Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
ARCHTHEO ’22 XIV. INTERNATIONAL THEORY AND HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS, İstanbul, Türkiye, 18 Kasım 2022, cilt.1, ss.15-28
The “production of space,” which is a knowledge domain based on the production of the physical
environment and the forms of associations with the environment, should not only be confined to
construction practice. It is essential to acknowledge that the production of literary narrative could as well
be considered a direct production of the architectural space, such as structural and/or visual productions.
Literary narrative, as a medium, facilitates a certain distance from the established codes, given that it is a
product with prematurely delivered fictionality. Such distance offers the freedom to contemplate on and
construct other occurrences, thus enabling the transformation of spatial use, the acquisition of and
association with the architectural space. In other words, it allows a redefinition of the concept of space; a
novel, nonexistent spatial forms can be imagined. Hence, the literature, which re-establishes, reproduces,
transforms, and formats the narratives based on social constructs, can be utilized to scrutinize the practices
and desires of the urban context.
Given the abovementioned theoretical framework, the concept of “utopia,” as a product of a feeling of
uneasiness for being here and “now,” was scrutinized through a selected literary work of the Ottoman
period. As with any other concept, the concept of ‘utopia’ does not hold a stagnant form, its definition is not
wedged to the period it was invented, yet, it is alive, fluid, and becoming, which constantly undertakes new
meanings. Since More created the literary genre with Utopia in 1516, utopia and utopianism were often
perceived as the “western” dreams of a better world, an ideal existence, or an imaginary/fantastic future.
In diverse cultures, the idealist thought practices based on the imagination of a “good society” were also
often ascribed to the absolute utopia definition. In the present study, the concept of “social dream” was
utilized to decode the literary work of Molla Davudzâde Mustafa Nazım Erzurumi, Rüyada Terakki ve
Medeniyet-i İslamiyye-i Rü’yet, which emerged from the possibility of a different social order in a world that
had no concern on conforming the epistemological foundations of utopia. The new fictional Istanbul in this
literary work was reviewed for the motivations that allowed absolute diverse imaginations for the city and
the social norms -especially gender roles- that delineated the margins of this imagination. Hence, the
present study was intended to trace how the “social dream” emerged as an amalgamation influenced by its
historicity, rather than identifying certain forms of the “western” utopia model in the literary work.