Beyond Punishment: Waiting Under the Panoptic Gazein Aziz’s The Queue

Abstract

This paper aims to examine how waiting becomes a disciplinary apparatus in the dystopian and Kafkaesque world of Basma Abdel Aziz’s The Queue (2013). A society structured as a Panopticon forces State approval of every personal and professional work and yet pauses its bureaucratic machinery indefinitely, after facing dissent. Known as the Gate, it imposes and encourages a queue in front of it for approval of papers, while maintaining pervasive surveillance all around. When contextualised within the Arab Spring in Egypt, the queue and the accompanied waiting in the novel raise existential questions and point to the experimental forms of punishments that help maintain hegemonic power over people. The paper examines the prominent instances of waiting in the novel vis-à-vis Foucault’s idea of panopticism and Schweizer’s theory of waiting. In a nation engulfed in the inherent arbitrariness of waiting and its psychological effect, it implies a punishment meant to control and constrain personal freedom. Thus, the paper depicts how disciplinary apparatuses like imposed waiting and Panopticon are used as implicit and perpetual forms of punishment. Basma Abel Aziz uses the conventions of dystopian fiction to envision an alternate reality, developing out of unpleasant realities of the context.

Keywords

• Dystopia
• The Queue
• Basma Abdel Aziz
• Panopticon
• Arab Spring
• Kafkaesque

Cezanın Ötesinde: Aziz'in The Queue Romanında Panoptik Bakışlar Altında Bekleme

Abstract

Bu makale, Basma Abdel Aziz’in The Queue (2013) adlı romanının distopik ve Kafkaesk dünyasında bekleyişin nasıl bir disiplin aygıtı haline geldiğini incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Panoptikon olarak yapılandırılmış bir toplumda devletin her kişisel ve profesyonel işi onaylaması zorunlu hale gelir ve bu durumda dahi devlet dirençle karşılaşınca bürokrasi makinesini süresiz olarak durdurur. Romandaki Kapı belgelerin onaylanması için kendi önünde kuyruğa girilmesini zorlar ve teşvik eder, bu aynı zamanda yaygın bir gözetim ağı kurmasını sağlar. Romanı Mısır'daki Arap Baharı ile bağlamsallaştırınca, romandaki bu sıraya girme ve sıradaki bekleyiş hali birçok varoluşsal soru ortaya çıkarır ve insanlar üzerinde kurulan hegemonik güce yardımcı cezalandırma sistemlerinin deneysel türlerine işaret eder. Bu makale romandaki belli bekleyiş örneklerini Foucault’un panoptikon kavramı ve Schweizer’ın bekleme teorisiyle birlikte incelemektedir. Doğuştan gelen keyfi bekleyiş ve bu bekleyişin psikolojik etkileri tarafından yutulmuş bir ulusta yaşanan bu durum insanların özgürlüğünü kontrol edip sınırlandırmak için bir cezalandırma işlevi görmektedir. Bundan dolayı bu makale birer disiplin aygıtları olarak “empoze edilen bekleyiş” ve panoptikonun örtük ve kalıcı cezalandırma türleri olarak nasıl kullanıldıklarını incelemektedir. Basma Abel Aziz distopik kurmacanın konvansiyonlarını kullanarak alternatif gerçeklikleri tasavvur etmektedir, bu alternatif gerçeklikler ise bağlamın rahatsız edici gerçekliklerine dayanmaktadır.

Keywords

• Distopya
• The Queue
• Basma Abdel Aziz
• Panoptikon
• Arap Baharı
• Kafkaesk

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