ART, NATURE, AND MEMORY IN ETEL ADNAN’S  JOURNEY TO MOUNT TAMALPAIS

Özge Özbek Akıman

Makale detayları

ART, NATURE, AND MEMORY IN ETEL ADNAN’S JOURNEY TO MOUNT TAMALPAIS

Yazarlar:

Özge Özbek Akıman

Yayıncı:

Ankara University

Ana Başlıklar:

Karşılaştırmalı ve Ulusötesi Edebiyat | Edebi Çalışmalar (Diğer)

Dergi:

Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi Vol.63 Issue 2, pp.1272-1293

Belge Tipi:

Makale

Yayın Tarihi:

12/2023

Belge Dili:

İngilizce

Document ID (Org No.):

2001305667

pISSN:

2459-0150

Anahtar kelimeler:

Özet:

 In her Journey to Mount Tamalpais: An Essay 1986, the Arab American painter and poet Etel Adnan 1925-2021 contemplates on the relationship between art, nature, and memory by focusing on the act of perception. Adnans text tells of her inner journey towards peace in contrast to her other work that responds to the Lebanese civil war, from which she had to flee in the 1970s. The centrality of perception reveals an intertwining relationship between art, nature and memory. In this relationship, the subject is intertwined with the object, self with the other, the perceiver with the perceived, which traditional Western thought separates as binaries. One of the prominent figures in phenomenological approach, Maurice Merleau-Ponty has focused on perception that is compatible with Adnans text. His concepts of reversibility, chiasm, dehiscence, and flesh are useful tools to analyze the essay both in its conceptual and cultural dimensions. As a work which incorporates verbal and visual treatments of the mountain, in which Adnan excavates the hidden histories and memories, retaining their differences, Journey to Mount Tamalpais proves to be a manifestation of the intertwiningthe chiasm as Merleau-Ponty attempts to map. In relation to perception, memory emerges as a preeminent concept due to Adnans engagements with cultures and linguistic worlds such as Arab, French and American, and her witness of colonial wars. This article proposes a reading that captures the conceptual and cultural dimensions of the text, which ultimately leads to a new visibility of the mountain. The ultimate manifestation of Mount Tamalpais is the image of a wise and wounded old woman. When the process of perception that produces this image is analyzed from Merleau-Pontys perspective, Journey to Mount Tamalpais reveals a way of thinking about the chiasm of art, nature and memory in which the boundaries between subject and object, perceiver and perceived, and background and foreground collapse.

 In her Journey to Mount Tamalpais: An Essay 1986, the Arab American painter and poet Etel Adnan 1925-2021 contemplates on the relationship between art, nature, and memory by focusing on the act of perception. Adnans text tells of her inner journey towards peace in contrast to her other work that responds to the Lebanese civil war, from which she had to flee in the 1970s. The centrality of perception reveals an intertwining relationship between art, nature and memory. In this relationship, the subject is intertwined with the object, self with the other, the perceiver with the perceived, which traditional Western thought separates as binaries. One of the prominent figures in phenomenological approach, Maurice Merleau-Ponty has focused on perception that is compatible with Adnans text. His concepts of reversibility, chiasm, dehiscence, and flesh are useful tools to analyze the essay both in its conceptual and cultural dimensions. As a work which incorporates verbal and visual treatments of the mountain, in which Adnan excavates the hidden histories and memories, retaining their differences, Journey to Mount Tamalpais proves to be a manifestation of the intertwiningthe chiasm as Merleau-Ponty attempts to map. In relation to perception, memory emerges as a preeminent concept due to Adnans engagements with cultures and linguistic worlds such as Arab, French and American, and her witness of colonial wars. This article proposes a reading that captures the conceptual and cultural dimensions of the text, which ultimately leads to a new visibility of the mountain. The ultimate manifestation of Mount Tamalpais is the image of a wise and wounded old woman. When the process of perception that produces this image is analyzed from Merleau-Pontys perspective, Journey to Mount Tamalpais reveals a way of thinking about the chiasm of art, nature and memory in which the boundaries between subject and object, perceiver and perceived, and background and foreground collapse.

 In her Journey to Mount Tamalpais: An Essay 1986, the Arab American painter and poet Etel Adnan 1925-2021 contemplates on the relationship between art, nature, and memory by focusing on the act of perception. Adnans text tells of her inner journey towards peace in contrast to her other work that responds to the Lebanese civil war, from which she had to flee in the 1970s. The centrality of perception reveals an intertwining relationship between art, nature and memory. In this relationship, the subject is intertwined with the object, self with the other, the perceiver with the perceived, which traditional Western thought separates as binaries. One of the prominent figures in phenomenological approach, Maurice Merleau-Ponty has focused on perception that is compatible with Adnans text. His concepts of reversibility, chiasm, dehiscence, and flesh are useful tools to analyze the essay both in its conceptual and cultural dimensions. As a work which incorporates verbal and visual treatments of the mountain, in which Adnan excavates the hidden histories and memories, retaining their differences, Journey to Mount Tamalpais proves to be a manifestation of the intertwiningthe chiasm as Merleau-Ponty attempts to map. In relation to perception, memory emerges as a preeminent concept due to Adnans engagements with cultures and linguistic worlds such as Arab, French and American, and her witness of colonial wars. This article proposes a reading that captures the conceptual and cultural dimensions of the text, which ultimately leads to a new visibility of the mountain. The ultimate manifestation of Mount Tamalpais is the image of a wise and wounded old woman. When the process of perception that produces this image is analyzed from Merleau-Pontys perspective, Journey to Mount Tamalpais reveals a way of thinking about the chiasm of art, nature and memory in which the boundaries between subject and object, perceiver and perceived, and background and foreground collapse.

