CRITICAL READING Puslu K? talar Atlas? fits with regardsto the definition and the features of “ New Historicism” theory. Ihsan OktayAnar created the characters in his misty imagine world by collating dusty pagesof history.
Furthermore, he adjusted some historic characters such asAristotles, Descartes by changing their names. It is important to be clearabout the definition of New Historicism, it is the method of examination whichadvocates that there is no difference between literature and history within thecontext of fictionality of the history and being open to production (Greenblatt1-14). The theory of New Historicism reveals how it embodies Puslu K? talar Atlas? in the context oftechniques and principles.
NewHistoricism is complaince with the fictionality aspect and the relation toliterature. Montrose pointed out with the terms textuality of history and historicityof the text (Montrose, 15-36). In this theory, the basis of culture and dailylives of the society should be taken into consideration. By examining thenovel, some New Historicist factors was put forward by Ye? ilyurt. These arecontext, fragmentation of history, prolog, conflicts, sembolism of the characters’names and intertextuality. At the beginning of Puslu K? talar Atlas?, the reader is torn between reality andfiction (1824). Kubelik who is the clerk of Venice bale, one day he meets ArapIhsan.
He wants Kubelik to translate a Frankish book. Kubelik translates thisbook as Zagon Üzerine Öttürme byRendekar who is a philosoph. Actually, this translated book refers to René Descartes’ Discourseon Methods (1637).
Kendisinegösterilen sat? rlar? defalarca okuyan Kubelik, yeterince karalama yapt? ktansonra tercümesini bir kâ?? da temize çekip Arap ? hsan’a verdi. Fakat meyhanedeokuma yazmas? olanlardan hiç kimse bu kâ?? da ne kadar bakt? ysa da bir ? eyanlamay? ba? aramad?. (Anar 34). Withthis quotation from the novel shows that no one cannot read and understand whathe writes except for Kubelik.
The works areperceived as historical documents are and they are shaped according to theculture and accumulation of historian. However, this book’s title translated byKubelik, consists of slang words. This shows that the perception of historicaldocuments’ precise and unrevisability can break with a little change offormating like Kubelik’s translation (Ye? ilyurt 1813-1816). NewHistoricism Theory becomes a highly critical thought that history is notsubjective, it is completely the author’s fiction. According to Ilgurel, “ in Puslu K? talar Atlas?, fantasies that are inspried from folkloric myths andfairy tales are blended with the historical, linguistic and technical elementsof the period.” (360). Accordingly, the literary view of the New Historicismcan be described that a literary work comes into existence with the interactionof political, social, cultural and historical aspects of the period. In Puslu K? talar Atlas? fits into the genreof postmodernism reinterprets and rewrites the text by dealing with historicalcontext.
However, postmodern historical novels cannot be history, even if theyreflect a historicity. They cannot be accepted as historical reality ( Bulut3). InIhsan Oktay Anar’s misty world, most of the characters arouses the personalitiesin the history apart from the imaginary ones. As mentioned above, somephilosophers from the past play a part such as Aristatalis, Rendekar. There isa reply to Bünyamin from Ebrehe, “ busoruya cevap vermek için henüz erken. Aristatalis Fizik adl? eserinde, bo? lu? un olmad??? n?, e? er olsayd? bo? lukta yolalan cismin sonsuz h? za eri? ece? ini bunun da imkans? z oldu? unu söyler.”(Anar147).
As it is understand from this conversation, the author referred to thefamous philosopher’s text named Physics. Althoughthe text is fantasy, the author cannot hold off from dealing with the history. Oneof the factors of the theory of New Historicism was put forward by Ye? ilyurt iscontext. To examine in detail this factor, PusluK? talar Atlas? is not a historic novel. However, it makes use of thehistory as a background to reflect the context. In this sense, essentialelement to be noted, it is all about the individual behavior of the charactersrather than historic events (Yesilyurt 4).
The next factor is fragmentation ofthe history that there are a large number of cases in Puslu K? talar Atlas?, which are disconnected from each other butare thematic. Instead of painting a whole historical period over a single line, the events that take place different place but in the same period are described(Yesilyurt 5). The other factor is prolog that is used for increasing thedegree of reality.