Sevtap Baycılı is a Dutch

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...

of Turkish descent. Born in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

in 1968, she studied philosophy in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, earning the nickname "Miss Wittgenstein". She settled in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

in 1991. Her first novel, ''De Markov-keten'' ("The Markov chain", 1998) is an exploration of the thoughts of a psychiatric patient, obviously influenced by

Becket ''Becket or The Honour of God'' (), often shortened to ''Becket'', is a 1959 stage play written in French by Jean Anouilh. It is a depiction of the conflict between Thomas Becket and King Henry II of England leading to Becket's assassination in ...

, and with a strong philosophical element. A second novel, ''De nachtmerrie van de allochtoon'' ("The foreigner's nightmare", 1999) is a satirical, often comical comment on Dutch expectations of the

integration Integration may refer to: Biology *Multisensory integration *Path integration * Pre-integration complex, viral genetic material used to insert a viral genome into a host genome *DNA integration, by means of site-specific recombinase technology, ...

of foreigners. ''Donderpreken'' is

non-fiction Non-fiction (or nonfiction) is any document or content (media), media content that attempts, in good faith, to convey information only about the real life, real world, rather than being grounded in imagination. Non-fiction typically aims to pre ...

. Her journalistic work includes the interactive internet column ''Kip en ei zonder kop'' ("Chicken and egg without a head"), at Intermediair online. Three unpublished dramas go by the collective title of ''Reductio ad absurdum''. In English and Dutch sources, her surname is often written ''Baycili'', for want of the correct Turkish fonts.

References

*Graeme Dunphy, "Migrant, Emigrant, Immigrant: Recent Developments in Turkish-Dutch Literature", ''Neophilologus'', 85 (2001) 1-23. *Elma Nap-Kolhoff, ''Turkse auteurs in Nederland: verkenning van een onontgonnen gebied'', 2002.

References

See also