IN-CHIEF / EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Prof. Dr. Bahattin P
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T. C. FEN- MALTEPE FEF JOURNAL Fen- YAYIN KURULU / EDITORIAL BOARD YAY -IN-CHIEF / EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Prof. Dr. Bahattin Prof. Dr. Sevil ATAUZ Prof. Dr. Prof. Dr. Zekiye KUTLUSOY /SECRETARY http://fef.maltepe.edu.tr [email protected] Tel. (+90216) 626 1050 / 2240 / 2243 Fax (+90216) 626 1113 /Correspondence Address Fen- Fen- - : 2016 ISSN: 1303-3115 - aittir. Dergimiz TUBITAK- All the responbilities for the content of their articles belong to the authors. Bu dergi EBSCOHost Veri T This journal is indexed in and EBSCOHost database. 1 (Akademik u it tku Prof Prof. Dr. Erdal Cengiz Vural Maltepe Tuebingen Universitesi, Almanya itesi Felsefe Psikoloji Prof. Dr. Felix Koerner man Prof. Dr. Maija Kule University of Latvia, Letonya b Prof. Dr. Zekiye Kutlusoy Prof. Dr. Mircea Dumitru Y Prof. Dr. Oktik Prof. Dr. Ayhan Sol zer Yrd. Maltepe Zaporozhye National University, Ukrayna Sa - r Sosyoloji Advisory Board can change according to the context interms of our blind- review principle. Prof DTCF 2 - http://fef.maltepe.edu.tr/fakulte/icindekiler- ozetler EDITORIAL PREFACE In this issue (2015/1+2) of Maltepe University FEF Journal, six articles and a book review are included concerning topics of our faculty. The common feature of those articles in the fields of social sciences and humanities is the their way of reconsidering facts, concepts and understandings of reviews by taking advantage of current form of comparative interpretations. Being published si EbscoHost. Issues from 2009 on can be accessed at http://fef.maltepe.edu.tr/fakulte/icindekiler-ozetler. Best regards, On behalf of the Editorial Board/Editor-in-Chief Winter 2015, Maltepe 3 WHEN ADDICTION FUELS THE MIND: AN INSIGHT INTO SOCIOLOGICAL EFFECTS ON A CREATIVE NTERRELATIONSHIP WITH ADDICTION* Madhurima Ganguly [email protected] Abstract The Partition of Bengal in 1947 was a period of history which was a cause of trauma for many who faced dislocation and misplacement as they were forced to relocate from east to west Bengal. One very prominent figure and a victim of this epoch was the great Indian Script writer and Film maker Ritwik Ghatak. Extremely radical and realistic, his movies were the predecessor of many famous film movements like the Italian neo realism and French New wave and was abound in sociological conflicts and stark realism which continued to bring out the feelings of agony and dismemberment as he witnessed the Bengal famine of 1943 and the overflow of refuges across Bengal as a result of Partition. An ill-fated genius, not understood and appreciated in his life, he was unable to communicate his feelings through his works which were received unsuccessfully by his audiences not matured enough to the genre of neo realism His inner sufferings and turmoil which he felt alone, reached an ultimatum when he was admitted to a mental asylum on grounds of being a wasted drunkard in 1969. Even though under severe medication and electric shock he continued to drink clandestinely as it provided fuel for the workings of his mind. In a way his addiction fuelled his emotions which translated into his creative work and his failure as an artist fuelled his addiction- the feeder chain syndrome. Many artists are known to have had a dependency on addiction, like the painter Van Gogh who was heavily addicted to Absinthe and Digitalis. For my paper I will be examining his works, his biographies, and would also use Meghe Dhaka Tara (Cloud Capped Star he was ravaged by addiction. - interpretation of what was going through his had become like a stick to a cripple. I will analyse how addiction acted as a numbing balm to the -cultural issues such as partition an Keywords: Ritwik Ghatak, India, cinema, partition, trauma, addiction. *This article was presented at Maltepe University Student Congress MUISC 2015 151 Introduction Jawad Fatayer in his essay Addiction Types: A Clinical Sociology Perspective comments that: Addiction social-cultural invention; a social construct manufactured by the culture as a means for a given goal. Facts reflect that people become addicted to anything, yet addiction is solely a human phenomenon. And for addiction to occur, three major conditions are to be present: (1) a social cognition (a consciousness, knowledge, shared meanings and purpose, etc.) in the mind of the addict toward the addictive object social cognition tends to be a reflection of