Semiotics of Istanbul image in the Turkish literature and painting in the XX century

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Ordu University, Turkie

Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts, Kharkiv, Ukraine

Semiotics of Istanbul image in the Turkish literature and painting in the twentieth century

Andrii Artemenko, Doctor of Science (Social Philosophy and Philosophy of History), Professor, Professor of Social &Humanitarian Sciences Department

Gьlhanэm Bihter Yetkin PhD, Russian Language and Literature Department, Faculty Member

Abstract

The article examines the semiotic model of Turkish literature and painting of the early twentieth century. The purpose of the article is to examine the dynamics of the visual and verbal images of Istanbul at the beginning of the twentieth century and its value basis. The object of the research is the image of Istanbul occupation period as special social period, created by the contemporaries of these events. The city is seen as an independent character of literature and painting works. It turns into a participant in history and a keeper of the collective memory of it. At the same time, an image of the city's authenticity, cultural and historical rootedness is born. The process of the city mental image creating by aesthetic and psychological tools is analyzed. This is an interdisciplinary study and it involves the combination of philosophical, literary and art criticism approaches to the study of verbal and visual images of the era. In theoretical terms, the work is focused on the phenomenological concept of culture. The methodological basis of the research is a semiotic and hermeneutic analysis of literature and painting works. The article examines the mechanisms of verbalization and visualization of the Istanbul image in the Turkish culture of the early XX century. The space of the city in the novel is the entourage of events, the place where the characters find the reality of their existence. Istanbul plays a key role in the manifestation of the Turkish novels characters of the occupation era. This is a general background that reveals the cultural and socio- economic characteristics of people's lives. With this spatial reference, the fictional world in the work takes on visibility. The article analyzes the works of the artists of the "Generation 1914" group. The use of impressionistic techniques by Turkish artists of the early 20th century is considered. Thanks to her, a complex mosaic of the visual image of the city is formed; the diversity of everyday life is layered on the tectonic structures of Istanbul (minarets and domes of mosques). They turn into markers of urban identity, hold the space together into a single whole.

Conclusions: the image of Istanbul in painting and literature, as product of symbolic production and exchange, makes it possible to see a complete, decorated image of the era at the everyday social life. For a modern person, it is a marker of the historical past, national identity and regional authenticity. It reveals the complex evolution of the historical events, reflected in the art works, and their modern interpretation. This is noted as a manifestation of metaxis as hovering between different forms of reality, allowing one to experience the past in the present.

Key words: Symbolic production and exchange, Social Space, Social Challenges, City

Анотація

СЕМІОТИКА ОБРАЗУ СТАМБУЛА В ЛІТЕРАТУРІ І ЖИВОПИСІ ТУРЕЧЧИНИ ХХ СТОЛІТТЯ

А. П. Артеменко, Г. Б. Єткін

Андрій Артеменко, доктор філософських наук, професор, професор кафедри соціально-гуманитарних дисциплін (Харьківська державна академія дизайну і мистецтв, м. Харків, Україна)

Гюльханим Біхтер Єткін, PhD, Науковий співробітник, кафедра `Російська мова і література' (Орду Університет, Туреччина)

Стаття присвячена дослідженню семіотичної моделі творів турецької літератури та живопису початку ХХ століття та її світоглядно-ціннісним основам. Мета статті - розглянути динаміку візуального та вербального образу Стамбула початку ХХ століття. Об'єкт дослідження - образ цього міста періоду окупації, як періоду особливих соціальних викликів, створений сучасниками подій. Місто сприймається як самостійний актор творів, він перетворюється на учасника історії та зберігача колективної пам'яті про неї. Разом з цим народжується образ автентичності міста, культурної та історичної вкоріненості. Аналізується процес створення ментального образу міста за допомогою естетичних та психологічних інструментів. Дослідження має міждисциплінарний характер і передбачає поєднання філософського, літературознавчого та мистецтвознавчого підходів до вивчення вербальних та візуальних пам'яток епохи. У теоретичному плані робота зорієнтована на феноменологічну концепцію культури. Методологічна основа дослідження - семіотичний та герменевтичний аналіз творів літератури та живопису.

Висновки: образ Стамбула у живописі та літературі, як продукт символічного виробництва та обміну, дає можливість побачити закінчений, оформлений образ епохи у соціальному бутті конкретної спільноти. Для сучасної людини це маркер історичного минулого, національної ідентичності, регіональної автентичності. У ньому розкривається складна еволюція подій історії, відбита у художніх творах, та їх сучасна інтерпретація. Це визначено як прояв метаксису чи зависання між різними формами реальності, що дозволяє переживати минуле у теперішньому.

Ключові слова: символічне виробництво та обмін, соціальний простір, соціальні виклики, атмосфера міста, ментальний образ міста, міський пейзаж, турецький живопис, турецька література.

