LITERARY TOURISM EXPERIENCE AS PART OF CULTURAL HERITAGE: AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF SAIT FAIK ABASIYANIK

KÜLTÜREL MİRAS KAPSAMINDA EDEBİYAT TURİZMİ DENEYİMİ: SAİT FAİK ABASIYANIK’IN İZİNDE OTOETNOGRAFİK BİR ÇALIŞMA

Abstract

Literary tourism refers to trips to actual places in the museum context where authors were born, lived, wrote their works; to places associated with fictional characters in authors’ works or to destinations that have become popular due to literary figures. Especially houses where authors were born, spent a part of their lives and used as a work area are highly attractive sites in terms of literary tourists seeking authenticity, nostalgia and a connection with the author. The trips to these actual houses are also part of the cultural heritage experience. This study discusses literary places experience to actual places within cultural heritage with an autoethnographic approach. By using autoethnography which is defined as a method of describing personal experience in order to understand the cultural experience, the effect of museum interpretation forms, authenticity, literary awareness and other literary place characteristics on literary tourism experience is discussed in the study. For this purpose, Sait Faik Abasıyanık Museum in Burgazada, İstanbul where Sait Faik lived, wrote many of his works and where has been operated as a museum house since 1959 was chosen as research area. The most important result of the study is the concepts of interpretation forms, authenticity, nostalgia, literary awareness, emotional connection with the author are related to each other for literary places but the most important concept is interpretation forms. The selected interpretation forms influence the other concepts positively or negatively and are determinative in the ultimate experience of literary tourists Literary tourism which is an important and growing sector of the tourism industry originates when the popularity of a literary depiction or the stature of an individual author is such that people are drawn to visit the places that the author wrote about or was associated with (Busby and Klug, 2001). There are many different types of literary tourism. Butler’s (1986) study is the most accepted study among the studies that classify literary tourism. Subsequent studies have evaluated literary tourism based on this classification or have added new categories to this classification. Butler classified literary tourism in four categories (Butler, 1986 cited in Busby and Klug, 2001): 1. Aspects of homage to an actual location 2. Places pf significance in the work of fiction 3. Appeal of areas because they were appealing to literary and other figures 4. The literature gains popularity in a sense that the area becomes a tourist destination in its own right. “Travel writing” by Busby and Klug (2001) and “Film-induced literary tourism” by Busby and Laviolette (2006) was proposed as fifth and sixth type of literary tourism in this classification. In 2011, Mintel presented “literary festivals” and “bookshop tourism” as a kind of literary tourism. This study is included in the category of actual location related with the author which is the first type of literary tourism. This actual places where authors were born, spent a part of their lives and used as a work area have attraction component for their fans. There are some important concepts for actual places related with authors in the literary tourism. These are authenticity, nostalgia, interpretation forms, commodification, literary awareness and emotional connection with the author. Tourists are seeking “real thing” in other words an “authentic experience” but they also want evidence that these things are authentic (Stiebel, 2004). For this reason, authenticity requires careful interpretation in terms of place planners and managers. This may vary from elaborate multimedia displays to basic directional signs (Herbert, 1996). Nostalgia links to an emotional involvement with the past, the evocative power of objects and the need to escape a less meaningful present (Gentile and Brown, 2015). The emotional and intellectual relationship between the author and the reader also brings up literary awareness which is another important concept in terms of literary tourism. Literary awareness refers to the level of knowledge and interesrt in the author or his/her works. Method The aim of the study is to examine key concepts in terms of literary tourism through a personal experience of an actual place related to the author. For this purpose, autoethnographic approach was used in the study. Alongside my personal experience, I conducted an interview with the museum official to gain information about the history, functioning and interpretation forms of the museum. During my experience I took only photos. After my visit I took notes on each section of museum by means of these photos. Then I began to write autoethnographic report about my literary tourism experience with the help of photos, notes and interview data by examining thoroughly in terms of important literary tourism concepts such as interpretation forms, authenticity, nostalgia, literary awareness and emotional connection with author. As both the number of academic studies on literary places in Turkey is few and as literary tourism in general remains behind the other types of tourism, this cultural experience is crucial in mediating the development of concepts related to literary tourism. Results My admiration for Sait Faik is based on the last few years although I have read many of his stories in my education life. After reading more introductory articles about his life and memoirs about him, I began to look at him with a different eye and when I read his stories wtih this perspective I realized Sait Faik’s naive language, the sincerity in his narrative, the ingenuity of his narration about ordinary people in everyday life and his deep human love. It was at the same time that I have discovered Sait Faik in this real sense and I began an extensive research in the field of literary tourism. I conducted this research both as a literary tourist who admires Sait Faik and well-informed about his life and works and as a resea

Özet

Edebiyat turizmi, yazarların doğduğu, yaşadığı, eserlerini kaleme aldığı müze statüsündeki gerçek mekanlara; yazarların eserlerindeki kurgusal karakterlerle bağlantılı yerlere ya da edebi figürlerden dolayı popüler hale gelmiş destinasyonlara yapılan seyahatleri ifade etmektedir. Özellikle yazarların doğduğu, hayatlarının bir kısmını geçirdiği ve çalışma alanı olarak kullandıkları evler otantiklik, nostalji ve yazarla bir bağlantı kurmak arayışında olan edebiyat turistleri için oldukça çekici mekanlardır. Yazarla bağlantılı bu gerçek mekanlara yapılan seyahatler kültürel miras deneyiminin de bir parçası olmaktadır. Bu çalışma, kültürel miras kapsamındaki gerçek mekanlara yönelik edebi mekan deneyimini otoetnografik bir yaklaşımla ele almaktadır. Kültürel deneyimi anlamak amacıyla kişisel deneyimin betimlendiği bir yöntem olarak tanımlanan otoetnografiyi kullanarak çalışmada, müze yorumlama biçimlerinin, otantikliğin, edebi farkındalığın ve diğer edebi mekan özelliklerinin edebiyat turizmi deneyimi üzerindeki etkisi tartışılmıştır. Bu amaçla araştırma alanı olarak, Sait Faik Abasıyanık'ın yaşadığı, pek çok eserini kaleme aldığı ve 1959'dan bu yana müze ev statüsünde hizmet veren İstanbul Burgazada'daki Sait Faik Abasıyanık Müzesi seçilmiştir. Çalışmadan çıkan en önemli sonuç yazarla bağlantılı gerçek mekanlar açısından yorumlama biçimleri, otantiklik, nostalji, edebi farkındalık, yazarla kurulan duygusal bağlantı gibi kavramların birbirleriyle bağlantılı olduğu ancak bunların içinde en önemlisinin yorumlama biçimleri olduğudur. Edebi bir mekanda seçilen yorumlama biçimleri diğer kavramları da olumlu ya da olumsuz şekilde etkileyerek edebiyat turistinin nihai deneyiminde belirleyici olmaktadır