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The Hauntologic Imagination of Lesley Blanch: The Exotic Other, Mission Civilisatrice and Lost Objects in The Sabres of Paradise [Lesley Blanch'in Hortolojik Hayalgücü: Cennetin Kılıçları'nda Egzotik Öteki, Medenileştirme Misyonu ve Kayıp Nesneler]

Year 2024, , 23 - 42, 31.05.2024
https://doi.org/10.21488/jocas.1473208

Abstract

The Sabres of Paradise, a book written by British historian Lesley Blanch is a novel that focuses particularly on the so-called “Murid Wars”, an important instance of Russia's conquest of the Caucasus and the subsequent genocide and deportation of its autochthonous peoples. Drawing from accounts of the descendants of figures such as Imam Shamil and Hadji Murat, the novel also uses Russian and British accounts to paint a picture of the resistance of the peoples of the Caucasus against the invading Russians. However, Blanch’s book, despite painting a seemingly favorable picture of the Caucasus and its peoples, suffers from a reproduction of the colonialist narrative that is pushed by Imperial Russia. The reasoning behind this unfortunate reproduction lies in the authorial unconscious of Lesley Blanch, which is analyzed through a comparison of The Sabres of Paradise and her another work Journey Into the Mind’s Eye: Fragments of an Autobiography. By adopting an approach that utilizes the work of Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan and a number of psychoanalytical critics, this study aims to trace and put into perspective Blanch’s reproduction of the Russian colonialist narrative towards the Caucasus by drawing from work of scholars such as Irvin Cemil Schick and Madina Tlostanova while at the same time analyzing the reviews of The Sabres of Paradise. The study argues that Blanch reproduces the colonial narrative due to a process of loss that is highlighted in Journey into the Mind’s Eye: Fragments of an Autobiography. This argument is supported by utilization of concept of Hauntology put forward by Derrida, an application of the theory of loss and mourning put forward by Freud, and a summary of Lacan’s approach towards desire. The postcolonial [or decolonial] framework of this study owes its debt chiefly to Madina Tlostanova’s Gender Epistemologies and Eurasian Borderlands as it is used as a framework for Blanch’s exoticizing and fetishizing perspective towards the Caucasus Male and the Caucasus Women in The Sabres of Paradise.

References

  • Ahmadzadeh, S. (2007). The Study of Desire: A Lacanian Perspective. Teaching English Language, 1(2), 139-153.
  • Avdeev, A., Blum, A. & Troitskaia, I. (2004). Le mariage paysan russe au XIXe siècle. Population, 59, 833-876. https://doi.org/10.3917/popu.406.0833
  • Baraitser, L. (2023). Passivity and Gender: Psychical inertia and maternal stillness. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 104(5), 912–926.
  • Chamberlin, W. H. (1961). [Review of The Sabres of Paradise, by L. Blanch]. The Russian Review, 20(2), 160–162. https://doi.org/10.2307/126660
  • Coelho Neto, W.F. (2022) A Toast to the Damned Waiting for Tomorrow: Hauntology andMourning for a Future That Never Comes. Eutomia 1(31). 18-33.
  • Collier, L. (1961). [Review of The Sabres of Paradise, by L. Blanch]. The Geographical Journal, 127(2), 238–238. https://doi.org/10.2307/1792918
  • Blanch, L. (2015). The Sabres of Paradise. Bookblast.
  • Blanch, L. (2014). Journey Into the Mind’s Eye: Fragments of an Autobiography. ElandPublishing
  • Culler, J. (1984). Textual Self-Consciousness and the Textual Unconscious. Style, 18(3), 369– 376. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42946137
  • Derrida, Jacques. Specters of Marx. Routledge. 1994.
  • Fisher, Mark. “What Is Hauntology?” Film Quarterly, vol. 66, no. 1, University of California Press,Jan. 2012, pp. 16-24. 
  • Freud, S. (1964). The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud. (J. Strachey, Ed.). Macmillan.
  • Freud, S. (1917). Mourning and Melancholia, trans. by Phillips A., in Phillips A. (ed.), ThePenguin Freud Reader, New York: Penguin Books, 310-326.
  • Gibson, M. (2004). Melancholy objects. Mortality, 9(4), 285–299.https://doi.org/10.1080/13576270412331329812
  • Horrocks, R. (1997). Lacan: Lack and Desire. In: Campling, J. (eds) An Introduction to the Study of Sexuality. Palgrave Macmillan, London.
  • Kipling, R. (1907). Collected verse of Rudyard Kipling. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BB17052870 Pittel, H. (2021). Fin du globe: Oscar Wilde’s romance with decadence and the idea of worldliterature.
  • Thesis Eleven, 162(1), 121-136. https://doi.org/10.1177/0725513621994702
  • Popa, D. & Reynolds I. (2022) Ambivalent Identifications: Narcissism,Melancholia, andSublimation.Consecutio Rerum: RivistaCritica Della Postmodernità 11 (6):161-186.
  • Said, E. W. (2014). Orientalism. Vintage.
  • Schick, I. C. (1999). The Erotic Margin: Sexuality and Spatiality in Alteritist Discourse.
  • Shakespeare, William. Hamlet, The Prince of Denmark. Cambridge University Press. 2003. Tlostanova, M. (2010). Gender Epistemologies and Eurasian Borderlands. In Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks.

