THE BANLIEUE AS A SPACE OF VIOLENCE IN DOMINIQUE MANOTTI’S NOVEL TEŞKİLATIN GÖZDESİ

Abstract

Dominique Manotti’s Bien connu des services de police (2010) is set in the fictional banlieue of Panteuil, which evokes the north-eastern outskirts of Paris and, more specifically, Seine-Saint-Denis, shortly before the 2005 suburban riots. This study examines how Panteuil is constructed as a space of violence and how violence is distributed across the novel’s social, institutional, and spatial structures. The analysis draws primarily on Henri Lefebvre’s conception of the social production of space, Johan Galtung’s distinction between direct, structural, and cultural violence, and Loïc Wacquant’s concepts of territorial stigmatization and the punitive state. The approaches of Smith, Bourdieu, Walby, and Benjamin are also used to examine the relationships among urban redevelopment, official discourse, and institutional power. The study shows that security is distributed unequally in Panteuil: while police surveillance is concentrated on particular neighbourhoods and social groups, the demands for protection made by certain victims are pushed into the background. Violence therefore takes multiple forms in the novel, including police intervention, economic and sexual exploitation, eviction, territorial stigmatization, institutional indifference, the manipulation of records, and the production of official narratives. Urban redevelopment and real-estate interests further reveal the economic dimension of this violence by becoming closely connected with security policies. Manotti thus challenges the established image of the banlieue as an inherently violent space and instead shows how violence is produced through the relations of power that govern, classify, and transform Panteuil.

Keywords

• Dominique Manotti
• banlieue
• violence
• territorial stigmatization
• urban redevelopment

DOMINIQUE MANOTTI’NİN TEŞKİLATIN GÖZDESİ BAŞLIKLI ROMANINDA BİR ŞİDDET UZAMI OLARAK BANLİYÖ

Abstract

Dominique Manotti’nin Teşkilatın Gözdesi (Bien connu des services de police, 2010) adlı romanı, 2005 banliyö ayaklanmalarının hemen öncesinde, Paris’in kuzeydoğusunu ve Seine-Saint-Denis bölgesini çağrıştıran kurmaca Panteuil banliyösünde geçer. Bu çalışma, Panteuil’ün romanda nasıl bir şiddet uzamı olarak kurulduğunu ve şiddetin kent içindeki toplumsal, kurumsal ve mekânsal dağılımını incelemektedir. Çözümlemede Lefebvre’in mekânın toplumsal üretimine ilişkin yaklaşımı, Galtung’un doğrudan, yapısal ve kültürel şiddet ayrımı ile Wacquant’ın mekânsal damgalama ve cezalandırıcı devlet kavramları temel alınmakta; kentsel dönüşüm, resmî söylem ve kurumsal güç ilişkilerinin değerlendirilmesinde Smith, Bourdieu, Walby ve Benjamin’in görüşlerinden de yararlanılmaktadır. İnceleme, Panteuil’de güvenliğin toplumsal gruplar arasında eşit biçimde dağıtılmadığını; polis denetiminin belirli mahalleler ve gruplar üzerinde yoğunlaşırken kimi mağdurların koruma taleplerinin geri plana itildiğini ortaya koymaktadır. Romanda şiddet, fiziksel müdahalenin yanı sıra ekonomik ve cinsel sömürü, tahliye, mekânsal damgalama, kurumsal kayıtsızlık, kayıtların değiştirilmesi ve resmî söylemin oluşturulması yoluyla da sürdürülür. Kentsel dönüşüm ve gayrimenkul çıkarları ise güvenlik politikalarıyla bağlantı kurarak şiddetin ekonomik boyutunu açığa çıkarır. Manotti böylece banliyöyü kendiliğinden şiddet üreten bir coğrafya olarak ele alan yerleşik imgeyi sorgular ve şiddetin Panteuil’ü yöneten, sınıflandıran ve dönüştüren güç ilişkileri içinde nasıl üretildiğini gösterir.

Keywords

• Dominique Manotti
• banliyö
• şiddet
• mekânsal damgalama
• kentsel dönüşüm

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