Introduction of the issue. The relevance of this study is associated with the formation of a new idea of the role and significance of culture in the conditions of modern civilization. We turn to the processes and phenomena of a difficult era of changing the worldview paradigm. Traditionally, culture has been viewed as a reflection of socio-economic processes, the formation of social structures, and social practices. With the advent of the concept of a creative economy, aspects of culture as a tool for social and economic correction of society were revealed. Culture began to be regarded as a special sphere for constructing the emotional and psychological experience of reality. The means of culture form the atmosphere in which a person lives, makes decisions, acts. It is the atmosphere of the environment that is responsible for the goals and meanings of human actions. In our study, this is the atmosphere of the city of Istanbul at a turning point in history. On the one hand, this makes it possible to see the finished, decorated historical image of the era. On the other hand, we see the influence of this image on a modern person, for whom it becomes a marker of historical rooting, authenticity, existential definition. Analysis of artistic works of a hundred years ago brings us to the problem of understanding modern culture and man. How are these works perceived in the situation of metamodern culture? How do meanings change in the conditions of metaxis - hanging between different forms of reality (works, history and modern interpretation)? How are the symbolic systems of the past decoded and recoded in modern consciousness? These are questions that actualize the chosen research topic, taking into account the new cultural conditions of the network space, new sincerity, meta-irony.

The purpose of the research is to determine the specifics of the formation of the visual and verbal image of Istanbul during the period of social upheavals at the beginning of the 20th century. The object of our research is the image of the city of the period of occupation, created by contemporaries. Let's consider several aspects. First, the city as an environment of social change, reflected in the literature and art of this period. Traditionally, literary criticism studies the image of a hero who accepts a city and creates a city, but at the same time, the city is rarely considered as an independent actor. Although it was the period under study that gave rise to the image of the city as an independent character in literature and painting. Secondly, the ways of describing the city as a space that is lived by the hero and the author, the man of the past era and our contemporary. We touch upon the problem of creating a mental image of the city with the help of aesthetic and psychological tools. And thirdly, in the context of the visual turn of modern culture, we will look at the process that Gernot Bцhme has described as "creating the atmosphere", in our case of Istanbul. That is, when the city becomes not just a background, but a condition of events. He turns into a participant in history and the keeper of the collective memory of it (comemoration). Along with this, an image of the city's authenticity, cultural and historical rootedness is born. As subjects of analysis, we have chosen a number of literary works of the occupation period. The second group of objects of research are paintings by Turkish artists painted in Istanbul at that time, where the main attention is paid to the urban landscape, genre scenes of urban life, and portraits of citizens.

The study is interdisciplinary in nature and involves the combination of literary and art criticism approaches to the study of verbal and visual monuments of the era. In theoretical terms, the work is focused on the phenomenological concept of culture, where culture is the central meaning-forming element of human existence, a representation of the "life world" of a person. The methodological basis of our research is the Semitic analysis of works of literature and painting. We explore the system of signs that is created within the framework of the work and within the framework of the historical era. Using the technique of hermeneutic analysis, we will reveal the meanings represented in the symbolic system of the culture of the past, and also trace their influence on the views and ideas of modern society.

The outline of unresolved issues brought up in the article. We consider the study of verbal and visual images in the culture of a certain era from the point of view of the modern visual turn of culture. The process of the birth of images reflecting the era has been studied in some detail within the framework of the history of literature and painting, but their meanings change over time. We are interested in this process of changing, decoding and recoding the artistic image in new cultural conditions. Over time, we observe a layering of meanings in the understanding of literary characters and pictorial images. Distance in time turns them into an independent material for artistic creativity. Collage, citations, hypertextuality of postmodern culture are also relevant in the conditions of modern culture, but all these features are realized in an atmosphere of new sincerity, meta-irony, new sensuality that came along with the metamodern paradigm [3:50].

The subject of research we have chosen is quite unique in itself and does not often attract the attention of European scientists. Turkish literature and painting of the early twentieth century is a product of complex civilizational processes. On the one hand, this is the result of another westernization, but on the other hand, it is the emergence of a new national culture of Turkey, the rethinking of tradition with the help of new artistic techniques, and the “optics” of values and meanings. As a result, not a peripheral copy of European cultural innovations is born, but the original world of modern Turkish culture.

Analysis of recent research and publication from which the solution to this problem was initiated. Conducting a study of the visual and verbal image of Istanbul is possible beyond what James Elkins called the pure subject field of art history [12:251]. It is necessary to take a broader context of this phenomenon - the production of space.

The phrase "production of space" refers us to the direction in social theory, represented by such authors as Pierre Bourdieu [5], Henri Lefebvre) [7], Michel de Certeau [10], Umberto Eco [11]. The works of these authors reveal the problem of creating a mental image of the city, as a result of complex procedures for correlating trajectories and transformations of spaces and their representations of what M. Mamardashvili called the sum of angles [8].

