TY - JOUR T1 - From Captivity to Liberty: A Study on the Prison Writings of Martin L. King, Ngugi and Soyinka TT - Esaretten Özgürlüğe: Martin L. King, Ngugi ve Soyinka’nın Hapishane Yazıları Üzerine Bir Çalışma AU - Bolat, Eren AU - Ekler, Onur PY - 2024 DA - February DO - 10.22559/folklor.2615 JF - Folklor/Edebiyat JO - folk/ed PB - Uluslararası Kıbrıs Üniversitesi WT - DergiPark SN - 1300-7491 SP - 257 EP - 272 VL - 30 IS - 117 LA - en AB - Prisons, like other disciplining apparatuses of the state, are used to reform theprisoners so that they can be re-conditioned back to a set of pre-ordained rolesdesigned in the system. These are places hostile to individuality, freedom, andcreativity. They function like rehabilitating institutes to suppress the reactionaryor rebellious voices of the prisoners by effacing their individuality under harshconditions so that they can make them docile bodies. However, this objectivefails when the prisoner-intellectuals are of concern. For them, prisons becometheir shrines where they are overwhelmed by the transformative power ofimprisonment. The experience of confinement shapes their perspectives, deepenstheir commitment to social justice, and fuels their advocacy for change. Althoughthe physical conditions of the prisons hamper their urge to write, they never giveup writing. Some write on the prison walls and some on toilet papers. Despite suchhorrible conditions, they manage to produce their most influential works whichcan be classified in prison literature. The writings of these prisoner-writers havepaved the way for the liberation of colonized/discriminated people in their owncountries and in diverse diasporas. Martin L. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail(2018), Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Detained: A Writer’s Prison Diary (1981) and WoleSoyinka’s The Man Died: The Prison Notes (1988) are three significant works to befeatured in this genre. Through an interdisciplinary approach, this article identifiesthe distinctive elements and commonalities in the prison writings of King, Ngugi,and Soyinka. This study explores the universal concepts of incarceration, resistanceto oppressive systems, and the struggle for freedom as portrayed in the works ofthese writers, and aims to examine how these writers have transformed their worksinto tools of resistance. KW - prison literature KW - oppression KW - liberty KW - disobedience KW - resilience N2 - Devletin diğer disiplin aygıtları gibi hapishaneler de mahkûmları ıslah etmek içinkullanılır, böylece mahkûmlar sistemde önceden tasarlanmış bir dizi role yenidenkoşullandırılabilirler. Buralar bireysellik, özgürlük ve yaratıcılıkla bağdaşmayanyerlerdir. Gerçek şu ki, hapishaneler, mahkûmların tepkisel ya da isyankârseslerini bastırmak, bireyselliklerini sert koşullar altında ortadan kaldırmak veböylece onları topluma uyum sağlayan bireyler olarak geri kazandırmak üzerehareket eden ıslah kurumları gibi işlev görmektedir. Ancak, mahkûm-aydınlarsöz konusu olduğunda cezaevlerinin bu hedefi başarısızlığa uğramaktadır. Çünküdüşünürlerin fikirlerini dört duvar ile kontrol altına alacak hiçbir sistem mevcutdeğildir. Onlar için hapishaneler, hapsedilmenin dönüştürücü gücü sayesindehareket ettikleri mabetleri haline gelmiştir. Hapsedilme deneyimi bakış açılarınışekillendirmiş, sosyal adalete olan bağlılıklarını derinleştirmiş ve değişimsavunuculuklarını körüklemiştir. Hapishanelerin fiziki koşulları onların yazmaisteğini bir nebze olsun engellese de yazmaktan asla vazgeçmemişlerdir. Kimizaman hapishane duvarlarına yazmışlar, kimi zaman ise tuvalet kâğıtlarınıkullanmışlardır. Bu korkunç koşullara rağmen, hapishane edebiyatı içindesınıflandırılabilecek en etkili eserlerini üretmeyi başarmışlardır. Bu mahkûm yazarların özgür ruhları ve düşünceleri ile yazılan çok sayıda yazı, kendiülkelerinde ve farklı diasporalarda sömürgeleştirilmiş/ayrımcılığa maruz kalmışinsanların özgürleşmesinin yolunu açmıştır. Martin L. King’in BirminghamHapishanesinden Mektup (1981), Ngugi wa Thiong’o’nun Tutuklu: BirYazarın Hapis Günlüğü (1981) ve Wole Soyinka’nın Adam Öldü: HapishaneNotları (1988) adlı çalışmaları bu kategoride ele alınabilecek eserlerdendir.Bu araştırma, disiplinlerarası bir yaklaşımla King, Ngugi ve Soyinka’nınhapishane yazılarındaki ayırt edici unsurları ve ortak noktaları incelemektedir.Bu çalışma, bu yazarların eserlerinde tasvir edildiği şekliyle, hapsedilme, baskıcısisteme karşı direnç