Civilization and Discontents: A Critical View at Civilization in Sema Kaygusuz's Works
Zeliha DişciThis study aims to reveal how well Sema Kaygusuz’s literary works relate to the idea of civilization and claims that Kaygusuz’s works illustrate not only the ways in which civilization functions but also the places where it does not. They take a critical view of civilization in that way. The study argues that the author’s works draw attention to the artificiality of the borders on which civilization is based because of the works’ critical view of the concept of civilization and focuses on what kind of discontents this artificiality creates in human life. To show the different aspects of the relationship of Kaygusuz’s works with the concept, the first part of the the study touches on the civilization concept and the representation of civilized life in the author’s works. The second part demonstrates the discontents brought about by the operation of civilization as “oppressive power” in human life and their representations in the author’s works. The last part tries to determine the point of view on civilization in Kaygusuz’s works and to illustrate what kind of method they have adopted in dealing with the discontent in question. Thus, the study draws the conclusion that Kaygusuz’s works are not merely representation and defense of civilized life, but rather a literature situated at its borders. By this means, Kaygusuz’s works recognize the discontents caused by civilization in human beings and are positioned beyond civilization by trying to overcome those discontents in literary space.
Uygarlık ve Huzursuzluklar: Sema Kaygusuz’un Eserlerinde Uygarlığa Eleştirel Bir Bakış
Zeliha DişciBu çalışmanın amacı, Sema Kaygusuz’un eserlerinin uygarlık kavramıyla nasıl bir ilişki kurduğunu ortaya koymaktır. Kaygusuz’un eserlerinde uygarlığın işleme şeklinin yanı sıra bu işleyişin insanlarda yarattığı huzursuzlukların sergilenerek uygarlığa eleştirel bir şekilde yaklaşıldığı fikrinden hareket eden bu çalışmada eserlerin nasıl dikkati uygarlığın dayandığı sınırların yapaylığına çektiğine, bu yapaylığın insan yaşamında ne gibi huzursuzluklar yarattığına odaklanılır. Kaygusuz’un eserlerinin kavramla kurduğu ilişkinin farklı açılarını göstermek amacıyla çalışmanın ilk kısmında uygarlık kavramına ve yazarın eserlerinde uygarlığın temsil biçimine değinilir. İkinci kısımda, “baskıcı iktidar” alanı olarak uygarlığın insan yaşamında yarattığı huzursuzlukların yazarın eserlerinde nasıl temsil edildiği gösterilir. Son bölümde ise yazarın eserlerinin uygarlığa bakış açısı tespit edilip söz konusu huzursuzluklarla baş etmede eserlerde öne çıkan yönteme odaklanılır. Böylelikle Kaygusuz’un eserlerinin uygar yaşamın yalın bir temsili ve savunusu olmaktan ziyade uygarlığın sınırlarında konumlanan, bu sayede onun insanda yarattığı huzursuzlukları gören ve bunları edebi uzamda aşmaya çalışmasıyla uygarlığın ötesinde konumlanan bir edebiyatın parçası olduğu sonucuna varılır.
The purpose of this study is to show the extent to which the literary works of Sema Kaygusuz are related to the idea of civilization. In this study, it is claimed that Kaygusuz’s works show not only how civilization works but also the places where it does not work. In that way, those works cast a critical eye on civilization. The study argues that because of the critical look at the concept of civilization, the author’s works can draw attention to the artificiality of the boundaries on which civilization is based and focus on what kind of discontent this artificiality creates in human life. Kaygusuz’s works are a field in which both the figures that represent civilization and civilized people and the others (nature/natural/barbaric) that exclude them are visible. The works are not a defense of the controlling, hegemonic, and cultural man in the position of the master of civilization. Rather, they show the functioning of civilization and the forms of resistance that this process exerts on the beings in life as a whole, thus becoming visible the interruptions and nonfunctioning.
Kaygusuz’s works are the representation of civilization. They are also places where those who are excluded from civilization appear in their own voices, encounter civilization, and reshape it. Based on that idea, this study aims to show the forms in which resistance to the demands of civilized life as well as the functioning of civilization are manifested in Kaygusuz’s works. According to this study, which claims that those manifestations and resistances can be called “discontent,” inspired by Sigmund Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents (2013), the discontent against which civilization is positioned is reproduced within the functioning of civilized life. The existence of the civilized is coordinated with the existence of the uncivilized. The civilization that draws the boundaries of human life loses life as a whole, regardless of what it excludes, whether natural or artificial. Those losses manifest themselves in individuallife and in social, political, and natural catastrophes that occur in social life. Although some people accept the losses caused by civilization and the sacrifices it demands and go on with their lives, some others consciously or unconsciously do not comply with the demands of civilization. Thus, it opens the door to another life. The discontent created by civilization and forms of existence other than civilized exist from the bottom up in life, but they influence, change, and transform civilization.
According to this study, which was created to reveal civilization, the dissatisfaction created by civilization in people, and the proposed solution against this dissatisfaction developed in Sema Kaygusuz’s works, it can be said that Kaygusuz’s narratives go beyond the function of transmitting the values of the existing civilization. Looking at Kaygusuz’s works that question the values of civilization, civilization is a worldly concept and appears as a human fiction. Every concept, role, and position ideally glorified by civilization is a fiction. However, those fictions effectively regulate people’s lives and curtail their existence. We can say that this representation of civilization dominated by repressive power is the continuation of the understanding of civilization by thinkers such as Freud and Elias in the literary space. The prescriptions of civilization alienate people from themselves and their environment. Thus, civilization, which purports to remove violence from daily life, reintroduces it. A life born of alienation becomes a life dominated by violence and unhappiness. The works of Kaygusuz, which we can claim show the effects of civilization that reproduces life and simultaneously reduces it, listen to the barbarian who absorbs all that civilization rejects, excludes from life, and considers sinister and makes the voice of the barbarian heard. Because civilization is close to nature and the natural, it lets the woman, the child, the animal, and the plant speak and become themselves. They change the “negative” relationship that civilization establishes with the Other, creating an impossible relationship with the Other when viewed from civilization. They disrupt the framework of civilization created by distinctions. Thus, they can go beyond civilization in literary space and imagine an unequal, hierarchical, noncolonial form of relationship with the Other. We can say that this possibility can be interpreted as a strategy to cope with the discontent caused by civilization in Kaygusuz’s works.
