Article

From Attachment to the Eclipse of Identity: Is the Blue Sky There?

Abstract

Identity is the unit of identification that reveals in the attachment points to the society to where individuals feel strong belonging. The individual as products of her/his own environment is identified with the culture of society. Also, the immigrant who lives/have to live in different geographies, get into a dilemma between self -identity and identity of citizenship to follow the set of values. This study focuses on how the Turkish young people living in France express their semantic world and what they are experiencing, especially during the times of crisis. Hypothetically, the reflexes of chosen twenty Muslim Turks living in France are examined at the time of “crisis” and the attachment points to the society in where they live, are questioned through their emotions, ideas and behaviors. The study choses “the cartoon crises” in which Charlie Hebdo published pejorative cartoons against the Prophet Mohammed, as a case. Methodologically, it follows ideographic approach and practically conducting a micro field research. The research that analyzes identity through interviews attempts ‘arrival to the theory’ rather than accepting a certain theoretical basis as a starting point. As a result of field research, it seems that Horkheimer’s concept of “eclipse of reason” opens doors to a new formulation. In conceptualization, which can be defined as an eclipse of identity, the means-end balance is overruled through the world of instrumentalized identity; idea and action are regarded as the same; submissive typologies are created; and emulation becomes part of living conditions. On the other hand, an uncanny desire leads to rebel of self-identities of the individual, despite all the docility. The individuals live an expectance between hope and hopelessness, and trapped between their own identities and the identities of the living space. The matter of the sample group which live in France that is the cradle of discourse of freedom, fraternity and equality, evokes Zarifoğlu’s expression: “is the blue sky there?”.

Keywords

Max Horkheimer eclipse of identity Charlie Hebdo cartoon crises Cahit Zarifoğlu

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Birsen Banu Okutan, Asst. Prof., İstanbul University
DOI: dx.doi.org/10.12658/M0228
Year: 2018 (March) / Volume: 8 / Issue: 1
Page: 85-113
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