Tarihsel Gerçeklikten Sinemasal Alegoriye: Michael Kohlhaas Anlatılarında Hukukun Krizi ve Etik Eylem

Year 2025, Issue: 26, 267 - 294, 10.09.2025

Serap Sarıbaş

https://doi.org/10.46250/kulturder.1705892

Abstract

Bu çalışma, hukuk düzeninin meşruiyetini yitirmesinin yol açtığı politik ve etik krizin, 16. yüzyılda Saksonya'da meydana gelen tarihsel bir olaya dayanarak hem edebi hem de sinemasal temsillerde nasıl yeniden üretildiğini incelemektedir. Adalet arayışının hukuk sisteminin sınırlarıyla çakıştığı noktada bireyin politik bir özneye dönüşümüne odaklanan Michael Kohlhaas anlatısı, yalnızca tarihsel bir anlatı olarak değil, aynı zamanda modern hukuk düşüncesine yönelik eleştirel bir sorgulama olarak incelenmektedir. Tarihsel kaynaklarda başlangıçta yozlaşmış soyluların keyfi eylemlerine karşı yasal çözüm arayan bir at tüccarı olarak belgelenen Michael Kohlhaas figürü, Heinrich von Kleist'ın 1808 tarihli kısa anlatısında hukuk ve adalet arasındaki yapısal gerilimin belirginleştiği alegorik bir karaktere dönüştürülür. Kleist'ın anlatısında sistemik yozlaşmaya tepki olarak ortaya çıkan bireysel eylem, Arnaud des Pallières'in 2013 yapımı filmi Michael Kohlhaas'ta (Age of Uprising) görsel-estetik bir boyuta aktarılır. Bu film, adaletin sinemasal ifadesi ve modern hukukun temsili krizi üzerine yeni bir araştırma alanı açar. Bu makale, disiplinlerarası bir yaklaşımla, Michael Kohlhaas figürünün tarihsel bir olaydan edebi bir mite ve ardından sinematik bir alegoriye dönüşümünü felsefi, hukuki ve estetik çerçeveler içinde incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Hem Kleist'ın metninde hem de Pallières'in filminde adalet arayışında ortaya çıkan temsili boşluklar, meşruiyetin istikrarsızlaştırıldığı ve etik bağlılığa dayalı bir öznelliğin hukuk, devlet ve toplumun kesişiminde sinemasal olarak yeniden inşa edildiği kopuş bölgeleri olarak analiz edilir.

Keywords

adaletin estetik inşası , alegorik isyan , psikopolitik gerilim , sinematik temsil , Michael Kohlhaas

From Historical Reality to Cinematic Allegory: The Crisis of Law and Ethical Agency in the Representations of Michael Kohlhaas

Abstract

This study examines how the political and ethical crisis resulting from the delegitimization of the legal order is reproduced in both literary and cinematic representations, based on a historical incident that occurred in 16th-century Saxony. Focusing on the transformation of the individual into a political subject when the pursuit of justice collides with the limits of the legal system, the Michael Kohlhaas narrative is explored not merely as a historical account but as a critical inquiry into modern legal thought. Originally documented in historical sources as a horse dealer seeking legal redress against the arbitrary actions of a corrupt nobility, the figure of Michael Kohlhaas is transformed into an allegorical character in Heinrich von Kleist’s 1808 novella, where the structural tension between law and justice becomes manifest. The individual action that arises in response to systemic corruption in Kleist’s narrative is transposed into a visual-aesthetic dimension in Arnaud des Pallières’ 2013 film Michael Kohlhaas (Age of Uprising), which opens a new field of inquiry into the cinematic articulation of justice and the representational crisis of modern law. This article, through an interdisciplinary approach, aims to examine the transformation of the Michael Kohlhaas figure, from a historical episode into a literary myth and subsequently a cinematic allegory, within philosophical, legal, and aesthetic frameworks. The representational voids that emerge in the pursuit of justice, in both Kleist’s text and Pallières’ film, are analysed as zones of rupture in which legitimacy is destabilized and a subjectivity grounded in ethical commitment is cinematically reconstructed at the intersection of law, state, and society.

Keywords

aesthetic construction of justice , allegorical revolt , psychopolitical tension , cinematic representation , Michael Kohlhaas

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