The urban space "overgrown with meanings", which over time dictate the logic of social relations, "build the code of space" [7:31]. And with such an attitude to the objective environment, we come to the idea of a semiotic analysis of the city as an object. So Hans-Georg Gadamer notes the dual nature of urban space, which makes it a text for interpretation [6:131-133].

T. Adorno also considered the city in the context of the sign system of the text [1:67].

In our research, we turn to the study of the reflection of the space of the city in literature and painting. We touch upon the problem of "accumulation of meanings" of the space of the city, which cannot be solved in the "pure subject field" of literary or art criticism. Of course, we rely on a wide base of research by Turkish scientists in these areas. The problem of semiotic analysis of Turkish painting is devoted to the works of Uєun Tьkel, the history of Turkish painting of the twentieth century - Pehlivan Burcu, the problem of the transformation of everyday life in painting and literature, as well as the female portrait - Эlkay Canan Okkalэ.

The space of the city is a condition for practices directed towards the “blind mobility of a residential city”. This term, used by Manuel Castells to explain social phenomena, can also be applied to the analysis of the mental image of Istanbul. We can talk about the actant nature of the material city, its topos [3], not as a “protruded edge”, but as a condition for the appearance of “visual, panoptical and theoretical constructions”, which M. de Certo discusses [10:219]. The dynamics of the mental city reflects the relationship of cultural meanings, social meanings, etc. Ultimately, the study of the mental city highlights the space of perception and representation of the image of Istanbul, its semantic connections and accents [3].

Historical process: the occupation of Istanbul

Istanbul is called the "City of Emperors and Sultans". This is a city that for most of its history was the capital of the great empires - Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman. This is where world history was made. Due to its importance in the world military- political, religious-cultural and economic processes, Istanbul received the names "Paytaht-i-Zemin / Center of the Earth", "Capital of the World", "Tsargrad", "Belde-i Tayibe / Holy Land", " Ummu ad- dunya/mother of the world” [37:13-15]. This city throughout its history was the center of medieval Mediterranean civilizations, and on May 29, 1453 it was conquered by the Turks and became the capital of the Ottoman Empire for many centuries.

After the decline of the empire in the second half of the XIX century, Istanbul attracted the attention of European states and became one of the main strategic goals of the Entente countries in the First World War of 1914-1918. After the signing of the Armistice of Mudros between the Ottoman Empire and the powers of the Entente on October 30, 1918, the allied squadron, consisting of British, French, Italian and Greek ships, stood on the roadstead of Istanbul on November 13, 1918. After that the city was actually occupied (the first occupation)[30:18]. In 1920, the Ottoman Empire accepted a new treaty imposed by the powers of the Entente, and on March 16, 1920, Istanbul officially came under the control of the occupation administration [18:2]. If during the first occupation the administration of the city remained independent and only important strategic points of Istanbul were taken under control, then during the second occupation the entire city and administration were completely subordinated to the occupation authorities [28].

During the years of the armistice, the total population of Istanbul was about 1 million 200 thousand people. At that time, Muslims made up half of the population. The second half of the inhabitants are representatives of other faiths, which included Greeks, Armenians, Jews and Levantines. After the October Revolution and the Russian Civil War, a significant number of supporters of the White movement emigrated to Istanbul. The flow of refugees from Russia peaked in November 1920 after the defeat of the White Army of Baron Wrangel in the Crimea.[4:83]

After the start of the occupation, British, French, Italian and Greek soldiers controlled almost all areas of the city. The news of the occupation of the city caused a great resonance in the Ottoman Empire, and in different parts of the country it resulted in popular protests. [17:259].

The situation in the city worsened with the presence of a huge number of demobilized soldiers and officers, war veterans, wounded, unemployed and desperate people. They wandered in crowds through the streets of the capital in torn clothes, hungry and unhappy, knocking on the thresholds of official authorities in search of help.

After the allied troops entered Istanbul, the usual order in the city was completely disrupted. The authority of the Turkish police and gendarmerie has fallen. Foreign soldiers searched the premises and arrested citizens on the slightest suspicion of disobedience. The soldiers of the Entente troops impudently and unceremoniously treated the local population. The inhabitants of the city fell under oppression, which was accompanied by arbitrariness, violence, provocation of ethnic and religious conflicts. The city plunged into chaos and anarchy, provoked by the dual power of the local and occupational administrations. The non-Muslim population, supported by the invaders, refused to comply with the demand of the state authorities. All this led to the fall of the authority of the Ottoman state, humiliated and torn to pieces by the invaders. Residents gradually lost faith in this state.

At this time, a split was observed among the inhabitants of Istanbul, caused by the attitude towards the occupation. One part of them did not want war and demanded an end to the national liberation movement that originated in Anatolia. The other part resigned itself to what had happened and was inactive, waiting for salvation. The third: actively supported the fire of struggle that engulfed Anatolia.[13:25]

From the end of 1918, only hopelessness, disappointment and despair reigned in the once mighty Ottoman capital [36:323,365,369]. This was reflected in literary works describing this period. Istanbul acts as an independent character in the events of the occupation, a mirror that reflects the worries, traumas and aspirations of the people living in it.

