Oriental Mirrors of Fictional Physiognomy: Non-Western Modernity and a Cognitive Cultural Reading of the Modern Turkish Novel
Murat LüleciThe human face and the body have long been considered as enigmatic plates in which deep shades of meaning occur. Studies within İlm-i Sima in the East and physiognomy in the West gained momentum with the emergence of cultural studies in the second half of the twentieth century. Physiognomy examines the human face and the body as symbolic spaces of cultural signs. The novel, on the other hand, manifests a space where these physiognomies are being displayed. The objective of this study is to reveal the physiognomy of Turkish modernization as a Non-western modernity and to analyze the handling of knowledge (epistemology) and being (ontology) in the modern Turkish novel through the physiognomy of fictional characters. A close reading of Halit Ziya’s novels through Foucault’s notions of historical a priori and archive revealed that the characters’ faces bodies can be interpreted as the precursors of a new epistemology. CloseC readings of Peyami Safa’s novels Yalnızız and Matmazel Noraliya’nın Koltuğu through Daryush Shayegan’s notion of ontological displacement showed that Safa designed the faces and bodies of his characters as cultural symbols as well as the representation of his philosophical ideals. The selected texts Mai ve Siyah and Aşk-ı Memnu by Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil as well as Yalnızız and Matmazel Noraliya’nın Koltuğu by Peyami Safa will be examined through the lense of the physiognomy of characters in terms of their relation to the peculiarity of Turkish modernization as non-Western modernity.
Kurgusal Fizyonominin Şarkî Aynaları: Batı-dışı Modernite ve Modern Türk Romanı Üzerinde Bilişsel Bir Kültür Çözümlemesi
Murat Lüleciİnsan yüzü ve bedeni eski çağlardan bu yana derin anlamların toplandığı sırlı bir levha olarak görülmüştür. Doğu’da ilm-i sima, Batı’da fizyonomi bünyesinde gerçekleştirilen araştırmalar, yirminci yüzyılın ikinci yarısından itibaren kültür çalışmalarıyla birlikte yeni bir ivme kazanır. Fizyonomi, son yıllarda insan yüzü ve bedenini kültürel kodların biriktiği simgesel bir alan olarak ele almakta, roman da karakter fizyonomisi üzerinden bu simgelerin çözümlendiği bir alana karşılık gelmektedir. Araştırmanın amacı, Batı-dışı bir modernite olarak Türk modernleşmesinin fizyonomisini ortaya koymak ve Türk romanında bilgi ve varlık sorunsallarının ele alınışını karakterlerin yüz ve beden görünümleri üzerinden çözümlemektir. Halit Ziya’nın Mai ve Siyah ile Aşk-ı Memnu romanları üzerinde Foucault’nun tarihsel a priori ve arşiv kavramları üzerinden gerçekleştirdiğimiz yakın okumalar, adı geçen romanlarda karakterlerin yüz ve beden biçimlerinin yeni bir epistemolojinin habercisi olduğunu ortaya koymuştur. Diğer yandan Peyami Safa’nın Yalnızız ve Matmazel Noraliya’nın Koltuğu adlı romanlarında Daryush Shayegan’ın ontolojik kopuş kavramı üzerinden gerçekleştirdiğimiz yakın okumalar, Safa’nın varlık sorunsalını ele alırken, kurguladığı karakterlerin yüz ve bedenlerini kültürel birer simge alanı olarak tasarladığını göstermiştir. Sözü edilen yakın okumalar sayesinde anlaşılmıştır ki Türk Modernleşmesinin Batı-dışı bir epistemoloji ve ontolojiden kaynaklandığını ve yine kendine has bir bilgi ve varlık çizgisinde ilerlediğini ortaya koyabilmek için, karakter fizyonomisinin incelenmesi büyük önem taşımaktadır.
The meaning of the human face and the body has been a subject of curiosity since ancient times. The Western tradition of physiognomy and phrenology as well as the Eastern tradition of ilm-i sima (knowledge of the face), ilm-i firaset (knowledge of foresight) and ilm-i kıyafet (knowledge of the apparel) establish a connection between the face and body of the human and his inner world and character. Although these fields are generally accepted as pseudo-science, recent studies have revealed that the human face and body are closely related to culture and literature. The works of Johan K. Lavater deeply affected the 19th century Western novel, and Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil, the first important representative of the modern Turkish novel, wrote his book ilm-i sima influenced by Lavater. However, a cultural analysis of character physiognomy in the context of Turkish modernization has not been carried out. Thus, this study will treat character physiognomy as a cultural symbol and perform an epistemological and ontological analysis on the modern Turkish novel.
Turkish modernization, similar to other modernities that have developed outside the West, was previously established as a non-Western modernity. The unique structure of Turkish modernization has been reflected in the physiognomy of the Turkish novel. Thus, the face and body forms of fictional characters have been realized in an epistemological and ontological system that is different from the West. Our recentr close readings showed that Michel Foucault’s notions of historical a priori and archive provide a relevant framework in the analysis of Halit Ziya’s novels and revealed how his texts can be interpreted as plates of deep cultural meanings in terms of non-Western modernity. Foucault puts historical a priori as a condition of reality for statements. He is in pursuit of “the conditions of emergence of statements, the law of their co-existence with others, the specific form of their mode of being, the principles according to which they survive, become transformed, and disappear”. Similarly, in Foucault’s words, “the archive is not that which, despite its immediate escape, safeguards the event of the statement, and preserves, for future memories, its status as an escapee; it is that which, at the very root of the statement-event, and in that which embodies it, defines at the outset the system of its enunciability”.
When viewed through Foucault’s notions of historical a priori and archive, it has been observed that the physiognomy of Halit Ziya’s characters reflect a change evolving from an absolute discourse to a modern one in the Western sense. In İntibah, which is the representative of the Tanzimat novel, Ali Bey’s sight or way of looking is based on edeb (decency)/shyness, whereas in Aşk-ı Memnu, the state of vision/looking between Behlül and Bihter is shaped through the concepts of sin, guilt and degradation. Thus, character physiognomy, reflected as sight or smile, is in fact, not a simple description of a fictional scene, but an expression of a changing mindset.
Peyami Safa, on the other hand, is a novelist known for his ability to describe his characters in their psychological depth and also for his investigations into some of the most central philosophical questions such as being, time, knowledge and reality. Our close readings not only showed that Safa was one of the Turkish novelists with the highest knowledge of physiognomy, but also showed that he was making the most of character physiognomy when constructing his philosophical approaches. The most striking example of this is the moment when people are told, in Yalnızız, that they will only be taken to the ideal country Simeranya with a physiognomy and a manners test. Thus, physiognomy ceases to be a simple facial and bodily appearance and becomes a symbolic domain of the novelist’s modern mysticism.
