What Do We Learn from the Leylâ Erbil Bibliyography? An Empirical Overview of Leylâ Erbil’s Literature and its Reception

Abstract

Bibliographies are not just the lists of an author’s works, their interviews, and studies written about them. They also serve as a source for interpreting the political and historical context and the history of the author’s reception. Thus, bibliographical studies include a wide range of dynamics from the institutions of literature to the publication market, from the demands of the readers to the horizon of expectations of a certain period and cultural policy. The complex web of relations between the writer, their literature, the reader and the cultural context becomes visible through these studies. This article analyzes Leylâ Erbil’s bibliography using information collected from the Leylâ Erbil Archive and digital humanities. Using the bibliographical data as a guide for understanding the dynamics of Leylâ Erbil’s work, literary studies and literary milieu of various periods, this article asks new questions about literary history. We explain the reasons for the decisions regarding the formation and categorization of the material, and we distinguish our study of Leylâ Erbil from other bibliographical studies. This article not only aims to contribute to contemporary studies on Leylâ Erbil but it also suggests a new reading of Erbil’s oeuvre and discusses the genre of bibliography as a field of literary studies.