The image of the occupation of Istanbul in the Turkish novel

Each literary work represents to us the time and space in which the characters live and act. Real or fictional spaces of literary works create the general atmosphere of the work, form a holistic mental image of events. It is associated with the internal perception of the environment in which a person grew up, with his culture and practice of relating to the world [25:83].

Space in the novel performs various functions. First, space is the entourage of events. Secondly, the space of the novel is the place where the characters acquire the reality of their existence [24:98]. Space plays a key role in the manifestation of the personalities of the characters in the novel, as a general background that reveals the cultural and socio-economic characteristics of the life of people of a certain historical period. With the help of space, the fictional world in the work gains visibility [32:531-532]. The main task of describing the space is to create a realistic image of characters and events, since this is one of the main features of a literary work, noted by Yasemin Gьrsoy,

- the novel is always based on objective reality [19:155].

Since the advent of the Turkish novel, Istanbul has become its constant place of events. This city ensures the ease of the author's storytelling, since this place is known to everyone and has a special recognizable flavor. Istanbul provides the author with rich material for creativity. This is a kind of "social magnet" that attracts a variety of people in all periods of history. It attracts the attention of many people as a center of pleasure, profit, depravity, and sometimes as a refuge [33:17-18]. When we turn to the time of the occupation of the city by the troops of the Entente, we see how the value of Istanbul as a special symbolic socio-cultural space is manifested. In the literary works of this period, Istanbul is the main place of events, in which the actions of the characters acquire special symbolism, and the actions described acquire significance. They become part of the national history, for which Istanbul is a universal image that conveys the socio-psychological intensity of the passions of this era.

The first example of works from that period that can be cited is Halide Edip Adэvar 's novel Fire Shirt, published in 1922. In this novel, Istanbul is both the main place of events and an independent character, revealing the spiritual forces and possibilities of society. This is a knot of contradictions, in which the center of occupation and the starting point of the liberation struggle are simultaneously intertwined. Here the old and the new world collide, the birth of a nation takes place. And this struggle abounds in a riot of colors that describe the Anatolian army, people striving for renewal and a beautiful future, and the great national unity of the people and the intelligentsia [36:193].

We see how an idealized image of events is born from everyday experiences, the meanings of everything that happened are revealed.

Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoрlu's novel Sodom and Gomorrah (1928) is also set in Istanbul. The high society of the Levant during the years of occupation is the main theme of the work. Istanbul, the capital of the once mighty Ottoman Empire, became a place of sin, where moral decay reached its climax [15:326]. This is the realm of casinos, bars and entertainment venues. The title of his novel Karaosmanoglu contains an allusion to the fate of Istanbul as biblical cities that were destroyed due to the immoral life of their inhabitants. This novel is a denunciation of the dirty life prevailing in the capital, where people who collaborate with the occupation regime are sharply condemned. Istanbul is depicted in the novel as a dystopia where there is no way to survive. The city has lost its former glory, turned into a tasteless and devalued monument of the past. Prostitution and immoral relationships have become a normal part of everyday life in a city that is sinking into the abyss day by day. Sexual intemperance, extramarital sex are becoming the norm. Women compete among themselves in the number of sexual partners from among foreign officers. Men who want to get rich quick with the help of the British also engage in homosexual relationships with officers. According to Yakup Kadri, Istanbul with its glorious history, architecture and unique urban culture no longer exists, it has become a shabby and dirty city where women are left to the enemy on a golden plate. [16: 230, 231, 235]. The work reflects the sad transformation of Istanbul, in which the city is simultaneously presented as a place of events and an image of the moral decay of people.

Three Istanbuls, Mithat Cemal Kuntay's only Istanbul novel, was published in 1938. The novel demonstrates an important connection between people, time and space. The city becomes the arena of ups and downs of the heroes of the novel [27: 181-182]. The novel presents Istanbul from three different eras.

These are the last years of the reign of Sultan Abdulhamid, the period after the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 and the years of the armistice and occupation of Istanbul after the end of the First World War. The social life of Istanbul at this time reflects the political and social changes in Turkish society. The novel demonstrates the complex relationship between the political elite, the intelligentsia and the people. Corruption, decay and meanness in these relations are the main theme of the novel. The author's goal in this work, which he achieves perfectly, is to show three different Istanbuls as an image of a society that found itself in a difficult historical situation and the changing social reality of that period [14:20-21].

