Meet the Author #5
Şeyda Kurt
In September 2024, series curator Maha El Hissy met with author Şeyda Kurt to discuss Kurt’s 2023 book, Hass [Hate]. Their conversation provided an in-depth look at the development and central themes of Kurt’s new publication, a work that illuminates the cultural, political, and aesthetic dimensions of hate.
Şeyda Kurt described how this, her second book, actually grew out of a period of writer’s block. Originally, Kurt had intended to write a humorous work, but the resonance of her first book, Radikale Zärtlichkeit [Radical Tenderness] (2021) and the overarching questions it provoked ultimately motivated her to pursue a deeper engagement with the topic of hate. Kurt described her investigation of the ambivalent and often contradictory nature of the subject, and the attempt to distance her project from a simple juxtaposition of love versus hate. Instead, Kurt’s intention was to examine the productive, political, and resistant power of hate and return focus to the subjectification of those marginalized group who are frequently its target.
The book is divided into two parts: Hass [Hate], a genealogy of the term in the context of western culture, philosophy, and intellectual history, and Hassen [Hatred], which investigates hate as an active and ethical practice. Kurt differentiates between modes of hate—like the ascription of hate onto colonized subjects, self-hate, or the hate of the ruling class. She interrogates how marginalized people can utilize hate strategically to scrutinize and transform power dynamics. In doing so, she critiques dichotomous representations of love and hate in western cultural history to show how these two emotions both reference and determine one another.
A central reference point of Kurt’s work is Rojava, the autonomous region in northern and eastern Syria organized around principles of radical democracy, feminism, and ecology. For Kurt, Rojava is an example of a society working actively to subvert colonial and patriarchal structures despite systemic oppression and violence: a vision for the advancement of alternative ways of living. These experiences and histories are integral components of her reflection on resistant hate and opportunities for societal transformation.
A further point of focus revolved around the form of the book itself, which makes a conscious break from convention through its fragmentary structure, repetition, and theatrical aesthetics. Kurt described her desire to capture the complexity and simultaneity of emotions and experience through stylistic choices. The structure of her book mirrors the complex examination of the subject matter—extending from historical figures like Frantz Fanon through to contemporary contexts like Rojava.
In conversation, Kurt expressed her position that hate, in and of itself, is neither good nor bad, making a case for the resistant potential of hate without ignoring the dangers of its destructive power. Through an approach that advocates for the elimination of oppressive systems inspired by political movements like police abolition, she argues that hate can function as a productive medium. It can be employed to deconstruct unsustainable structures and create space for care work, tenderness, and social justice.
Our event provided attendees with a lively discussion on writing from the first-person perspective, the relationship between objectivity and subjectivity, as well as how to handle personal experience in the context of non-fiction. Şeyda Kurt succeeded in examining the complex subject of hate with both humor and sincerity—a skill she also demonstrates in her book, for example, through playful elements such as positing a fictive Karl Marx as chat partner.
The book is divided into two parts: Hass [Hate], a genealogy of the term in the context of western culture, philosophy, and intellectual history, and Hassen [Hatred], which investigates hate as an active and ethical practice. Kurt differentiates between modes of hate—like the ascription of hate onto colonized subjects, self-hate, or the hate of the ruling class. She interrogates how marginalized people can utilize hate strategically to scrutinize and transform power dynamics. In doing so, she critiques dichotomous representations of love and hate in western cultural history to show how these two emotions both reference and determine one another.
A central reference point of Kurt’s work is Rojava, the autonomous region in northern and eastern Syria organized around principles of radical democracy, feminism, and ecology. For Kurt, Rojava is an example of a society working actively to subvert colonial and patriarchal structures despite systemic oppression and violence: a vision for the advancement of alternative ways of living. These experiences and histories are integral components of her reflection on resistant hate and opportunities for societal transformation.
A further point of focus revolved around the form of the book itself, which makes a conscious break from convention through its fragmentary structure, repetition, and theatrical aesthetics. Kurt described her desire to capture the complexity and simultaneity of emotions and experience through stylistic choices. The structure of her book mirrors the complex examination of the subject matter—extending from historical figures like Frantz Fanon through to contemporary contexts like Rojava.
In conversation, Kurt expressed her position that hate, in and of itself, is neither good nor bad, making a case for the resistant potential of hate without ignoring the dangers of its destructive power. Through an approach that advocates for the elimination of oppressive systems inspired by political movements like police abolition, she argues that hate can function as a productive medium. It can be employed to deconstruct unsustainable structures and create space for care work, tenderness, and social justice.
Our event provided attendees with a lively discussion on writing from the first-person perspective, the relationship between objectivity and subjectivity, as well as how to handle personal experience in the context of non-fiction. Şeyda Kurt succeeded in examining the complex subject of hate with both humor and sincerity—a skill she also demonstrates in her book, for example, through playful elements such as positing a fictive Karl Marx as chat partner.