The Second Book of Genesis: Bruno Schulz’s Tactile Matter and the Carnal Hermeneutics of Reading

Abstract

This article reads the matter of Bruno Schulz’s fiction (Sklepy cynamonowe, 1934; Sanatorium pod Klepsydrą, 1937) through the question of touch. That matter is alive in Schulz is a settled premise of the scholarship; the article’s contribution is to show that this life is written as something known through, and answerable to, touch, and that the stories model reading itself as such contact. Richard Kearney’s carnal hermeneutics, grounded in Merleau-Ponty’s account of flesh and reversibility, provides the framework. A close reading of the “Treatise on Tailors’ Dummies” in the Polish original shows that matter is the grammatical subject of the father’s sentences, that Schulz’s vocabulary for matter is tactile (puszystość, porowatość, oporność), and that the Treatise itself admits that the quickening hand can turn into domination (manipulacja,gwałt, sadyzm). In “Nemrod” and “Sklepy cynamonowe” touch operates as a mode of knowledge; in “Karakony” the same reversibility becomes a threat, read here with Julia Kristeva’s concept of abjection. The reading presents Schulz as a theorist of the ethics of touch, what Kearney calls “tact,” in addition to the poet of living matter he is already known to be.

Keywords

• Bruno Schulz
• carnal hermeneutics
• touch
• matter
• abjection
• Treatise on Tailors’ Dummies

Supporting Institution

This study was supported by the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency, Program No. P6-0156 (Slovenian Linguistics, Literature and Slovenian Language Teaching (2020–2027); head of the program Prof. Dr. Marko Jesenšek).

Thanks

In preparing this article the author used an AI assistant (Claude, Anthropic) for language editing, for the translation of the title, abstract and keywords into Turkish, and for formatting the document to the journal’s style.

İkinci Yaratılış Kitabı: Bruno Schulz’da Dokunsal Madde ve Okumanın Tensel Hermenötiği

Abstract

Bu makale, Bruno Schulz’un Sklepy cynamonowe (1934) ve Sanatorium pod Klepsydrą (1937) ciltlerindeki maddeyi dokunma sorusu üzerinden okur. Schulz araştırmalarında maddenin canlılığı uzun süredir kabul görmüş bir önermedir; makalenin katkısı, bu canlılığın Schulz’un düzyazısında dokunma yoluyla bilinen ve dokunmaya cevap veren bir şey olarak yazıldığını ve öykülerin okuma edimini de böyle bir temas olarak modellediğini göstermektir. Bu amaçla Richard Kearney’nin, Merleau-Ponty’nin ten ve tersinirlik kavramlarına dayanan tensel hermenötiği temel çerçeve olarak kullanılmıştır. “Terzi Mankenleri Üzerine Traktat”ın Lehçe aslına dayanan yakın okuması, maddenin babanın cümlelerinde dilbilgisel özne konumunda olduğunu, Schulz’un madde sözlüğünün dokunsal olduğunu (puszystość, porowatość, oporność) ve traktatın kendisinin, maddeye can veren elin tahakküme dönüşebileceğini (manipulacja, gwałt, sadyzm) kabul ettiğini ortaya koymaktadır. “Nemrod” ve “Sklepy cynamonowe” öykülerinde dokunma bir bilme biçimi olarak, “Karakony” öyküsünde ise aynı tersinirlik, Julia Kristeva’nın iğrençlik kavramıyla ele alınan bir tehdit olarak izlenmektedir. Bu okuma, Schulz’u canlı maddenin şairi olarak bilinen konumunun yanı sıra, dokunmanın etiğini, Kearney’nin deyişiyle tact’ı düşünen bir yazar olarak konumlandırır.

Keywords

• Bruno Schulz
• tensel hermenötik
• dokunma
• madde
• iğrençlik
• Terzi Mankenleri Üzerine Traktat

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