YENİ ÇAĞ TASAVVUFU VE KÖKENLERİ: ROGER HOUSDEN’IN RUMİ’NİN İZİNDE ROMANINDA MEVLÂNÂ CELALEDDİN RUMİ ÖRNEĞİ

Yıl 2024, Cilt: 11 Sayı: 25, 570 - 601, 24.08.2024

Pürnur Turhan

https://doi.org/10.58884/akademik-hassasiyetler.1392590

Öz

On üçüncü yüzyıl mutasavvıfı Mevlânâ Celaleddin Rumi, 1990'lardan itibaren İngiltere ve ABD'de artan bir popülerlik kazanmıştır. Bu çalışma, bireylerin dini bağlamdan kopuk bir maneviyat biçimine ilgi duymasına yol açan siyasi ve sosyolojik faktörlerin analizi yoluyla bu bağlamından koparılmış popülerliği araştırmaktadır. Kapitalizm ve neoliberalizmin işçi sınıfı için işyerinde yarattığı güvensizliğin, kendilerini önce iş yerinde, sonra da yaşamlarının psikolojik ve manevi alanlarında geliştirmeleri için bir yol arayışına neden olduğunu ileri sürmektedir. Bu iddiayı ortaya koymak için, makale on dokuzuncu yüzyılın ikinci yarısından itibaren kapitalizm ve neoliberalizmin kısa tarihçesiyle başlamakta ve kapitalizm ve neoliberalizmin siyasi ve sosyal etkilerinin kişisel gelişim yayınlarının ortaya çıkışını nasıl tetiklediğini göstermektedir. Daha sonra yönetimsellik kavramını ve neoliberal devletin adem-i merkeziyetçi yönetişimindeki işlevini tartışmaya geçmektedir. Bu sayede, bir iktidar teknolojisi olarak New Age hareketinin Foucaultcu bir analizini sunmaktadır. Daha sonra New Age hareketinin tarihsel bir anlatımıyla devam etmekte ve neoliberal yönetişim ile New Age hareketi arasındaki ilişkiyi incelemektedir. Yeni Çağ Sufizminin temellerini ortaya koyduktan ve Sufizmin Batı'daki tarihsel varlığını kısaca ele aldıktan sonra, Roger Housden'ın Rumi’nin İzinde adlı romanını bir New Age romanı olarak yakından okuyarak, New Age manevi değerlerinin romanın inanç sisteminde 13. Yüzyıl mutasavvıfı ile nasıl bir araya getirildiğini ve Rumi’nin geleneksel köklerinden ne şekilde farklı olduğunu gösterir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Neoliberalizm, kişisel gelişim, yönetimsellik, yeni çağ tasavvufu, Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi

NEW AGE SUFISM AND ITS FOUNDATIONS: THE CASE OF MEVLÂNÂ CELALEDDIN RUMI IN ROGER HOUSDEN’S CHASING RUMI

Öz

Mevlânâ Celaleddin Rumi, a thirteenth Century Sufi mystic, has gained increasing popularity in the UK and in the USA from 1990s onwards. This study explores this decontextualised popularity through an analysis of the political and sociological factors that led individuals’ interest in a form of spirituality which is out of religious context. It asserts that the insecurity capitalism and neoliberalism created in the workplace for working class people resulted in a search for a way for them to improve themselves first in the marketplace and then in the psychological and spiritual realms of their lives. In order to unpack this claim, the paper starts with brief histories of capitalism and neoliberalism from the second half of the nineteenth century and shows how political and social impact of capitalism and neoliberalism prompted the emergence of self-help publications. It then moves on to discussing the notion of governmentality and its function in the decentralised governance of neoliberal state. Through this, it offers a Foucauldian analysis of New Age movement as a technology of power. It then proceeds with a historical account of the New Age movement, it scrutinises the relationship between neoliberal governance and the New Age movement. Having established the foundations of New Age Sufism and briefly touched the historic presence of Sufism in the West, it presents a close reading of Roger Housden's Chasing Rumi as a New Age novel and discusses how values of New Age spirituality comes together with the 13th Century mystic in the belief system of the novel and shows in what ways New Age Sufism and Rumi’s theosophy varies from its traditional roots.

Anahtar Kelimeler

neoliberalism, self-help, Governmentality, New Age Sufism, Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi

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