Selected Work: Istanbul, 2005
The work, Istanbul, 2005, (Apartment of Safiye Behar) intrigues me because it explores the fragility of historical identity through presentation of the character as repressed, manipulation of facts, and the assumption of reality. Firstly, I believe that the position and choice of presenting the character as repressed essentially creates this mist regarding the authenticity of identity as it overrides the schematic assumption of history that a famous person may have. When it refers to “the exposure of a previously repressed history”, it conceals the authenticity of history as something that the author provides voice to (Lambert-Beatty 53). Being someone that is provided voice and being noticed, it creates an assumed real presence which was important to create this narrative of a real person. In this sense, it was very much successful as the audience is exposed to an unknown story where the facts cannot be confirmed, but can be assumed to be true.
This is further orchestrated in the manipulation of facts revolving Safiye where real characters such as Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and locations such as Beyoglu and Sorbonne are intertwined with her repressed narrative. Surrounding this fictional character around these real people and characters would then create a sense of truth due to the role that this character played in the narrative. For example, when she’s connected with Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, she’s introduced as a friend and possible romance subject of the leader. This sort of presentation already creates an assumed role that’s played by Safiye being a woman and a private character that’s more mysterious. Being presented as someone that’s a side character makes a successful narration as facts can be contributed to her as the reality cannot be confirmed, but only assumed. This is more presentable as it there is a video interview of the grandson of the Safiye, Melik Tutuncu, a Chicago architect. This presentation not only confirms her existence, but provides evidence of a family lineage which creates familial evidence of existence. Even after showing this evidence, the author talks about what happened to the rest of the immediate family who died from a “freak accident” (53). This deletes possible inquiries that people may have on sources of knowledge to confirm this person’s existence and the reality of the claims. It essentially creates the sensation that Safiye was “real” because of the sources of knowledge provided.
Lastly, Safiye being able to be “real to me [Blum]” is the assumption of reality factor that contributes heavily to the success of this narration (53). In order to formulate a parafiction narrative that’s believable, it’s important for the author themself to believe this reality. In this sense, being able to be a part of this world where Safiye exists would contribute to this believable narrative as one is essentially intertwined in the two spectrums of existence. Not only can this be seen in Blum’s narration and project, but this sensation of existence, reality, and the true reality can be observed in movies such as the Truman Show in which Truman is a part of a set reality that he believes to be the true reality only to find the actual truth. By utilizing this example as a connection or mirroring of Safiye’s existence, Blum essentially assumes the current reality is one that includes Safiye. The portrayed perspective of belief would contribute to the reception of belief from those that view this work. To simplify, the act of personal belief in a narration is crucial to success as a whole as confidence can either make or break the narrative due to its fragile nature.
Works Cited
Lambert-Beatty, Carrie. “Make-Believe: Parafiction and Plausibility.” October, vol. 129, 2009, pp. 51–84., https://www.jstor.org/stable/40368563.
Weir, Peter, director. The Truman Show.
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