English Language and Literature

About the Department

The Department of English Language and Literature at Tekirdag Namik Kemal University offers since 2010 a full-time comprehensive, wide-ranging and interdisciplinary education in English language and in English, American, and world literature and culture during one year of the preparatory class, four years of the Bachelor programme, two years of the Master programme, and four years of the Doctorate programme.

We aim to make sure that the specialists emerging from our Department would find possibilities of employment in all education establishments from primary and secondary to higher education institutions, as well as in governmental bodies, institutes of scientific research, cultural organizations, publishing houses, and other institutions.

The undergraduate and graduate studies are designed to provide the students with overall and indispensable knowledge of literature and literary studies, linguistics, philosophy, mythology, and so on through various specialized compulsory and elective courses in English philology and not only.

Our teaching staff consists of 3 professors, 2 associate professors, 1 assistant professor, 4 lecturers, and 3 research assistants. Among them, Professor Hasan Boynukara is specialized in contemporary English literature; Professor Tatiana Golban in comparative literature and drama studies; Professor Petru Golban in the nineteenth-century and twentieth-century English literature as well as in literary theory and criticism; Associate Professor Cansu Özge Özmen in American literature and culture; Buğra Zengin in English language teaching; Assistant Professor Fulya Kincal in English literature and gender studies; lecturer Tuğçe Bıçakçı Syed in fiction and poetry studies and English literature; research assistants Derya Benli and Özge Karip Seyrek in English literature and contemporary fiction; and, last but not least, our research assistant Ulaş Özgün in the Middle Ages, early modern literature, and drama studies.

Apart from teaching, our lecturers participate in international scientific conferences and publish specialized articles in various international journals, as well as scientific books and monographs at prestigious publishing houses in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Germany.

Applying the most recent theoretical and methodological developments in the field of English studies, and by means of audio-visual and computer-based devices, our lecturers in their classes cover a vast material which includes, among other concerns, the literary practice and critical thinking related to major periods, movements, trends, and genres of English literature, as well as the development of European and world literature, contemporary trends and schools of literary theory and criticism, comparative literature, linguistics, text and discourse analysis, translation studies, and others.

Our Department of English Language and Literature aims to provide the students with theoretical knowledge and analytical and creative skills so as to understand and evaluate literature from an academic point of view by learning – through reading literary texts and literary criticism texts – the characteristics, literary conventions and genres, movements and trends, main writers and major works, and the literary interaction and continuity of different periods until post-postmodernity.

It is also designed to develop and enhance the critical and comparative skills of the students as well as their oral communication and writing skills in a foreign language concerning artistic creativity and resourcefulness of literature, a major purpose being the inquiry into the literary practice and cultural milieu of the different periods in British and Western literature.

Apart from this, the major focus is on the writer and the work, a focus which puts forward as other objectives the study and evaluation of the literary texts in terms of text analysis regarding the literary concepts and literary theory and criticism, as well as how they reflect their time and represent important sources of insight into issues of culture, philosophy, ethics, and gender, revealing national mentality and cultural identity along with intertextual and cross-cultural perspectives.

The Department provides the understanding and interest concerning literary work, the formation of a modern view on literature and art, and the acquisition of the most recent theoretical and critical advances in the field of literary and cultural studies.

It is also important for the development of analytical thinking and the capacity to make associations and comparisons of different writings from national and world literature, which would lead eventually to the acquirement of the knowledge of literary phenomenon in general as well as of particular authors and texts, their artistic values and message.

The broad exemplification and comparison allow for the logical abstractization and generalization with regard to the contribution of literature to the consolidation of a national and a European cultural identity, along with special insights into issues concerning history, mentality, race, nationality, gender, globalism, ethics, and art of the Western world.

In addition, our students learn a second foreign language (French, German, Spanish, or Japanese) and are strongly encouraged to study a third one by choosing it as an elective course. They are also encouraged to participate in the Erasmus Programme and become members of different clubs. Our Erasmus partners are from Spain, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Lithuania, and other countries.

With regard to their employment opportunities, our graduates can apply for a position in state and private education institutions and research centres at home and abroad or a specialist position in various Government sectors and different kinds of companies in private sector.

Since its foundation in 2010, our Department schooled a great number of professionals, thousands of both bachelor's and master's graduates. Presently enrolled, we have 378 bachelor students, 49 master students, and 5 doctorate students.

Every year we expect new students to join our academic family and for this, you are most welcome to apply to our university and Department and become our students.

Prof. Dr. Petru Golban,

Department Chair