Catherine Crowe’un “İtalyan’ın Hikâyesi” Adlı Eserinde Spiritüalist, Kapitalist ve Bilimsel Söylemler Arasındaki Çatışmalar

Yıl 2022, Cilt: 14 Sayı: 1, 99 - 113, 17.01.2022

Şebnem Düzgün

Öz

Catherine Crowe’un “İtalyan’ın Hikâyesi” adlı eseri, kapitalist ve bilimsel söylemler sayesinde değer bulan on dokuzuncu yüzyılın ortalarına ait materyalist bakış açısını sorgular. Hikâye, kapitalizmin spiritüel gerçekliği görmezden geldiğini ve maddi edinim için rekabeti teşvik ettiğini gösterir. “İtalyan’ın Hikâyesi”nde, tek uğraşı servetini artırmak olan yaşlı ve cimri bir adam aracılığıyla maddiyat düşkünlüğü eleştirilir. Ayrıca, “İtalyan’ın Hikâyesi” fiziki alanı araştıran deneysel bilimin de ruhani ve doğaüstü olayları açıklamakta yetersiz olduğunu açıklar. Eser, doğaüstü varlıkların varlığını inkâr eden “mantıklı” erkekler ile paranormal güçlere inanan “mantıksız” kadınlar ve köylüler arasında yaşanan tartışma aracılığıyla bilimsel ve spiritüalist bakış açıları arasındaki çatışmayı sergiler. Bu çalışma, “İtalyan’ın Hikâyesi”nin insan yaşamının spiritüel yönünü görmezden gelen ve soyutluk ve mantıksızlıkla ilişkilendirilen spiritüellik ve sezgiye karşı rasyonalitenin üstünlüğünü iddia eden kapitalist ve bilimsel söylemler üzerindeki kısıtlamaları ortaya koyduğunu iddia eder.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Catherine Crowe, “İtalyan’ın Hikâyesi”, Spiritüalizm, Kapitalizm, Bilim

Conflicts between Spiritualist, Capitalist, and Scientific Discourses in Catherine Crowe’s “The Italian’s Story”

Öz

Catherine Crowe’s “The Italian’s Story” (1859) questions the materialist outlook of the mid-nineteenth century cherished by capitalist and scientific discourses. The story shows that capitalism ignores spiritual reality and encourages the competition for material acquisitiveness. In “The Italian’s Story,” material indulgence is criticized through an old miser whose sole interest is to increase his fortune. Moreover, “The Italian’s Story” demonstrates that experimental science, which investigates physical realm, is also inadequate to explain spiritual and supernatural phenomena. It exposes the conflict between scientific and spiritualist perspectives through the controversy between ‘rational’ men, who deny the existence of supernatural beings, and ‘irrational’ women and villagers, who believe in paranormal powers. This study claims that “The Italian’s Story” reveals the constraints on capitalist and scientific discourses that ignore the spiritual aspect of human life and claim the superiority of rationality against spirituality and intuition, which are related to the incorporeality and irrationality.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Catherine Crowe, “The Italian’s Story”, Spiritualism, Capitalism, Science

Kaynakça

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