The Hauntologic Imagination of Lesley Blanch: The Exotic Other, Mission Civilisatrice and Lost Objects in The Sabres of Paradise [Lesley Blanch'in Hortolojik Hayalgücü: Cennetin Kılıçları'nda Egzotik Öteki, Medenileştirme Misyonu ve Kayıp Nesneler]

Year 2024, , 23 - 42, 31.05.2024
https://doi.org/10.21488/jocas.1473208

Abstract

İngiliz tarihçi Lesley Blanch tarafından yazılan Cennetin Kılıçları, “Mürid Savaşları” olarak isimlendirilen, Rusya'nın Kafkasya'yı fethi ve bunu takiben meydana gelen bu bölgenin otokton halklarının sürgün ve soykırımına odaklanan bir romandır. Hacı Murat ve İmam Şamil gibi dönemin önemli figürlerin soyundan gelenlerin aktarımlarına dayanan bu çalışma aynı zamanda Rus ve İngiliz tarihçiliğine dayanarak, işgalci Ruslara karşı bölge halkının ortaya koyduğu direnişi belgelemektedir. Blanch’ın eseri her ne kadar Kafkasya ve halklarına dair görünürde olumlu bir tasviri ortaya koysa da Rus İmparatorluğu’nun kolonyal anlatısını yeniden üretir bir konumda kendisini bulmaktadır. Bu talihsiz yeniden üretimin ardında yatan gerekçelendirme ise Lesley Blanch’ın bir yazar olarak bilinçdışıyla yakından ilişkilidir. Söz konusu bilinçdışı, Cennetin Kılıçları ile yazarın bir diğer eseri olan Zihnin Gözüne Yolculuk: Bir Otobiyografiden Parçalar’ın karşılaştırılması vasıtasıyla açımlanmaktadır. Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan ve bir dizi diğer psikanalistin perspektifini kullanan çalışmanın amacı, Blanch’ın Kafkasya’ya yönelik Rus kolonyal bakışının yeniden üretmesinin izini sürmek ve bu yeniden üretimi bir perspektife oturtmaktır. Çalışma bu amacını, Irvin Cemil Schick ve Madina Tlostanova gibi uzmanların çalışmalarından faydalanarak ve Cennetin Kılıçları’nın incelemelerini ele alarak yerine getirmektedir. Çalışma, Blanch’ın kolonyal anlatıyı yeniden üretmesinin arkasında yatan sebebin Zihnin Gözüne Yolculuk: Bir Otobiyografiden Parçalar’da öne çıkan bir yas ve kayıp sürecinden dolayı ortaya çıktığı düşüncesini öne sürmektedir. Söz konusu argüman, Derrida tarafından literatüre kazandırılan Hortoloji kavramının, Freud’un yas ve kayıp kuramının ve Lacan’ın arzu kavramının metin üzerinde uygulamaya konulmasıyla gerekçelendirilmektedir. Çalışmanın postkolonyal [veyahut dekolonyal] perspektifi ise varlığını çoğunlukla Madina Tlostanova’nın Cinsiyet Epistemolojisi ve Avrasya Sınır-Ülkeleri isimli eserine borçludur ki işbu eser, Blanch’ın Kafkasyalı erkeklere ve kadınlara yönelik egzotize ve fetişize edici bakış açısını yorumlamak için kullanılmıştır.