In the novel People Out of the Scene (1950) by Ahmet a Hamdi Tanpэnar, the main scene is also Istanbul. The central theme is the hardships of deprivation and the struggle for the survival of residents in the conditions of the occupation of the capital. The author demonstrates how the city and its inhabitants are changing. How the habitual life world of the heroes turns upside down, and hopes and dreams are replaced by disappointment and apathy [26:196,198]. The image of Istanbul, like the images of the heroes of the novel, was nurtured by Tanpэnar for decades after the events described.

This is a kind of result, an assessment through the prism of time, in which an understanding of the historical significance of this difficult period was manifested. The fates of the heroes of the novel become part of the symbolic space of history.

A similar approach is reflected in Kemal Tahir's novel The Citizens of the Captive City, published in 1952. The protagonist of the novel tells about Istanbul during the years of occupation. This is the nobleman Kamil Bey, who received a large inheritance at a very young age. He returned from abroad to occupied Istanbul and faced the atmosphere of suffering in his homeland. The hero decides to devote himself to serving his country. The occupation of Istanbul led to great changes, which the author demonstrates on the example of the fate of Kamil Bey. Thanks to Istanbul, which is practically turned into a prison by the invaders, the hero acquires his national identity. In the novel, the capital of a great empire is a captive city. Istanbul, where the number of traitors to the people is increasing day by day, has turned into a place of fire [22:128]. The main feature of this work is a huge number of characters. It is they, like numerous strokes on the canvases of the Impressionists, that create a single image of the main character - Istanbul itself. The image of the city sheds light on many contradictory life situations from patriotism to treason, turns into the main factor contributing to the transformation of heroes. Istanbul becomes the force that awakens the heroes to fight. This image reflects ideas of happiness and, at the same time, feelings of despair and disappointment, when hopes and authorities collapse, the government is helpless, and people feel left to their fate.

The theme of the occupation of Istanbul continues to be relevant for many authors, in whose works we encounter new features of literary images. These are not images written off from life by contemporaries of events, and not images resurrected in memory, for example, by Kuntar or Tanpinar and acquired a symbolic meaning. In literature, there is a recoding of established images. The reality of these works is constructed with the help of accepted stereotypes, which refer us to the experience of the situation of the past. This is reminiscent of a collage or installation technique, when a finished object is placed in a new environment and the resulting composition acquires an individual meaning.

Esat Mahmut Karakurt, one such writer, uses this technique in Goodbye (1936) . His book tells the story of the love between the daughter of a British general and a Turkish soldier. The places of events change - Istanbul, then Inebolu and, finally, Istanbul again. This makes it possible to see not only plot changes, but also changes in the situation and the image of the city where the events unfold. During this period, espionage, attacks, arms smuggling and destructive social conflicts became commonplace, part of everyday life in Istanbul.

The city is engulfed in the struggle against the occupation, and it is in this thick of events that the main characters meet [33:22]. The novel takes on an adventurous nature when a soldier kidnaps the general's daughter.

Events are placed in the symbolic space of the city. This is both an entourage that gives credibility to events, and a sacred image of a national tragedy, struggle and hope.

A similar approach is maintained in Mehmed Rauf's novel Liberation-Halas. (1929). The author masterfully recreates the ominous atmosphere that prevailed in Istanbul at that time. He manages to convey this impression to the reader thanks to the constructed reality of the events experienced by the protagonist Nihat [31].

The author went down in history as the creator of the first Turkish psychological novel "September" (1900) and in his work of 1929 he uses a proven mechanism for conveying emotional experience, turning descriptions of objects, situations, environments into iconic objects.

For Turkish literature, Istanbul has become a symbol of the key processes of national history at the beginning of the 20th century. This is the time of the greatest trials, which led to the creation of a new national state and a republican system. The image of the city is used both as the main character and as a mirror reflecting the events, enhancing the dramaturgy of the events. His image is the most important tool that the authors use to convey the atmosphere of hopelessness, disappointment that gripped people in a situation of the collapse of the old world and the birth of a new one. The image of Istanbul allows us to reveal all the complexity and tragedy of the period of occupation, to demonstrate the acuteness of social contradictions in Turkish society, to reconstruct the reality of the past in our minds.

The image of occupied Istanbul in Turkish painting of the 1920s

The events of history that shocked contemporaries are reflected not only in literature, but also in painting. The writers of this time are trying to comprehend the new world that came with the dream of Westernization and progress, of a new social order and enlightenment, with the desire to get rid of the oppressive archaism and with faith in the future of the Motherland. But "the coming tomorrow" turned out to be sad. And this moment is experienced as a break in ideas about the world, to which the attention of artists and writers is riveted. As a result of this experience, a clear evaluative discourse appears with its own system of sign and symbolic constructions, indicating the meaning of the events of the era. Verbal structures are complemented by visual images of painting.

