http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12323/8206 2026-04-04T03:29:04Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12323/8211 Title: Dark Laughter in Uniform: Humor and Militarism in Gregory Burke’s Black Watch Authors: Mirza, Pelin Gölcük Abstract: Gregory Burke’s Black Watch, which premiered at the 2006 Edinburgh International Festival, focuses on the experiences of Scottish soldiers deployed to Iraq in 2003. The play makes extensive use of dark humor by juxtaposing laughter and pain, valor and absurdity, military and civilian life, in order to reveal the contradictions of contemporary militarism. Rather than celebrating patriotism or sacrifice, Burke undermines the romanticized narratives of heroism through profanity, abrupt shifts in tone, and mock-heroic scenes. Dark humor, thus, functions as both a coping strategy for soldiers’ trauma and a satirical device that subverts political rhetoric about the war. By situating Scotland’s Black Watch regiment through humor within this framework, Burke reconfigures war not as a story of noble call but as a site of absurd exploitation of soldiers. The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate how Black Watch employs dark humor as a literary tool that destabilizes political rhetoric, heroic myths, and nationalist sentiment. 2025-09-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12323/8210 Title: Adultery and Infidelity: A Comparative Study of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil' s Aşk-ı Memnû (Forbidden Love) Authors: Güven, Fikret Abstract: Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (1899) and Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil’s Aşk-ıMemnû (Forbidden Love, 1900) explore the oppressive gender expectations placed upon women in their societies of late 19th-century Louisiana Creole and Ottoman Istanbul. Despite their cultural and geographical differences, both novels depict heroines who are seeking personal autonomy and emotional fulfillment. However, they ultimately succumb to the rigid constraints of patriarchy. Edna Pontellier and Bihter Ziyagül embark on transformative journeys that challenge prescribed gender roles through extramarital relationships, yet their desires for independence are met with societal condemnation. Edna’s rebellion stems from self-discovery and existential awakening, whereas a quest for passion and social validation shapes Bihter’s actions. Both women’s tragic suicides reveal the inescapable consequences of defying patriarchal norms, which underscore the systematic limitations placed on female agency. This comparative study situates The Awakening and Aşk-ıMemnû within feminist and psychoanalytic frameworks and it draws on theories by Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler, Sigmund Freud, and other related theoreticians to analyze the intersection of gender, desire, and social order. By highlighting the structural barriers that deny women autonomy, the analysis shows how both works serve as criticism of gendered oppression and reflect the broader struggles of women who navigate patriarchal expectations across different cultural contexts. 2025-09-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12323/8209 Title: From Black Umay to Albasti and From Yellow Girl to Martu: Reflection of Evil Spirits in Uzbek Folklore Authors: Haydarova, Dilbar Abstract: Binary moral cosmologies—from Yin–Yang and Zoroastrian dualism to the God–Devil polarity—have long organized Eurasian thought. Uzbek oral literature participates in this horizon through persistent figures of benevolent and malevolent spirits that aid or obstruct heroic protagonists. To trace the historical development and literary functions of iyes (protective spirits) and yeys (harmful spirits) in Uzbek Turkic belief and narrative, and to identify their survivals in contemporary everyday practice. The study integrates close readings of canonical epics and folktales with comparative Central Asian and Islamicate folkloristics, supported by etymological analysis and targeted ethnographic notes. A diachronic typology is constructed to map motifs, domains, and moral valences. Uzbek narratives consistently encode a helper–harmer binary anchored in spatial domains (hearth, water, steppe, mountain) and ethical functions (protection, trial, sanction). These spirits traverse religious strata—pre-Islamic, Islamic, and modern—through syncretic resemanticization. Core attributes persist while roles are recalibrated to shifting social norms; vestiges remain visible in idioms, taboos, and household rituals. Iyes and yeys constitute a durable imaginative grammar through which communities negotiate risk, virtue, and social order. Their adaptability explains both longevity in texts and resilience in practice. The article standardizes terminology, proposes a typology linking domain and function, and demonstrates text-to-practice continuities, thereby furnishing a comparative framework for Turkic and broader Central Asian spiritologies. 2025-09-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12323/8208 Title: Impact of Age, Gender, and Education on Dialect Word Usage in the Shaki Dialect of Azerbaijani Authors: Abbasova, Milana; Salimli, Eljan Abstract: This article deals with the relationship between social variables and dialect word usage in Shaki, Azerbaijan. The research employed a quantitative correlational research design. The data was collected from 176 informants, who were native speakers of the Shaki dialect of Azerbaijani, via an online questionnaire. Twenty dialect words from the Shaki region were included in the closed-ended questionnaire. The respondents wereinstructed toprovidedemographicinformation about themselves and to indicate whether they used the selected terms in their everyday speech. The results showed that the older speakers used dialect words more often than the younger ones. Besides, the males used more dialectal forms in their everyday speech than the females. While there was a general trend that higher education led to a decrease in the use of dialect words, the difference between uneducated and university-educated respondents was insignificant. This suggests that education may play a role in shaping language practices; nonetheless, it does not completely eliminate the use of local dialect forms among speakers. The findings of the study contribute to the general knowledge of dialectal variation in Azerbaijani and emphasize the need to consider sociological factors in the analysis of language use. Additionally, this article calls for further studies that employ qualitative methods and include broader regional comparisons to obtain more comprehensive knowledge of dialect usage in different areas of the country. 2025-09-01T00:00:00Z