graduate School Practices of Literature in the areas of American Studies and Book Studies. She is also a recipient of the DAAD Graduate School Scholarship. Su's project focuses on novels categorized as "dark academia" and the function of unreliable narration in the portrayals of academia and academic communities in these works. The origins of dark academia (often abbreviated as "DA") as a type of fictional narrative, which can be briefly defined as a sub-genre of the campus novel and the mystery novel, can be traced back to Donna Tartt's 1992 novel The Secret History. The Secret History, in which humanities education at a private liberal arts college forms the backdrop to the premeditated murder of a character by his cohort and close friends, has become the ur-text of the type of narrative in which a murder mystery or another form of mysterious death or disappearance is inextricably connected to the academic setting and DA fiction is prompted by the existence of "dark academia" communities on social media, where academic study is associated with an aesthetic that is based on depictions in the books around which readers create an identity. This dissertation project aims to investigate the role unreliable narrators who uncritically espouse elitist notions about higher education that emphasize its exclusivity to certain groups of individuals on the basis of class, gender, and race play in the establishment of an aesthetic that features highly romanticized depictions of student life and college campuses in "dark academia" fiction. At the current stage of her project, Su plans to include works by Donna Tartt, R. F. Kuang, Leigh Bardugo, Mona Awad, and M. L. Rio, spanning more than 30 years. 

Su holds a B.A. degree in English Language Education and an M.A. in English Literature with a thesis titled "Hauntological Engagements With the Haunting House Motif in Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and Helen Oyeyemi's White Is for Witching" from the Middle East Technical University in Turkey. Her research interests include contemporary American literature, the campus novel, popular fiction, Gothic fiction, hauntology, depictions of otherness and alterity in fiction, and literature and social media. In her free time, Su likes to write poetry and creative non-fiction, watch and talk about movies, and see new places.

Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Silvia Schultermandl & Prof. Dr. Corinna Norrick-Rühl

Contact

  • Research Interests

    • Contemporary American literature
    • The campus novel
    • Gothic fiction
    • Literature and social media
    • Depictions of otherness in fiction
  • Eduaction

    since 10/2023 PhD student, English Studies, Graduate School Practices of Literature, University of Münster
    09/2020 - 06/2023 Master of Arts, English Literature, Middle East Technical University
    08/2016 - 07/2020 Bachelor of Arts, English Language Teaching, Middle East Technical University
  • Projects and Professional Experience

    Professional Experience

    09/2022 - 07/2023 Research Assistant, Başkent University, (Faculty of Science and Letters, Department of American Culture and Literature, Ankara)

    Teaching

    09/2021 - 02/2022 English Language Instructor, TED University

    Other Projects and Activities

    10/2019 - 05/2020 English Teaching Intern, Türk Telekom Social Sciences High School, Atatürk High School
  • Publications and Conference Papers

    Publications

    Kolsal, Yağmur Su. "Constructions of Imperial Otherness in Dracula (1897) and Dracula in Istanbul (1928)". In: Journal of Dracula Studies 21. [forthcoming]

    Kolsal, Yağmur Su: "The Instrumental Presence of Women in Le Morte Darthur as the Motifs of the Damsel in Distress, the Enchantress and the Seductress". In: Overtones Ege Journal of English Studies 2 (2023). [im Erscheinen]

    Gedik, Tan, and Yağmur Su Kolsal: "A Corpus-based Analysis of High School English Textbooks and English University Entrance Exams in Turkey". In: Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition 8/1 (2022): 157-76.

    Conference Papers

    11/2022 "'It's not an unkind thing to make a new home': Vampirism as Metaphor for Community Building and Healing in The Gilda Stories (1991)", "Recovering the Vampire: From Degeneration to Regenation", Edge Hill University [gemeinsam mit BAVS und BARS]
    11/2019 "Comparison Between Textbooks and University Entrance Exams in Turkey", 2nd TESOL Turkey International ELT Conference, "Teaching Generation Z: Passing on the Baton from K12 to University" [gemeinsam mit Yu, Xiaoli et al.]
    03/2019 "'Immortal Bird': Various Perceptions of Immortality in English Romantic Literature", Symposium, Ege University 9th International Undergraduate Symposium "Immortality"
  • Scholarships and Awards

    Scholarships

    since 10/2023 PhD scholarship, DAAD
    10/2016 - 06/2020 Scholarship for the Teacher Training Program, Ministry of National Education, Turkey

    Awards

    07/2022 METU 2020-2021 Academic Year Course Performance Award, Middle Eastern Technical University Graduate School of Social Sciences