Among the painters, the group “Generations of 1914” should be singled out. According to Burcu Pehlivan, it was they who created the tradition of the Turkish Istanbul landscape of the 20th century [29:101]. This group included Mihri Musfiq Khanim, Adil Omer, Duran Feykhaman, Lifij Avni, Ibrahim Challi, Mehmet Ruhi, Nazmi Ziya Guran, Namik Ismail. The artists were educated in Europe and brought the principles of the new painting tradition to Turkey. They returned to their homeland in 1914 and became direct witnesses of the period of occupation. We will consider their works, which were written from life and under the impression of the events experienced in 1917-1923. semiotic painting visual verbal

In the Turkish art history tradition, the works of the Generation 1914 group have been studied quite well. These are representatives of the national school of impressionism, who formed a new art school of Turkish painting at the beginning of the 20th century. Themes, plots and genres of works, as well as the writing technique of representatives of the "Generation of 1914" - all this has not lost its relevance for historians of Turkish art. However, studies devoted to the semiotic analysis of these works are much rarer [35:23-32]. As part of the development of this direction in Turkish painting, not only the technical methods of European painting are applied, but a special relationship to the surrounding world is created. This is a revolution in visualization, which corresponds to the socio-cultural and economic-political processes that took place at that time in Turkey. We can agree with the opinion of

A. Lefebvre that any social process and social system creates its own physical space and ways of its presentation. Therefore, the works of artists belonging to the Generation of 1914 group will be considered as a reaction to the historical events of this period, their comprehension and visualization. But at the same time, we will also be interested in the process of perception of these works within the framework of modern culture. In the literary tradition, we meet the opposition of heroes, personifying the opposing forces of invaders and patriots, retrogrades and revolutionaries, conditional "us" and "them". In painting, the emphasis of confrontation is shifted to the periphery of the image. The artist turns to the landscape, in which there are so many objects that are associated with the lost calm of the past. And in this genre, the Istanbul landscapes of this period occupy a special place. It is they who create the image of the ubiquitous actor of all events - the city. Istanbul is not just a background, but a condition for those life experiences that contemporaries talk about.

The image of Istanbul in the painting of this time is unusual. In the urban landscape, artists avoid talking directly about what frightens them today, limiting themselves to allusions and allegories. An exception may be the work of Ismail Namik "Typhus" (1917), where the oppressive image of the epidemic is placed in the urban landscape. The dark silhouettes of women, the sad ruins, the twilight that swallowed up the city - all this is like a bad dream, a bad vision. The beautiful city remains in the background, like hope coupled with nostalgia for the past.

Fig. 1. Ismail Namik "Typhus" (1917)

It seems that for the artists all the hardships and horrors remained outside the walls of the city. The landscapes of Istanbul can be snow-covered like those of Khoja Ali Riza (“Snow in Uskudar”) (who was not part of the “Generation of 1914” group) (Fig. 2) or Sami Yetik (“Snowy Istanbul”) (Fig. 6), mysterious like that of Ismail Namik (“Mosque in the Moonlight”) (Fig. 3) or windy cold, as in the painting by Nazmi Ziya Gyuran “Nusretiye Mosque in Tophane” (Fig. 4). But they do not convey the impression of a city under occupation or a city that has undergone deep socio- cultural and political upheavals. Istanbul appears as a kind of constant, where all events are perceived as a kind of night or seasonal bad weather. At the same time, the snow reveals the contours of the city, the diversity of the street crowd, or the moonlight draws the contours of the eternal city with deep shadows.

Fig. 2. Khoja Ali Riza "Snow in Uskudar"

Fig. 3. Ismail Namik "Mosque in the moonlight"

Just like the literature of this period, the urban landscape tends to capture everyday life. But in this aspiration, a special language of Turkish painting is manifested, created by the adopted tradition of European academicism and impressionism, layered on the national specifics of visual perception. Here color, light and forms take on new meanings. This is similar to a language reform, when there is a transition to the Latin alphabet, but the words and their meanings remain the same. Turkish artists of the "Generations of 1914" group mastered the technique of European painting at the turn of the 11th - 20th centuries, which they transferred to national soil. But in their perception, impressionism has become one of the technologies for creating an image, and not a protest against academic tradition. Most of the authors of this period define themselves as representatives of impressionism, but the key to understanding Turkish impressionism lies in getting to know the history of the formation of artists. A significant part of them were trained at the Acadйmie Julian and worked in the workshop of Fernand Cormon. In the 1900-1910s, the influence of German Impressionism and especially Max Liebermann on Turkish artists is noted. However, in essence, the impressionism of the early twentieth century became an officially recognized style and took its place in the academic structures of painting education. This technique of writing became the norm of art education, which was practiced by many artists of that time, who in the future would discover their own style and new directions in painting. For Turkish artists, Impressionism is part of the academic tradition, not a protest against it, as was the case in France in the 1860s and 70s.

Fig. 4. Nazmi Ziya Gyuran "Mosque Nusretiye in Topkhana"

In the framework of our study, the phenomenon of using impressionistic technique in the narrative of the local world, which is experiencing the deepest upheavals, is of interest. We will consider this on the example of a number of works created by representatives of the Generation 1914 group in 1917-1923.

