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Word, Image & Architectural Historiography in W.G WORD, IMAGE & ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIOGRAPHY IN W.G. SEBALD’S AUSTERLITZ (2001) A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY SEDA SOKULLU IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE SEPTEMBER 2015 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences Prof. Dr. Meliha ALTUNIŞIK Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts. Prof. Dr. Elvan ALTAN Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts. Assist. Prof. Dr. Sevil Enginsoy Ekinci Supervisor Examining Committee Members Prof. Dr. Ali Cengizkan (TEDU, ARCH) Assist. Prof. Dr. Sevil Enginsoy Ekinci (METU, AH) Prof. Dr. Elvan Altan (METU, AH) I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name: Seda Sokullu Signature: iii ABSTRACT WORD, IMAGE & ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIOGRAPHY IN W.G. SEBALD’S AUSTERLITZ (2001) Sokullu, Seda M.A., Department of History of Architecture Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Sevil Enginsoy September 2015, 266 pages This thesis is an attempt to uncover interaction of interdisciplinary practices in the process of writing architectural histories. For this purpose, it examines W.G. Sebald’s last prose work Austerlitz (2001) in the light of some concepts such as “death” and “afterlife”. It traces the textual and visual narrative of the work together and places this narrative at the intersection of architectural history writing and literary writing. What Sebald’s Austerlitz offers is an untraditional way of represention of the built environment, locating it within its social and cultural backgrounds. While containing significant amount of architectural criticism, yet this work reveals an understanding that there are multiple contexts that the built environment fits in. Revolving around the hidden or neglected histories, it questions “reality” and the status of the documentary material whether written or visual, and blends it with fiction, in other words it uses the opportunities of literature. Keywords: Image, Text, Architectural Historiography, Death, Afterlife iv ÖZ W.G. SEBALD’IN AUSTERLITZ (2001) ADLI KİTABINDA YAZI, GÖRÜNTÜ VE MİMARLIK TARİHİ YAZIMI Sokullu, Seda Yüksek Lisans, Mimarlık Tarihi Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Asist. Prof. Dr. Sevil Enginsoy Eylül 2015, 266 sayfa Bu çalışma, mimarlık tarihi yazımı sürecinde disiplinler arası etkileşimin anlaşılmasına yönelik bir girişimdir. Bu amaçla da W.G. Sebald’ın son düz yazı eseri Austerlitz (2001)’ i “ölüm” ve “sonraki yaşam” gibi kavramlar üzerinden inceler. Bu süreçte, yazınsal ve görsel anlatıların izlerini takip ederek, mimarlık tarihi yazımı ile edebi yazın sürecinin kesişiminde nasıl etkileştiklerini kendisine konu edinir. Bu bağlamda, Sebald’ın Austerlitz’i gelenekselin dışına çıkarak sosyal ve kültürel zeminleriyle incelenmiş bir yapılı çevre tasviri sunar. Hatırı sayılır bir mimarlık kritiği sunmanın yanında, bu çalışma, yapılı çevrenin aynı anda birden fazla bağlamının olduğunu unutulmuş ve gözardı edilmiş tarihlerine değinerek göz önüne serer. Böylelikle, “gerçeklik” kavramını ve yazılı ya da görsel belgelerin pozisyonlarını sorgular ve kurmaca yazınla harmanlar; başka bir deyişle edebiyatın olanaklarından yararlanır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Görüntü, Yazı, Mimarlık Tarihi Yazımı, Ölüm, Sonraki Yaşam v To Hera, who loves to nibble all the paper work vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor Assist. Prof. Dr. Sevil Enginsoy Ekinci, who is always one step further than being only a supervisor for my thesis. I am thankful for her valuable contribution in giving me a way of thinking, both academical and personal. I enjoyed our inspring talks and her accompany both as a friend and a collegue. Second, I would like to thank the members of the examining committee, Prof. Dr. Ali Cengizkan and Prof. Dr. Elvan Altan, for their valuable criticism and comments. I owe Mehmet Can Kiriş a great dept of gratitude for his patience and endless motivation throughout the exhausting process. I would like to thank the dearest friends; M. Cana Dai, Y. İpek Mehmetoğlu, Utku Karakaya, Emre Uğur, and Deniz Dilan Kara, with whom I had the pleasure to study in joy. Also I would like to thank dearest Gökçe Ejder for her unconditional support and inspring criticism, and moreover for her hospitality. Besides I am indepted to Duygu Kalkan Açıkkapı, who managed to buy the copies of Austerlitz and shipped from Paris to Turkey. Without her, it would be impossible to complete my thesis. Also I am grateful to dearest Seçil Özcan, Güniz Gürer and S. Deniz Coşkun for their kindness, and valuable comments, their accompany through hard and good times. At last, but not least, I am thankful to my parents, Sema Sokullu and Osman Uğur Sokullu, who raised me as an independent, strong and self-sustained woman. Without them it would be impossible to achieve the things I desire. I am thankful for their warm hearts and for their technical support as well. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM...................................................................................................iii ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................iv ÖZ.......................................................................................................................v DEDICATION...................................................................................................vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.................................................................................vii TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................viii LIST OF FIGURES.............................................................................................x CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION.………………………………………………………...1 1.1 W.G. Sebald (1944-2001)………………...……...…….………..……1 1.1.1 Personal Life & Works……………..………………...…….1 1.1.2 Literary Style….…………………..………………...…..….3 1.1.3 Architecture, Literature & Sebald...………………...……..17 1.2 Austerlitz (2001)………………...……...……………....………..…..25 1.2.1 Storylines……….………………..………………...…..…..28 1.2.2 Characters.……….………………..………………...…..…31 1.2.3 Significance of Architecture..……..………………...…..…40 2. ARCHITECTURE-PHOTOGRAPHY-HISTORY I: AFTERLIFE...........47 2.1 Photography…………………………………………………………47 2.1.1 Shadow of Death…………………………………………..47 2.1.2 Use of Photographic Image…………..…...………...…..…55 2.1.3 History Happening With Photography.…...………...…..…70 2.2 Architecture………………...……...…….………..…………………80 2.2.1 Afterlives of Buildings……………..………………...……80 2.2.2 Railways and Railway Stations..……...…...………...…….89 2.2.2.1 Antwerp Centraal Station…..…...………...……..91 2.2.2.2 Liverpool Street Station & Broad Street Station...97 2.2.3 Fortresses/Fortified Towns……..……...…...………...…. 106 viii 2.2.3.1 Breendonk……………………………………...108 2.2.3.2 Terezin/Theresienstadt…………………………115 2.2.4 Other Buildings…………………………………………..133 2.2.4.1 Palace of Justice in Brussels…………………...135 2.2.4.2 State Archives in Prague……………………….139 2.2.4.3 Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris………………...142 3. ARCHITECTURE-PHOTOGRAPHY-HISTORY II: DOCUMENT......149 3.1 Image & Text....………..…...……...…….………..……………….149 3.1.1 Postmodern Hybridity……………..………………...…...149 3.1.2 Function of Photography..……..…...………...…………..151 3.1.3 Image-Text Construction……………..…...………...…...154 3.1.3.1 Physical…………………….……………...…...154 3.1.3.2 Allegorical.......…………….……………...……162 3.1.4 Reader Figure………….……………..…...………...…....171 3.2 Act of Moving..………..…...……...…….………..………………..174 3.3 Archive….…....………..…...……...…….………..………………..196 4. CONCLUSION……………………………………………………….....217 4.1 Against Conventional Historiography…….………..……………....217 4.2 Historiography of the Spectral……………………………………..226 REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………...230 APPENDICES A. LINEAR ORGANIZATION OF THE STORY……………………….246 B. NON-LINEAR ORGANIZATION OF THE STORY………………...247 C. THE NARRATOR & AUSTERLITZ ...................................................248 D. MOBILITY & IMMOBILITY...............................................................249 E. CHARACTERS......................................................................................250 F. INTEGRATION OF SPACES – ARCHITECTURE………………….251 G. TURKISH SUMMARY……………………………………………….252 H. TEZ FOTOKOPİSİ İZİN FORMU……………………………………266 ix LIST OF FIGURES FIGURES Figure 1.1.1 W.G. Sebald, Austerlitz. Trans. Anthea Bell. (New York: Penguin, 2001), p.40.........................................................................................................13 Figure 1.1.2 W.G. Sebald, Austerlitz. Trans. Anthea Bell. (New York: Penguin, 2001), p.94..…………………………………………………………………...14 Figure 1.2.1 W.G. Sebald, Austerlitz. Trans. Anthea Bell. (New York: Penguin, 2001), pp.4-5..………………………………………………………………...27 Figure 1.2.2 W.G. Sebald, Austerlitz. Trans. Anthea Bell. (New York: Penguin, 2001), p.5…....………………………………………………………………...38 Figure 2.1.1 W.G. Sebald, Austerlitz. Trans. Anthea Bell. (New York: Penguin, 2001), p.131…………………………………………………………………...54 Figure 2.1.2 W.G. Sebald, Austerlitz. Trans. Anthea Bell. (New York: Penguin, 2001), p.43..…………………………………………………………………...58
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