References

  • Ahmadzadeh, S. (2007). The Study of Desire: A Lacanian Perspective. Teaching English Language, 1(2), 139-153.
  • Avdeev, A., Blum, A. & Troitskaia, I. (2004). Le mariage paysan russe au XIXe siècle. Population, 59, 833-876. https://doi.org/10.3917/popu.406.0833
  • Baraitser, L. (2023). Passivity and Gender: Psychical inertia and maternal stillness. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 104(5), 912–926.
  • Chamberlin, W. H. (1961). [Review of The Sabres of Paradise, by L. Blanch]. The Russian Review, 20(2), 160–162. https://doi.org/10.2307/126660
  • Coelho Neto, W.F. (2022) A Toast to the Damned Waiting for Tomorrow: Hauntology andMourning for a Future That Never Comes. Eutomia 1(31). 18-33.
  • Collier, L. (1961). [Review of The Sabres of Paradise, by L. Blanch]. The Geographical Journal, 127(2), 238–238. https://doi.org/10.2307/1792918
  • Blanch, L. (2015). The Sabres of Paradise. Bookblast.
  • Blanch, L. (2014). Journey Into the Mind’s Eye: Fragments of an Autobiography. ElandPublishing
  • Culler, J. (1984). Textual Self-Consciousness and the Textual Unconscious. Style, 18(3), 369– 376. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42946137
  • Derrida, Jacques. Specters of Marx. Routledge. 1994.
  • Fisher, Mark. “What Is Hauntology?” Film Quarterly, vol. 66, no. 1, University of California Press,Jan. 2012, pp. 16-24. 
  • Freud, S. (1964). The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud. (J. Strachey, Ed.). Macmillan.
  • Freud, S. (1917). Mourning and Melancholia, trans. by Phillips A., in Phillips A. (ed.), ThePenguin Freud Reader, New York: Penguin Books, 310-326.
  • Gibson, M. (2004). Melancholy objects. Mortality, 9(4), 285–299.https://doi.org/10.1080/13576270412331329812
  • Horrocks, R. (1997). Lacan: Lack and Desire. In: Campling, J. (eds) An Introduction to the Study of Sexuality. Palgrave Macmillan, London.
  • Kipling, R. (1907). Collected verse of Rudyard Kipling. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BB17052870 Pittel, H. (2021). Fin du globe: Oscar Wilde’s romance with decadence and the idea of worldliterature.
  • Thesis Eleven, 162(1), 121-136. https://doi.org/10.1177/0725513621994702
  • Popa, D. & Reynolds I. (2022) Ambivalent Identifications: Narcissism,Melancholia, andSublimation.Consecutio Rerum: RivistaCritica Della Postmodernità 11 (6):161-186.
  • Said, E. W. (2014). Orientalism. Vintage.
  • Schick, I. C. (1999). The Erotic Margin: Sexuality and Spatiality in Alteritist Discourse.
  • Shakespeare, William. Hamlet, The Prince of Denmark. Cambridge University Press. 2003. Tlostanova, M. (2010). Gender Epistemologies and Eurasian Borderlands. In Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks.

The Hauntologic Imagination of Lesley Blanch: The Exotic Other, Mission Civilisatrice and Lost Objects in The Sabres of Paradise [Lesley Blanch'in Hortolojik Hayalgücü: Cennetin Kılıçları'nda Egzotik Öteki, Medenileştirme Misyonu ve Kayıp Nesneler]

Year 2024, , 23 - 42, 31.05.2024
https://doi.org/10.21488/jocas.1473208

Abstract

The Sabres of Paradise, a book written by British historian Lesley Blanch is a novel that focuses particularly on the so-called “Murid Wars”, an important instance of Russia's conquest of the Caucasus and the subsequent genocide and deportation of its autochthonous peoples. Drawing from accounts of the descendants of figures such as Imam Shamil and Hadji Murat, the novel also uses Russian and British accounts to paint a picture of the resistance of the peoples of the Caucasus against the invading Russians. However, Blanch’s book, despite painting a seemingly favorable picture of the Caucasus and its peoples, suffers from a reproduction of the colonialist narrative that is pushed by Imperial Russia. The reasoning behind this unfortunate reproduction lies in the authorial unconscious of Lesley Blanch, which is analyzed through a comparison of The Sabres of Paradise and her another work Journey Into the Mind’s Eye: Fragments of an Autobiography. By adopting an approach that utilizes the work of Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan and a number of psychoanalytical critics, this study aims to trace and put into perspective Blanch’s reproduction of the Russian colonialist narrative towards the Caucasus by drawing from work of scholars such as Irvin Cemil Schick and Madina Tlostanova while at the same time analyzing the reviews of The Sabres of Paradise. The study argues that Blanch reproduces the colonial narrative due to a process of loss that is highlighted in Journey into the Mind’s Eye: Fragments of an Autobiography. This argument is supported by utilization of concept of Hauntology put forward by Derrida, an application of the theory of loss and mourning put forward by Freud, and a summary of Lacan’s approach towards desire. The postcolonial [or decolonial] framework of this study owes its debt chiefly to Madina Tlostanova’s Gender Epistemologies and Eurasian Borderlands as it is used as a framework for Blanch’s exoticizing and fetishizing perspective towards the Caucasus Male and the Caucasus Women in The Sabres of Paradise.

