This book is the Turkish translation of Antithèses, originally published by Éditions Gallimard.

It is said that a tidal relationship exists between literary and academic fields. Authors and academics are considered each other’s antitheses. So, is there an impenetrable wall between these two worlds, and is there no way bridging them?

Antitheses reveals how the paths of literary and academic writing cross through the very special material that is the “author’s thesis.” In the context of author theses, could academic work not be a literary investment, or how much could literary work be influenced by academic research?

Mallarmé had begun writing a thesis on linguistics to escape his existential crisis. Péguy wrote his thesis as a lengthy insult addressed to the Sorbonne. Paulhan’s thesis had gotten lost in numerous manuscripts spanning over thirty-five years. During his doctoral defense, Céline presented to the jury his self-portrait vaguely hidden behind a eulogy to a Hungarian doctor. Barthes argued that the thesis should be an “erotic body.”

Focusing on the experience of France, Antitheses aims to make contributions to the history (that of the relationship of authors with the university) between the university and literature that waits to be written, and it provides a historical investigation in which the literary and academic worlds clash and challenge each other. The work also functions as an anti-guide for thesis writing, in which authors question academic norms and forms as they distill their writing advice.