Kültürel bir kıyamet: E. M. Forster'ın A Passage to India adlı eserinde emperyalizmin kıyametsel etkileri

Year 2022, Issue: 31, 1290 - 1310, 21.12.2022

Kaya Özçelik

https://doi.org/10.29000/rumelide.1216887

Abstract

İlk olarak dünyanın sonunu belirtmek için dini bir terim olarak ortaya çıkan kıyamet fikri, yeni bir başlangıç için mevcut durumun tamamen yok edilmesiyle sona eren her türlü felaket olay(lar) ve vaka(lar) ile ilişkili çeşitli çağrışımlara dönüşmüştür. İklim krizi ve bilim ve teknolojideki ilerlemelerin neden olduğu yıkım(lar) ile daha çok bağlantılı olmasına rağmen, bir kültürün Doğu ve Batı olmak üzere iki karşıt kültür arasındaki kültürel çatışma(lar) yoluyla yok edilmesi ve bunlardan çıkan sonuçların zayıf/Doğu tarafın temsilcilerini insanlıktan çıkarması, kültür bağlamında daha geniş anlamda kıyamet analizine de dahil edilebilir. Bu ilgi odağıyla, E. M. Forster'ın başyapıtı Hindistan'a Geçiş (1924), araştırma boyunca kültürel kıyamete örnek olarak değerlendirildi, ki bunun sonucunda Hintliler’in - ülkeleri Hindistan’ın bile - tam bir kıyamete sürüklenir ve ve Hintliler boyun eğen ve bir domuzdan başka hiçbir şey olarak görülmemektedir. Bir sivil istasyon tarfından kontrol edilen ve İngilizlerin zevk almakta özgür olduğu lüks ve konfordan izole edilen Hintliler, kendi topraklarında İngilizlerden herhangi bir özgürlük ve saygıdan yoksun karakterler olarak olarak çizilmektedir. Böylece, Hindistan’daki kapitalizmle de iç içe olan emperyalizm ideolojisinin arkasındaki ekonomik ve politik nedenler, yerli Hintliler’in yaşamlarında kültürel bir kıyamet olarak ortaya çıkan kültürel çatışmanın başlıca sonuçları olarak kabul edilmektedir.

Keywords

Culture, apocalypse, imperialism, clash, conflict

A cultural apocalypse: Apocalyptic impacts of imperialism in E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India

Abstract

First emerged as a religious term to designate the end of the world, the idea of apocalypse has evolved into manifold connotations that is associated with any cataclysmic event(s) and case(s) that end(s) up with the complete destruction of the present state with a new beginning. Although it is more often affiliated with the destruction(s) caused by climate crisis and advancements in science and technology, the destruction of a culture through cultural clash(es) between two opposing cultures, namely the East and West, and the results out of these that dehumanise the representatives of the weaker side/East can also be included in the analysis of apocalypse in a broader sense in the context of culture. It is within this focus of interest that E. M. Forster’s masterpiece A Passage to India (1924) has been evaluated as an example for the cultural apocalypse throughout the research, as a result of which the Indians - even their country - is plunged into total apocalypse and become subservient and considered nothing rather than a swine. Controlled under a civil station and isolated from the luxury and comfort the British are free to relish, Indians are drawn as character who are bereft of any freedom and respect from the British in their own land. Thus, the economic and political causes behind the ideology of imperialism that is also intertwined with capitalism in India have been considered as major consequences of the cultural clash that arise as a cultural apocalypse in the lives of native Indians.

Keywords

Culture, apocalypse, imperialism, clash, conflict

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