References

  • Ahmadzadeh, S. (2007). The Study of Desire: A Lacanian Perspective. Teaching English Language, 1(2), 139-153.
  • Avdeev, A., Blum, A. & Troitskaia, I. (2004). Le mariage paysan russe au XIXe siècle. Population, 59, 833-876. https://doi.org/10.3917/popu.406.0833
  • Baraitser, L. (2023). Passivity and Gender: Psychical inertia and maternal stillness. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 104(5), 912–926.
  • Chamberlin, W. H. (1961). [Review of The Sabres of Paradise, by L. Blanch]. The Russian Review, 20(2), 160–162. https://doi.org/10.2307/126660
  • Coelho Neto, W.F. (2022) A Toast to the Damned Waiting for Tomorrow: Hauntology andMourning for a Future That Never Comes. Eutomia 1(31). 18-33.
  • Collier, L. (1961). [Review of The Sabres of Paradise, by L. Blanch]. The Geographical Journal, 127(2), 238–238. https://doi.org/10.2307/1792918
  • Blanch, L. (2015). The Sabres of Paradise. Bookblast.
  • Blanch, L. (2014). Journey Into the Mind’s Eye: Fragments of an Autobiography. ElandPublishing
  • Culler, J. (1984). Textual Self-Consciousness and the Textual Unconscious. Style, 18(3), 369– 376. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42946137
  • Derrida, Jacques. Specters of Marx. Routledge. 1994.
  • Fisher, Mark. “What Is Hauntology?” Film Quarterly, vol. 66, no. 1, University of California Press,Jan. 2012, pp. 16-24. 
  • Freud, S. (1964). The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud. (J. Strachey, Ed.). Macmillan.
  • Freud, S. (1917). Mourning and Melancholia, trans. by Phillips A., in Phillips A. (ed.), ThePenguin Freud Reader, New York: Penguin Books, 310-326.
  • Gibson, M. (2004). Melancholy objects. Mortality, 9(4), 285–299.https://doi.org/10.1080/13576270412331329812
  • Horrocks, R. (1997). Lacan: Lack and Desire. In: Campling, J. (eds) An Introduction to the Study of Sexuality. Palgrave Macmillan, London.
  • Kipling, R. (1907). Collected verse of Rudyard Kipling. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BB17052870 Pittel, H. (2021). Fin du globe: Oscar Wilde’s romance with decadence and the idea of worldliterature.
  • Thesis Eleven, 162(1), 121-136. https://doi.org/10.1177/0725513621994702
  • Popa, D. & Reynolds I. (2022) Ambivalent Identifications: Narcissism,Melancholia, andSublimation.Consecutio Rerum: RivistaCritica Della Postmodernità 11 (6):161-186.
  • Said, E. W. (2014). Orientalism. Vintage.
  • Schick, I. C. (1999). The Erotic Margin: Sexuality and Spatiality in Alteritist Discourse.
  • Shakespeare, William. Hamlet, The Prince of Denmark. Cambridge University Press. 2003. Tlostanova, M. (2010). Gender Epistemologies and Eurasian Borderlands. In Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks.
There are 21 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Postcolonial Studies, Cultural Studies (Other)
Journal Section Article
Authors

Kerem B. Topçu 0000-0001-9960-0484

Publication Date May 31, 2024
Submission Date April 24, 2024
Acceptance Date May 31, 2024
Published in Issue Year 2024

Cite

MLA Topçu, Kerem B. “The Hauntologic Imagination of Lesley Blanch: The Exotic Other, Mission Civilisatrice and Lost Objects in The Sabres of Paradise [Lesley Blanch’in Hortolojik Hayalgücü: Cennetin Kılıçları’nda Egzotik Öteki, Medenileştirme Misyonu Ve Kayıp Nesneler]”. Kafkasya Çalışmaları, vol. 9, no. 15, 2024, pp. 23-42, doi:10.21488/jocas.1473208.
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