One of the landscapes of Istanbul, which conveys the feeling of this era, is the “Suleymaniye Mosque” by Sami Yetik (Fig. 5). The picture does not contain the most monumental building of the mosque, traced in all architectural details. The author is not interested in this aspect. The foreground of the picture is a wasteland with puddles, mud and modest houses, turned by the artist into colored spots of the foreground of the canvas. The image of the mosque becomes clearer with the distance from the viewer. This is a view from the 4th historical hill of the city to the 3rd, which is well reconstructed even in modern Istanbul.

The image is very meaningful. The mosque itself is a symbol of the former might of the Ottoman Empire. The silhouette of this majestic building is depicted on the horizon. The natural hollow between the hills turns into a chronological abyss, the distance between the worlds - past and present. It is at the same time a symbol of former greatness and hope for its repetition. The world with which this building is associated is gone, but it has not ceased to exist for the viewer.

Dirt and disorder of the foreground, as an image of the upheavals experienced by a contemporary of revolutions, wars and occupation. Suleymaniye becomes the image of the "City on the Hill", an idealized past and hope for the revival of the lost world. In this reading, Sami Yetik's painting is part of the author's perception of the historical era. The created image turns into a cultural marker that allows you to express your attitude towards the past.

Fig. 5. Sami Yetik "Suleymaniye Mosque"

In the works of Sami Yetik, the technique of "defocused" image is used as a way of escape from the oppressive experience of modernity. This technique is repeated many times in the works of the artists of the Generations of 1914 group. They seem to omit the details, concentrating on color combinations. So in the painting by Sami Yetik "Snowy Istanbul" (Fig. 6), a complex mosaic of the city is formed, in which the figures of people, the outlines of small shops and houses are read. Turbans and fezzes, bright belts and dark nikabs - all this is the diversity of everyday life, but here the minarets and domes of the mosque become tectonic structures. It is they who turn into markers of urban identity, fasten the space into a single whole. They are the city, its walls and what will remain after this motley flow of people subsides.

Fig. 6. Sami Yetika "Snowy Istanbul"

Another aspect of this technique is manifested in the works of Ismail Namik

- two landscapes of 1917 (Fig. 7,8). These works are sunny, optimistic.

Fig. 7. Ismail Namik "Landscape 1"

We are pleased with this colorful cheerful diversity, which lines up in the contours of the city with fortress walls, needles of minarets and poplars, multi- colored roofs of houses.

Fig. 8. Ismail Namik "Landscape 2"

This is a different variegation, not similar to the variegation of the works of the 1900s by Ibrahim Challa "Uskyudar" (Fig. 9) or Khoja Ali Riza "Street overlooking the sea and the Simit store" (Fig. 10), where independence and clarity of details are important. These authors try to capture the view, while Ismail Namik captures the impression.

Fig. 9. Ibrahim Challi "Uskyudar"

His landscapes are a vivid experience of the “here and now”, like a kind of existential gap, the life that you live at this moment.

Fig.10. Khoja Ali Riza "Street facing the sea and Simit store"

This is an emotional reaction to an environment where a kaleidoscope of historical events and the uncertainty of the future reveal the value of the present, every day of life.

Ismail Namik creates the image of a guardian city with dazzling white walls and towers, or sunny streets and a road that curves, but always leads us to the light. The dark lower third of these landscapes, like a shadow from a cloud, will quickly be replaced by the sun. This is a slight obstacle separating us from the desired city.

Compositionally, these two works by Ismail Namik are similar to the landscapes we examined by Sami Yetik.

There is a certain spatial gap in the foreground, which speaks of distance in relation to the image.

We see an image distant from us. In the landscapes of these two artists, the city appears as a dream and hope, or as nostalgia and sadness for the past. In any case, this is a world that embraces a person from all sides. The impressionistic technique of large strokes creates a special language of the image, as if leaving the details unsaid and not clarified.

Why talk about small things when the world is falling apart? The space of these paintings captures not the details, but the experience of presence.

Things and people become color spots that only make sense in the general canvas of the picture.

Of course, parallels arise here with the perception of historical events, the huge mass character of the processes that took place at that time. This is reminiscent of the plot of Kemal Tahir's novel "Inhabitants of the Captive City", where a huge number of characters create a vivid literary canvas of the events of the occupation period.

In fact, every image of this novel is a bright spot of color, similar to those that create Sami Yetik's painting "Snowy Istanbul".

Istanbul appears in a completely different way in the female portraits of Ibrahim Challa, Ize ta Zeya, Nazmi Zeya Guran, Ismail Namik. The interiors of apartments and restaurants, streets and embankments become the backdrop for new female images.

Not only the silhouettes of women's clothing are changing (they are becoming more open and even defiant), but also the faces and images of women. It is enough to compare two works by Izet Ziya "Woman with an umbrella" (1911) (Fig. 11) and "Girl on the shore" (1917) (Fig. 12).

