Disiplinler ve Post-Disipliner Tarihçeler: Kuram, Çeviri ve Kültürlerötesilik

Year 2023, Volume: 29 Issue: 114, 387 - 406, 02.05.2023

Hande Birkalan-gedik

https://doi.org/10.22559/folklor.2429

Abstract

Bu makalede, disipliner tarihlerin oluşturulmasında “gezgin kuram”ın (traveling
theory) rolünü ele alıyorum. En basit ifadeyle, “gezgin kuram,” “bir kuramın gerçek
hayattaki özgün ifade anından koparılarak daha sonraki bir zaman ve mekâna
uygulanması” olarak tanımlanabilir (Said, 1983: 226). Makale bu varsayıma eleştirel
yaklaşarak, kuramların disipliner arasındaki dolaşımlarının disipliner tarihlerin
oluşturulmasındaki rolüne odaklanıyor. İlkin çeviri metinlerle ilgili atlanan
konuların önemini ve bunların kültürlerötesilik kavramının gelişimindeki etkilerini
post-disipliner tarihçeler bağlamında ele alıyorum. Ayrıca, disipliner tarihçiler için
faydalı analizler sağlayabilecek olan yeni bakış açıları, örneğin kuramların birden
fazla rota izlemeleri, gecikmeleri ya da bir başka kültürde veya disiplindeki alımlama
biçimlerinin de önemini vurguluyorum. Said’in aksine, çoğul olarak kullan-
dığım “gezgin kuramlar” bizi dil ve bilgi arasındaki ilişkiyi yeniden düşünmeye ve
bilginin çeviri yoluyla nasıl yaratıldığını ve dönüştürüldüğünü anlamaya yöneltmektedir.
Çevirinin, gezgin kuramcıların ve kavramların, farklı diller ve disiplinler
arasındaki ve kültürlerötesi bağlamlardaki yörüngeleri atlanamaz. Metinler dinamik
çeviri süreçlerine girdikçe ortaya çıkan gecikmeler, reddetmeler ya da sahiplenmeler
disiplinlerin içsel dinamikleri kadar disiplinlerarası koşullar tarafından
da belirlenir. Böylelikle, bir kuramın “seyahati” hem farklı aktörler, coğrafyalar
ve zamanlar arasında iletişim alanları yaratır, hem de kuram bu aktörler tarafından
yaratılmış olur. Disipliner bilgi, kelimelerin, fikirlerin, kavramların, kuramların ve
kuramcıların hareketiyle gelişir. Halkbilimciler, özellikle alanda kültür çevirmenleri
olarak çalışırken, yayınlarında bilgiyi metinselleştirirken ya da çalışmalarını
konferanslarda sunarken, fikirlerin, kuramların ve kavramların dolaşımını sağlarlar.
“Gezgin kuramlar” farklı perspektiflerin sınırları nasıl aşabildiğini ve akışkan
disipliner bağlamlara nasıl uyarlanabildiğini anlamamıza ve post-disipliner tarihçeler
yazabilmemize olanak tanıyan önemli bir araç olarak karşımıza çıkar

Keywords

gezgin kuram", post-disipliner disiplin tarihçeleri, halkbilimi tarihi

Disciplines and Post-Disciplinary Histories: Theory, Translation, and Transculturality

Abstract

This article addresses the role of “traveling theory” in the making of disciplinary
histories by departing from and critically reflecting on the concept. In simple terms,
Said defines “traveling theory” as “a theory divorced from its original real-life
moment of articulation and applied to a later time and place” (1983, 226). Although
Said revisited his earlier formulations and emphasized the crucial role context plays
in “traveling theory,” both in its origins and in its adaptations and modifications at
different destinations (Said 1994), certain aspects of his arguments remained open.
Among other issues, Said was criticized for not adequately considering the central
role of translation in facilitating or thwarting the theory’s travels.
I take this important concern as one of the anchor points of this article and highlight
some of the evaded issues about translated texts in traveling theories and their
impact on transculturation. Rather than sticking to the singularity of the original
term “traveling theory,” I employ the term in the plural strategically and emphasize
that theories can take multiple routes. As such, I evoke the images of assemblage (or
agencement, in French)—a concept that frames social complexity through fluidity,
exchangeability, and connectivity; and rhizome—a concept in post-structuralist
theory, that refers to non-linear roots and networks. Taken together these images
as theoretical models can prove useful for disciplinary historians, as ideas and
concepts, taken up by different disciplines, can be mutated, and eventually become
something completely different.
First, by tackling issues of translation and considering delays, omissions,
rejections, and appropriations of theories, I underline that texts enter dynamic
translation processes. Travel itself generates contact (and often, conflict) zones
between different actors, geographies, and histories—a mediated transference
between “source” and “host” languages and subversions of such delineations.
Thus, the process of translation becomes a creative act in itself, one that produces
new meanings and insights. It challenges us to rethink the relationship between
language and knowledge, and to consider how knowledge is created and
transformed through translation.
Second, I consider the role of theory in disciplining fields, in particular, in
“disciplining folkloristics.” I analyze certain key texts, theories, and theorists in
folklore. In the face of recent discussions on “critical folkloristics,” (Otero ve M.
Rivera 2021), I suggest that writing disciplinary histories against the backdrop of
recent global developments, such as Black Lives Matter, COVID-19 protests, and
other post-colonial reading human reactions to social realities, is both possible
and necessary. I also underline that mistakenly construed boundaries between
academic and public folklore need to be rethought and reworked. Instead, I
propose an integrated, activism-oriented, post-disciplinary traveling theories, from
which folklore studies will greatly benefit.
Last, I take transculturation as an effective tool to understand theory’s role in postdisciplinary
histories. Transculturation is a term owed to Cuban anthropologist
Fernando Ortiz (1940), who questioned the common view that cultural encounters
work only in one way. Instead, he suggests that they are reciprocal processes in
which some cultural characteristics may be lost, while new elements emerge.

Keywords

travelling theory, post-discipliner histories, history of folklore

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