William Beckford’s Depiction of the Orient and the Oriental as Infernal in Vathek

Yıl 2016, Sayı: 39, 241 - 255, 29.12.2016

Ertuğrul Koç

Öz

Vathek treats the despotic rule of caliph Al-Wathik (842-847),
the ninth caliph of the Abbasid dynasty, and by extension, depicts Islamic
caliphate and culture as decadent. For Beckford, though exotically absorbing, eastern
paradigm has its sinister aura: under despotic, necromantic, and sly rulers,
‘good’ Muslims are no more than an insipid mass. And this submissive cultural character
of the East is shown as the ‘other’ of the West. Contrary to conventional
English gothicists who praise in their works the Protestant moral code against ‘decadent’
Catholicism, Beckford, due to his acquaintance with European languages and
cultures, assumes multicultural tone and style: through a contrastive portrayal
of caliph Vathek as the wrathful, proud, greedy, slothful, lustful, envious,
and gluttonous ruler of the lands of Islam, he creates the doppelgänger of the idealized
enlightenment individual. Yet, this socio-cultural and psychological schematising
influenced the first and the second generations of romantic poets, who, by
orientalising the Orient like Beckford, further contributed to the distorted
image of Islam, Muslims, and the East.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Gothic, Romanticism, Beckford, Orientalism, Islam

William Beckford’un Vathek Adlı Eserinde Doğu ve Doğuluyu Şeytanlaştırması

Öz

Vathek, Abbasi halifelerinden Al-Wathik’in (842-847) zalim yönetimini
konu edinirken, bir yandan da İslam halifeliği ve İslam kültürünü
itibarsızlaştırma çabasındadır. Beckford için doğunun egzotik bir cazibesi olsa
da, bu dünya aynı zamanda tehditkâr ve tehlikelidir. Eserde, sihir ve büyüyle
uğraşan zorba, şeytani hükümdarların tahakkümü altındaki ‘iyi’ Müslümanlar kuru
kalabalık olmaktan öteye gidemezler ve doğunun bu teslimiyetçi kültürel kimliği
de Beckford tarafından batıyı tanımlayan ‘öteki’ şeklinde resmedilir.
Eserlerinde Protestan ahlâkını ‘çürümüş’ Katolik inancına karşı öven geleneksel
İngiliz Gotik yazarların aksine batı dilleri ve kültürleriyle tanışık olan
Beckford, çok kültürlü Avrupalı bireyden yanadır: Aydınlanma Çağı’nın idealize
ettiği bu bireyin şeytani ikizini
çıkarmak adına da İslam topraklarının halifesini öfkeli, kibirli, açgözlü,
tembel, şehvetli, kıskanç ve obur biri olarak betimler. Beckford’un doğu ve
doğulu için çizdiği bu sosyo-kültürel, psikolojik şema da, birinci ve ikinci
kuşak romantik şairlerin Beckford’u örnek almaları sebebiyle doğuyu, İslam’ı ve
Müslümanlar’ı Beckford gibi çarpıtılmış biçimde tasvir etmelerinin yolunu
açmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Gotik, Romantizm, Beckford, Şarkiyatçılık, İslam

Kaynakça

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