Mimar/Arkitekt Dergisi metinlerinde melankoli: 1931-1941

Abstract

Bu tez, Cumhuriyet dönemi Türkiye mimarlığının en önemli problemlerinden biri olan kimlik konusundan yola çıkar. Bir türlü tatmin edici bir temsiline ulaşılamayan ve aranmaktan bir türlü vazgeçilemeyen kimliğin nasıl kurgulanmaya başlandığını anlamak üzere tez, erken dönemde yayınlanmış Mimar/Arkitekt dergisinin metinlerine başvurmuştur. Bu kapsamda dergide 1931 -1941 arası yayınlanmış metinlerin yöneldiği konular ve söylem analiz edilmiştir. Dönem, kayıp teması üzerinden ve melankoli aracılığıyla kavramsallaştırılmaya çalışılmakta; buna göre bu erken dönemde kimliğin melankolik bir kayıp olarak kurgulandığı öne sürülmektedir. Mesleğin profesyonelleşmesi ve kurumlaşması için çalışan ve iş yapma haklarını savunan mimarlar, kendilerini dönemin en önemli işvereni olan devlete kabul ettirmek üzere harekete geçmiş görünürler. Ülkede iş yapma hakkının kendilerinde olduğu iddiasıyla ortaya çıkmış, bu iddiayı tarihsel bir meşruiyet zeminine oturtma çabasına girişmişlerdir. Dolayısıyla sadece mimarlıkta Türk kimliğini değil, Türk mimarının kimliğini de kurgulamaya koyulmuşlardır. Onlara göre bu kimlik, Batılılaşma dönemiyle birlikte yozlaşmış, bozulmuş ve kaybedilmiş bir kimliktir. Mimar/Arkitekt dergisinde ele alınan dönemde bu kaybın nasıl gerçekleştiği travmatik bir hikaye olarak tekrar tekrar anlatılırken bir yandan da bu kimliğin varolduğu dönem ve o dönemin mimarları da anıtsallaştırılır. Metinlerin analizi, dergide yazan mimarların bu kayıp kimlikle özdeşleştiklerini, dolayısıyla tarihi, güncel istek ve arzuları kadar eleştiri ve kızgınlıklarını da dile getirmenin bir aracı olarak kullandıklarını ortaya koymaktadır. Mimar/Arkitekt dergisinin bu ilk 10 yılında yayınlanan metinlerin melankoli paralelinde okunması, derginin bu dönemde başka dönemlerde pek benzerine rastlanmayacak kadar coşkulu ve duygularını dışa vuran, sık sık öfkeli söylemini de açıklamaktadır. Tez, metinlerde kimliğin melankolik bir kayıp olarak nasıl kurgulandığını ve bu kayıpla özdeşleşildiğini takip eder. Böylesi bir melankolik özdeşleşme mekanizmasının işlemesi sonucunda narsistik bir regresyonla egonun içine çekilince geçmiş bir yandan hiç bitmez, bir yandan da onu anlamanın ve anlatmanın dili de, yas gibi, imkânsızlaşır.

The thesis considers identity as one of the most important problematics of the architecture of the Republican period. The lasting search for identity goes on while satisfactory representations has yet to be attained. The thesis looks at earliest architectural magazine "Mimar/Arkitekt"s first ten years and analyzes the subject matters as well as discourse, to understand how identity started to be constructed. Mimar/Arkitekt magazine is chosen for the discourse analysis for many reasons. First of all, it has to be stated that it is the first architectural magazine published in Turkey and for the first ten year period that the thesis covers, it was the only one. The beginning of its publication also marks the beginning of a period of architecture in Turkey, which is mostly stylistically categorized as "Rational/Functionalist Period" or "New Architecture" and the group of architects who started its publication also seemed to be the prominent defenders of this new style. It is also important to state that this group of architects were not only publishers; but they were also, all practising architects. Therefore it is obvious –also from their own statements- that the main motive for this publication was to make the Turkish architects better known to the clients; to praise their achievements and prove that they were worthy. At the time, big scale projects of the state were mostly commisioned to foreign architects. Thus, in order to prove their worth over their rivals, they literally constructed a narrative of Turkish architects versus foreign architects. Their main argument was that they needed a modern but national architecture and national character could only be built by Turkish architects. The result of the scan of the magazine showed that the identity question was mostly adressed in the first ten years. It seems most passionate discussions on the subject were made at the beginning where the affects are also, most obvious. This also renders the first ten years of the magazine suitable for a psychoanalytic discourse analysis. The thesis suggests that identity is constructed as a melancholic loss in this early period. Melancholy is increasingly becoming an important tool especially for identity studies. Since Freud's eminent article titled "Mourning and Melancholia" where Freud connects melancholia directly to loss and defines an unconscious identification mechanism with the lost object, it has become one of the important concepts to understand and explain modern societies. Taking Freud's article as a standing point, the thesis mainly employs three discourses for its analysis. These discourses are of Julia Kristeva, Vamık Volkan and Judith Butler. The three theoreticians all start with Freud and dwell on his loss and identification concepts while defining slightly different mechanisms and/or outcomes. The thesis tries to read the articles written by architects of the period in parallel with these three theoreticians. The cross reading of the three discourses with the articles in question reveals an identification process unique to this group of architects. The findings of the analysis can be summarized very shortly as follows: The architects, in an effort to institutionalize their profession, defended their right to work. They mobilized to prove themselves to State authority, who was the biggest client for architects at the time. As they emerged with the claim that only them, the Turkish architects, had the right to work in the country, they tried to legitimize this claim by founding it a base in history. Therefore it was not only the architectural identity of Turkey, but also the identity of the Turkish architect that they started to construct. According to them, this identity had declined and was eventually lost. They claimed the decline started with Westernization period, beginning approxamately in late 17th century. They argued that from then on Western architects and styles invaded the architectural scene and the Turkish architect and architecture was forgotten and lost. The architectural texts, published in this early period in Mimar/Arkitekt, repeatedly tell the traumatic story of this identity being lost. It is argued that this narrative became the "chosen trauma" of Turkish architecture in the sense that Volkan describes. This repetition evidently resulted with monumentalizing a golden period preceding the decline and loss. The analysis of the texts reveals that the architects of this early period started with a claim that they are entitled to be commisioned big scale projects. Only then, to found a base for their claim they employed history. The loss of the Turkish character of architecture with the Westernization period was already a known narrative. But in this magazine, they repeated this narrative so many times that they turned it into a chosen trauma. They then identified with this lost identity and this helped them to speak their actual wishes and desires as well as criticisms and complaints through history. Reading these texts in parallel with melancholy, helps understand the enthusiastic, excited and often furious language that we mostly see in this early period. The thesis follows thorough the texts how an identity was constructed as a melancholic loss and that eventually led to identification. Melancholic identification causes the loss to be taken into ego through narcissistic regression. This results in a never ending past and an impossible mourning which renders the language to understand and represent this past impossible.