Direnişi Arşivlemek: Distopya Yazınında Hafıza ve Muhalif Kayıtlar

Yıl 2023, Cilt: 17 Sayı: 1, 62 - 79, 30.06.2023

Burcu Kayışcı Akkoyun

https://doi.org/10.47777/cankujhss.1221173

Öz

Edebi ütopyalar başka yer ve zamanlarda konumlanan hayali iyi yerler olarak geri getirilemez bir geçmişe duyulan özlemi dile getirebilir. Ancak daha da önemlisi, şimdiden duyulan sosyopolitik hoşnutsuzlukları ve geleceğe dair görüşleri ifade eder. Ütopya tahayyülleri belirli tarihsel konjonktürleri değerlendirerek daha iyi alternatifler sunduğundan işleyişlerinde hafızanın temel bir yeri vardır. Yirminci yüzyılın ilk dönemlerinden itibaren distopya yazınının yükselişiyle, hafızanın korunması ya da tahrip edilmesi ile ilgili meseleler ön plana çıkmıştır. Yazarlar, totaliter düzenlerin geçmiş, şimdi ve gelecek arasındaki bağları nasıl yeniden şekillendirdiğini ya da kopardığını, bu düzenlere karşı duran karakterlerin alternatif anlatılar üreterek politik baskılara nasıl karşı geldiğini hikayelemiştir. Geçmiş ve şimdiye ait kayıtların yok edilişine karşılık kişisel ve toplumsal arşivler oluşturma mücadelesi pek çok distopik eserin ortak temasını oluşturur. Bu çalışma, türün belli başlı örneklerine değinerek “muhalif kayıt tutma” adını verdiğim izleği, distopya yazını, hafıza ve arşiv ile ilgili teorik okumalar ışığında ele almaktadır. Çalışma, yazarların eserlerinde yazarlık ve otoriteye dair sorunları göz ardı etmeksizin tahayyül ettikleri muhalif kayıtlar aracılığıyla ütopik değişim olasılığını koruduğu sonucuna varır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

arşiv, hafıza, ütopya, distopya, kayıt tutma

Archiving the Resistance: Memory and Oppositional Recordkeeping in Dystopian Fiction

Öz

As imaginary good places located elsewhere and/or in another time, literary utopias may articulate nostalgic yearnings for an irretrievable past, but more significantly, they express socio-political discontent with the present and anticipations for the future. The role of memory is thus central in utopian configurations since they present better alternatives primarily by “remembering” and evaluating specific historical conjunctures. In line with the increasing prominence of dystopian fiction starting from the early twentieth century, issues concerning the preservation and destruction of memory have become more relevant. Authors portray how totalitarian regimes and corporations reshape or sever the links between the past, the present, and the future while defiant characters resist political oppression by forming alternative narratives. The struggle to construct personal and collective archives against the obliteration of past and present records makes recordkeeping a common theme and trope in many dystopian narratives. This paper examines the various forms of what I call “oppositional recordkeeping” in the selected major examples of the genre through theories of dystopia, memory, and the archive. The paper will conclude that authors of dystopian fiction preserve the possibility of utopian change by imagining various oppositional recordkeeping practices without overlooking the problems entailed in authority and authorship.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Archive, memory, utopia, dystopia, recordkeeping

Kaynakça

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