VarlikEurozineVarlik2013-06-20Summary: Varlik 5/2013Ömer Faruk, Murat Celep, Nilgün Tutal, Alp Tamer Ulukilic, Aydin Cam, Merve Kurt, Özcan Yurdalan
Dossier: The desert: The existence of the nonexistent
The first article in the dossier is by Nilgün Tutal, giving an overview of how the desert is perceived in travelogues starting with the classic The Tartar Steppe, and discussing exoticism, appropriation and fascination with reference to the desert. Her points of consideration include the negativity associated with the "primitive" in exoticism; how appropriation refuses to learn and know, and bases itself on experiencing only; the provocative desire to witness the "wild bizarreness" in fascination; and how fascination as a concept comes before good, bad and even knowledge -- and how there are people who discuss this. She describes the potential of fascination against appropriation. One sentence stands out in her article: "Fascination plays a central role in a system of representation with linguistic, visual, philosophical, aesthetic, intellectual and emotional complexities."In the second article, Aydin Cam uses and questions the city to understand the negation of the desert. He argues that the modern city is bound to the desert (with time), and does so by starting with the holy books. Setting off on an astonishing voyage by linking the words order, pitfall, deceit, machine, efficiency, speed and city, he attempts to reveal the potential of religion to produce domination. In the third article, Aydin Cam and Merve Kurt embark upon a rare creative effort to create a Desert Lexicon. Their first entries are ambiguity, sand, circle, lunatic, tedium, well and time. This is a lexicon where all entries are linked to each other. They call the desert a "limbo." In the fourth article, Ömer Faruk says, "The desert is called 'alien', 'inhospitable,' 'abstract' and 'hostile'. It is amazing how such strong words are used for an entity that has almost no defining characteristics. Heaven is described with gardens, greenery, water and plenty, while desert is characterised with poverty, deprivation, thirst, heat and desolation. The desert has no place in our dreams; it is not the carrier of the future, hope or joy" and tells about a desert trip he went on with a musician friend. The dossier also includes illustrations by Murat Celep, Alp Tamer Ulukilic and Özcan Yurdalan.Mehmet Rifat
Revisiting point of view, structuralism and structural analysis
Rifat says, "We should differentiate between structuralism that was designed as a method of analysis and study in linguistics and then turned into structural narrative analysis in semiotics, and the 'monopolistic, static, reductionist' structuralism that permeated the entire discipline of humanities, evolving into a philosophical trend."Haydar Ergülen
Nothing
Ergülen notes his thoughts about writer Hüseyin Rahmi Gürpinar and poets Cahit Sitki Taranci, Can Yücel and Ali Ural under separate headings.Mustafa Serif Onaran
The power of Turkish
Onaran discusses the anthology Sultanlarin Siirleri Siirlerin Sultanlari (Poetry of sultans, sultans of Ppoetry) by Mustafa Isen, Ali Fuat Bilkan and Tuba Isinsu Durmus, and gives examples from poems by sultans and heirs apparent.Hüseyin Yurttas
The Notepad
An essay on the film Kelebegin Rüyasi (Butterfly Dreaming) by Yilmaz Erdogan, focusing on the lives of two late poets and their relations with Varlik at the time. Halil Türkden
An essay on Enzo Traverso's work on how historiography should be questioned, under what mechanics of power it is conducted, and the relative accuracy levels of the methods of making historical.The full table of contents of Varlik 5/2013