Sevgi Ayakları: A Reading of the 1980 Coup through “Docile Subjects”
Ayşe Sancak DenizThis study analyses Sevgi Ayakları, a 1992 play written by Memet Baydur, within the framework of individual alienation and the internalization of social reality prevailed upon by dominant powers. The analysis also draws from sociologists Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann’s theory of social construction of reality. In this regard, the fact that individuals, who have internalized cultural, economic and political realities constructed by the September 12th, 1980 coup d’état through oppression and violence, have become self-alienated from the society is dealt with by considering the breakdown of reality by the dominant powers reigning over social reality, aiming at collective memory. Furthermore, the 1980 coup’s altering individuals’ subjective realities and norms while creating docile subjects through ideological and oppression apparatus is evaluated using Michel Foucault’s concept of “disciplinary power“.
Sevgi Ayakları: “Uysal Özneler” Üzerinden Bir 12 Eylül Okuması
Ayşe Sancak DenizBu çalışma Bilgi Sosyologu olan Peter L. Berger ve Thomas Luckmann’ın gerçekliğin sosyal inşası kuramından yola çıkarak Memet Baydur’un 1992 yılında yazdığı Sevgi Ayakları adlı oyununu egemen güçlerin hegemonik olduğu toplumsal gerçekliği içselleştiren bireylerin kendi ürettikleri gerçekliğe yabancılaşması bağlamında incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu anlamda 12 Eylül 1980 Askeri Darbesinin baskı ve şiddetle kurguladığı siyasal, ekonomik ve kültürel gerçekliklerini içselleştiren bireylerinin kendilerine ve topluma yabancılaşması, toplumsal gerçeklik üzerinde hegemonik olan egemen gücün kolektif belleği hedef alarak gerçeklik zeminini bozması yönünden ele alınacaktır. Ayrıca 12 Eylül’ün ideolojik ve baskı aygıtları aracılığıyla uysal özne inşa etme sürecinde bireyin öznel gerçekliklerini ve normlarını değiştirmesi, Michel Foucault’un disiplinci iktidar kavramıyla birlikte değerlendirilecektir.
In their theory on the social construction of reality, the sociologists Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann state that objective reality is a man-made product. Through reification, humans have internalized it as a heavenly product that has emerged without their interference. The contradiction of experiencing this world as something other than man-made while being capable of creating it corresponds to the reification of reality or its reflection as alienated. However, the intervention of the dominant power to form or manipulate perceptions of reality by attributing meanings to ideas, notions and actions indicates that social reality has not been constructed or generated by supernatural powers as natural laws are, out of the blue, on their own. On the contrary, it showcases that reality is open to manipulation and fictional because it is a result of the dominant power or view. Thus, the 1980 military coup d’état can be said to be an initiative to create a new social reality that was compatible with the interests of dominant powers, altering the existing reality via the government apparatus of oppression and ideology.
Following the 1980 coup, the social reality was reconstructed per the requirements of neoliberal economic policies, which included consumption, egocentrism, image, docility and other identities appropriated by the dominant ideology. Masses that produced social practice, such as foundations, organisations, associations, unions, political parties, higher education institutions, and media outlets, were prevented from congregating through depoliticisation and the way for the establishment and adoption of dominant ideology was laid open. The individual producing the former regime’s discourse became insignificant, neutralized, marginalized, and ostracized.
In Michel Foucault’s “disciplinary power,” the individual disciplines themselves through a self-evaluation that employs the norms of the power. In disciplinary power, individuals turn into the desired docile subjects by learning and internalizing the hierarchy, discourses of truth, norms, differences, and comparisons that are produced for them. Individuals internalize what is good, bad, true, wrong, desirable, and undesirable; who is persona grata; and who is a traitor for the regime via the control mechanisms imprinted in them through institutions such as prisons, courts and schools. This type of power is closely related to the 1980 coup that turned organizations, masses and individuals held responsible for chaos, violence, instability, and defiance against reigning power into docile and apolitical subjects. The optimal subject internalizes the realities of the new order, with their conscience monitored through the government apparatus of oppression and ideology.
Memet Baydur began writing plays in the early 1980s. He produced plays that showcased the 1980 regime, which masked the interests of dominant powers and built a new social reality to construct an identity compatible with those interests. As a witness to the 1980 military intervention, Baydur aimed to demonstrate physical and mental devastation of a society that lost its grounding in reality, by addressing the predicaments, strangeness, lack of communication, and alienation of the individual whom the 1980 coup not only alienated, silenced, and suppressed but also diminished and made unworthy. In Sevgi Ayakları, Baydur scrutinizes the new world order as exemplified by an urban middle class consumed by egocentrism, materialism, and greed. He displays the contradictions of the disciplined individual, questions their cliché values and exposes their highbrow standing as banal and insensitive, ultimately criticizing the social reality the 1980 coup regime strived to construct. This study aims to demonstrate that the 1980 coup, having imprinted the disciplinary power in the individual and disrupted their perception of reality, is a project of constructing an identity that is compatible with the interests of the reigning powers over society through a play dealing with post-1980 individuals who are criticized for their lack of identity and memory.