ve özgürlük mücadelesi gibi evrensel kavramların üzerindedurmakta ve bu yazarların eserlerini nasıl birer direniş aracına dönüştürdükleriniincelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. CR - Bass, S. J. (2001). Blessed are the peacemakers: Martin Luther King Jr., eight white religious leaders, and the “letter from Birmingham Jail.” Louisiana State University Press. CR - Butler, J. (2020). The force of nonviolence: An ethico-political bind. Verso. CR - Carnochan, W. B. (1995). The literature of confinement ( In N. Morris & D. J. Rothman, Eds.) The Oxford history of the prison: The practice of punishment in Western society (pp. 427-455). essay, Oxford University Press. CR - Chenoweth, E., & Stephan, M. J. (2011). Why civil resistance works: The strategic logic of nonviolent conflict. Columbia University Press. CR - Davis, A. Y. (2003). Political prisoners, prisons, and black liberation. (In J. James, Ed.) Imprisoned intellectuals America’s political prisoners write on life, liberation, and rebellion (pp. 64-77). essay, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. CR - Eskew, G. T. (2007, September 20). Birmingham campaign of 1963. Encyclopedia of Alabama. https:// encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/birmingham-campaign-of-1963/ CR - Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison (A. Sheridan, Trans.) Vintage Books. CR - Foucault, M. (2002). Power: The essential works of Foucault 1954-1984. London: Penguin Books. CR - Gist, C. D., & Whitehead, K. W. (2013). Deconstructing Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham jail” and the strategy of nonviolent resistance. Black History Bulletin, 76(2), 6–13. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24759688 CR - Granta, (2017, June 21). Opinion: Kenya. Retrieved January 11, 2023, from https://granta.com/opinionkenya/ CR - Hansen, D. D. (2003). The dream: Martin Luther King, jr., and the speech that inspired a nation. New York: Ecco. CR - James, J. (Ed.). (2003). Imprisoned intellectuals America’s political prisoners write on life, liberation, and rebellion. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. CR - King, M. L. (1965). The civil rights struggle in the United States today: An address delivered at the House of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York on Wednesday. The Association. CR - King, M. L., & Cotton, D. (2011). Introduction. In Why we can’t wait. Beacon Press. King, M. L. (2018). Letter from Birmingham jail. Penguin Books. CR - Newton, H. P. (2003). Prison, where is thy victory? (In J. James, Ed.) Imprisoned intellectuals America’s political prisoners write on life, liberation, and rebellion (pp. 78-83). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. CR - Thiong’o, wa N. (1981). Detained: A writer’s prison diary. Oxford: Heinemann. CR - Rymhs, D. (2009). Docile bodies shuffling in unison: The prisoner as worker in Canadian prison writing. Life Writing, 6 (3), 313-327. https://doi.org/10.1080/14484520903082967 CR - Shabazz, R. (2015). “Walls turned sideways are bridges”: Carceral scripts and the transformation of the prison space. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 13(3), 581-594. Retrieved from https://acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/1028 CR - Soyinka, W. (1988). The man died: The prison notes. Spectrum Books Limited. CR - Soyinka, W. (1997). The open sore of a continent: A personal narrative of the Nigerian crisis. Oxford University Press. CR - Soyinka, W. (1997). The writer in an African State. Transition, 75/76, 350–356. https://doi. org/10.2307/2935430 CR - Thomas, J. D. (1997). A dramatic life: exiled Nigerian playwright, activist, and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka ‘96H finds sanctuary at Emory. Emory Magazine: Spring 1997: Wole Soyinka. Retrieved December 27, 2022, from https://www.emory.edu/EMORY_MAGAZINE/ spring97/wole.html CR - Westall, C. (2021). A wide and worlded vision of prison writing. In M. Kelly & C. Westall (Eds.), Prison writing and the literary world imprisonment, institutionality and questions of literary practice (pp. 1-18). Introduction, Routledge. CR - Whitehead, A. (2008). Journeying through hell: Wole Soyinka, trauma, and postcolonial Nigeria. Studies in the Novel, 40(1/2), 13-30. http://www.jstor.org/stable/29533857 UR - https://doi.org/10.22559/folklor.2615 L1 - https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/3705625 ER -