“What I Remember Clearly from our Conversations”: Memory as the Method of Power Struggle in Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen

Yıl 2018, Cilt: 8 Sayı: 1, 131 - 146, 30.06.2018

Emine Seda Çağlayan Mazanoğlu

Öz

Werner Heisenberg, who worked for the Nazi German nuclear project, visited Niels Bohr in Copenhagen in 1941, who took part in Manhattan Project. However, the content of this meeting during World War II remained a mystery and has been a subject of speculation. The letters which Heisenberg and Bohr subsequently wrote revealed that both scientists narrated what they had discussed and why they had ended up bitter in different ways. In Heisenberg’s memory he expressed his moral concerns about nuclear armaments; however, Bohr’s memory led him to argue that Heisenberg had the intention of making an atomic bomb for Nazi Germany. Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen (1998) is a fictional account of this meeting which had a profound impact not only on scientific memory but also on historical and political memory. Hence, the aim of this article is to argue that in Copenhagen the spirits of Bohr, Heisenberg and Margrethe engage in a power struggle and use their personal memories, which are all different, to get over the global trauma of the atomic bombs which destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and to evade responsibility. While the characters try to remember the real reason for Heisenberg’s visit, they re-write the history of atomic bomb through their personal memories.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Struggle, Personal Memory, Atomic Bomb, World War II, Quantum Physics

“Konuşmalarımızdan Kesin Olarak Hatırladığım Şey:” Michael Frayn’ın Copenhagen Adlı Oyununda Hafızanın Güç Savaşı İçin Kullanımı

Öz

Alman nükleer projesinde yer alan Werner Heisenberg, Manhattan Projesi’nde çalışan Niels Bohr’u, 1941 yılında Kopenhag’ta ziyaret eder. Ancak İkinci Dünya Savaşı sırasında gerçekleşen bu görüşmenin içeriği bir sır olarak kalmıştır ve üzerine pek çok tahmin yürütülmüştür. Heisenberg ve Bohr’un daha sonra yazdığı mektuplar, iki bilim insanının da görüşmede tartıştıkları konuyu ve görüşmeyi aniden bitirme sebeplerini farklı şekillerde anlattıklarını ortaya koymaktadır. Heisenberg, nükleer silahlanmanın ahlaki boyutu konusundaki endişelerini dile getirdiğini hatırlar, ancak Bohr’a göre, Heisenberg, Almanya için atom bombası yapma niyetinde olduğunu belirtmiştir. Michael Frayn’ın Copenhagen (1998) adlı oyunu, yalnızca bilimsel hafıza üzerinde değil, aynı zamanda tarihi ve politik hafıza üzerinde büyük izler bırakan bu görüşmenin kurgusal bir anlatımını sunmaktadır. Bu sepeble, bu makale, Copenhagen oyununda Bohr’un, Heisenberg’ün ve Margrethe’ın ruhlarının bir güç savaşı içine girdiklerini ve Hiroshima ve Nagasaki’yi yerle bir eden atom bombasının yarattığı evrensel travmayı atlatabilmek ve bunun sorumluluğunu üzerlerinden atabilmek için, birbirinden farklı olan kişisel hafızalarını kullandıklarını tartışmaktadır. Oyundaki karakterler, bir yandan Heisenberg’ün ziyaret sebebini hatırlamaya çalışırken, bir yandan da kişisel hafızaları yoluyla atom bombasının hikâyesini yeniden yazarlar.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Güç Savaşı, Kişisel Hafıza, Atom Bombası, İkinci Dünya Savaşı

Kaynakça

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