 Arap kökenli Amerikalı ressam ve şair Etel Adnan 1925-2021, Journey to Mount Tamalpais: An Essay 1986 adlı eserinde California kıyısında bulunan Tamalpais Dağı üzerinden, algı edimini merkeze alarak sanat, doğa ve bellek üzerine düşünür. Bu eser 1970lerde Lübnanda başlayan iç savaştan kaçarak Californiaya yerleşen Adnanın o dönemde yazdığı politik yönü belirgin eserlerden farklı olarak içsel barışa doğru bir yolculuğu ele alır. Eserde merkeze alınan algı edimi sanat, doğa ve bellek arasında iç çe geçmiş bir ilişkiye işaret eder. Bu iç içelik, Batı düşüncesinin ayırdığı özne ve nesne, ben ve öteki, algılayan ve algılanan gibi kavramları birbirine katıştırır. Fenomenolojik yaklaşımın önemli figürlerinden Maurice Merleau-Pontynin algıyı ele alışı ve özellikle son döneminde olgunlaştırdığı tersine çevrilebilirlik reversibility, kesişme chiasm, çatlama dehiscence ve ten flesh kavramları, Adnanın metnini kavramsal ve kültürel derinliğiyle okumayı mümkün kılar. Tamalpais Dağının yem yazı hem de resim düzleminde ele alındığı bu metin, bastırılmış kültürler arasında farklılıkları koruyarak kurduğu bağlar dolayısıyla Merleau-Pontynin kesişme kavramına ilginç bir örnek oluşturur. Adnanın birbiriyle neredeyse çatışma halinde olan Arap, Fransız ve Amerikan kültür ve dil dünyalarıyla ilişkisi ve tarihsel tanıklığı dolayısıyla, algı ediminin bellek ile birlikte ele alınması gerekmektedir. Bu çerçevede mümkün olabilecek iki boyutlu kavramsal ve kültürel okuma, bizi Adnanın yolculuğunda Tamalpais Dağının yeni tezahürüne ulaştıracaktır. Adnanın bakışında yakaladığı Tamalpais Dağı nihayetinde yaralı, bilge, kadim bir kadın imgesi olarak belirir. Bu imgenin altında işleyen algı süreci Merleau-Pontynin kavramlarıyla incelendiğinde Adnanın metni sanat, doğa ve belleğin iç içe geçmesiyle nesne ve öznenin, algılayanın ve algılananın, arka ve ön planın birbirine karıştığı bir düşünce biçimi sunmaktadır.

Makale detayları

ART, NATURE, AND MEMORY IN ETEL ADNAN’S JOURNEY TO MOUNT TAMALPAIS

Yazarlar:

Özge Özbek Akıman

Yayıncı:

Ankara University

Ana Başlıklar:

Karşılaştırmalı ve Ulusötesi Edebiyat | Edebi Çalışmalar (Diğer)

Dergi:

Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi Vol.63 Issue 2, pp.1272-1293

Belge Tipi:

Makale

Yayın Tarihi:

12/2023

Belge Dili:

İngilizce

Document ID (Org No.):

2001305667

pISSN:

2459-0150

Etel Adnan

Journey to Mount Tamalpais

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

perception

memoryEtel Adnan

Journey to Mount Tamalpais

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

algı

bellek

Sayı

Makale detayları

Yazarlar: Özge Özbek Akıman

Yayıncı: Ankara University

Ana Başlıklar: Karşılaştırmalı ve Ulusötesi Edebiyat | Edebi Çalışmalar (Diğer)

Dergi: Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi Vol.63 Issue 2, pp.1272-1293

Belge Tipi: Makale

Yayın Tarihi: 12/2023

Belge Dili: İngilizce

Document ID (Org No.): 2001305667

pISSN: 2459-0150

Sayı

Yazarlar:

Özge Özbek Akıman

Yayıncı:

Ankara University

Ana Başlıklar:

Karşılaştırmalı ve Ulusötesi Edebiyat | Edebi Çalışmalar (Diğer)

Dergi:

Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi Vol.63 Issue 2, pp.1272-1293

Belge Tipi:

Makale

Yayın Tarihi:

12/2023

Belge Dili:

İngilizce

Document ID (Org No.):

2001305667

pISSN:

2459-0150