There is a whole gulf between these female images. And the same abyss between the worlds in which they live. A common detail is a red umbrella.

But if in the picture of 1911 he lies on the shoulder of a girl coquettishly and proudly looking at the viewer, then on the canvas of 1917 he is closed and left aside, and the heroine herself looks thoughtfully and sadly into the distance.

These two images are an illustration to the novel "Three Istanbuls" by Mithat Cemal Kuntai, showing Sultan Abdulhamid's Istanbul and Istanbul after the Young Turk Revolution.

Fig. 11. Woman with an umbrella

The inhabitants of Istanbul in the paintings of this period tell us about how their world has changed. And step by step, year by year, these changes are becoming more radical and irreversible.

Fig. 12. Izet Ziya A girl on the shore

And in these images, the bitterness of Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoglu's novel Sodom and Gomorrah sounds more and more. This is laughter through tears, the desire to live at any cost, to escape, to hide from horror in a ghostly momentary pleasure.

Fig.13. Ismail Namik "Woman on the couch"

Analyzing this novel, we noted that its author gives us the opportunity to see the degradation of the Istanbul society. Similarly, the female portraits of Ismail Namik "Woman on the Couch" (1917) (Fig.13) and Ibrahim Challi (Эbrahim Зallэ) "Portrait of a Woman" (1920) (Fig.14) allow us to see the transformation of the female image that occurred so abruptly under the influence of circumstances. Books, a calligraphic inscription on the medallion, a small inlaid table - a symbol of home comfort. Thoughtful and sad look - the image of a woman from the time of the "second Istanbul" Mithat Cemal Kuntai. But in the painting by Ibrahim Challi, we see an inhabitant of the "third Istanbul" during the occupation - defiantly sexy, a little vulgar, whose look is sly and defiant.

Fig.14. Ibrahim Chally "Portrait of a woman""

We can continue this series of female portraits from the time of the occupation. It is necessary to pay attention to three portraits of Medikha Khanym, created by Ismail Namik in 1920.

If we discard the history of the creation of these portraits and the peculiarity of the family relations of the artist and his wife, then we will get a magnificent image of a person, city, country of this difficult era, embodied in these portraits.

Analyzing novels about this time, we noted the desire of writers to show the profound changes in the lives of the characters and society as a whole that took place in such a short period of time. In the same way, these three portraits by Ismail Namik become the illustration "People off the stage" by Ahmet a Hamdi Tanpэnar, expressing the movement of the city's mood towards disappointment and apathy.

Fig.15. Ismail Namik Mediha Khanym (1920)

Conclusions. Thus, the verbal and visual images created by the authors as witnesses to the occupation are combined into a single set of ideas about the events of 1918-22. Within the framework of the literature and painting of this time, stereotypical images are formed that speak of fear, confusion, despair and disappointment that accompany the experience of social cataclysms. In the future, these stereotypes themselves will serve as a kind of "building material" for the

literature and painting of the next time. This happened in Tanpэnar's novel "People Out of the Scene" or in Khalil Dikmen's painting "Women in the War of Liberation", where the images fit into a meaningful and designated context of historical events. The pathos of heroism and tragedy is manifested against the background of the markers of great events. The greater the time distance with the events of the last century, the more the role of images created in modern culture changes. The great events of the past become the entourage for the adventurous novels of modern literature. However, we are not talking about mockery or distortion of the idea of the era. This is an attempt to reconstruct events on the basis of modern ideas about the past, within the framework of our perception of social and aesthetic practices. In turn, this brings us to the problem of understanding modern culture and man. From the stage of describing the experiences of events and creating a symbolic expression of meanings, modern culture is moving to the construction of mechanisms for historical rooting, authenticity, and existential definition. Thus, we comprehend these works in the situation of metamodern culture, constantly keeping in mind the understanding of cultural, semantic, historical distance. We evaluate artists' writing techniques and literary images from a post- knowledge point of view. Turning to the topic of the historical past, we are forced to go through a multi-layered procedure for decoding and recoding images.

By means of culture, an understanding of the emotional and psychological atmosphere of the events of the past is formed, in which a person lives, makes decisions, and acts. The recent past with all the hardships, fears, the feeling of losing the familiar world appears as a cleansing before a new life. In our study, this atmosphere of the city of Istanbul, reproduced in painting and literature, reflects a turning point in history. It becomes an explanation of how the goals and meanings of human actions are formed. On the one hand, this makes it possible to see the finished, decorated image of the era. On the other hand, we see the influence of this image on modern man. For him, it is a marker of the historical past, national identity, regional authenticity. In general, the complex evolution of the events of history, their reflection in the work, and their modern interpretation are revealed before us. We have the right to note this as a manifestation of metaxis - hanging between different forms of reality, which allows us to experience the past in the present.

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