Arts & Humanities Symposium Ozgen Felek, Michaela Schrage-Frueh

 
Unusual Animals in the Dreams of Murad III Ozgen Felek This present study looks at animals as dream figures in the Ottoman dream works and dream interpretations. In particular, unusual animals which appear in the dreams of Murad III (r. 1574-1595) will be discussed. The unique intertextual relation between his dream accounts and well-known literary texts of his time will be closely analyzed in order to demonstrate how these unusual animal figures were re-depicted in his dreams. Dreaming Fictions, Writing Dreams: Intersections Between Dreams and Literature Michaela Schrage-Frueh Dreaming and imaginative writing are "manifestations of the same biological need to convert experience into structure," i.e. to tell stories, and both "may be serving common purposes" that "have something to do with our survival." This evolutionary approach to dreams and storytelling implies that study of dreams and of fictions may be mutually enlightening in ways surpassing the level of traditional literary dream analyses. I explore intersections between dreams and consciously created fictions by analysing representative examples from the Renaissance to the present.