learned experiences and efforts and impacts of the social environment; (2) a vulnerable emotional makeup (troubled self-esteem, lack of confidence, abuse, emotional deprivation, etc.); and (3) a possible chemical imbalance in the body. (Jawad 2008:88) Jawad Fatayer in his essay has categorized Addiction into four types; One, Alpha addiction which is food addiction; Two, Beta Addiction which include Alcohol, medications, narcotics, cocaine, hash, marijuana, opioids, sedatives, hypnotics; Three, Gamma Addiction includes Gambling, driving, online games/video games, porn, sex, love, shopping, work holism, computer/net, solitaire, lying and Four, Delta Addiction. Out of these four, I will be dealing with Beta addiction, or in more common terms Alcoholism/ Alcohol dependence with respect to creative people or artists. When it comes to the field of arts addiction is quite a common phenomenon which manifests itself in numerous ways. Many have been victims to addiction in terms of substance consumption, whether it is the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge who is said to have written poems under the influence of opium, the most world famous him seeing the world in a yellow- . Coleridge and Van Gogh are but a few to name; history has shown a vast majority of artists being 152 some way or the other dependent on some kind of addiction for stimulating creative output or helping to cope with troubles. p.263). And according to Alan I. Leshner neither is addiction just It is a brain disease for which the social contexts in which it has both developed and is e p.46). Like so many artists around the world who have resorted to addiction for creative impulse as a result of their inner turmoil, Ritwik Ghatak, one of the legendary filmmakers of India was no different. Ritwik Ghatak was not only a filmmaker, but was also a theatre director, scriptwriter, author, actor, critic, and film theorist. A true talent of one of a kind he was not always an addict. It was only in the latter part of his life as a result of facing failures one after the other as a director, unappreciated and misunderstood, he went into severe depression which was aggravated by heavy drinking and was admitted into a mental asylum by his family for treatment. Ritwik Ghatak: A Case Study of Alcoholism Ritwik Kumar Ghatak was born on the 4th of November 1925 in Dhaka, the capital of what is now known as Bangladesh. He was only twenty-two when the Partition of Bengal took place in 1947. He along with his family came down to Kolkata, India as refugees where Ritwik Ghatak continued his education and spent the rest of his life till his death. He was unfortunate enough to have belonged to a generation that witnessed the Bengal famine of 1943 and also the Independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971. The horrors of these bloody passages caused trauma to many people like him who were forced to relocate from east to west Bengal. He was 153 brought up along with his eight other siblings in the lap of lush green nature; as a result he had a very lively childhood, he loved East Bengal, his homeland which was to him like an umbilical cord. His love for Mother Nature later played a very significant role in the portrayal of the Mother archetype in his films. His movies were like a poignant documentary of the people who faced alienation and dislocation from their homeland as a result of partition. The harrowing memories of partition haunted him for the rest of his life and in turn found reflection in his work. During the late forties Ritwik Ghatak started working for the communist backed 'Indian People's Theatre Association' (IPTA) and engaged himself as an actor, writer and director. His chief inspiration in the field of theatre was Bertolt Brecht, who was himself a Marxist, Ritwik Ghatak adapted many of his plays fusing elements of both Traditional Indian folk theatre and European Avant-garde, and thus both Ritwik Ghatak and Bertolt Brecht shared a similar ideology and agenda. Ritwik Ghatak started his acting career in films in 1951, in the movie Chinnamool (The Uprooted) which was based on the issue of refugees directed by Nemai Ghosh, the movie did not run well in theatres. He shifted to films from theatre because he believed that he would be able to reach a larger audience through this medium and propagate his ideas and not because he wanted any fame, money or glamour. His first movie as a director was Nagarik (The city Dweller) in 1952. But the movie was never released during his lifetime and was considered lost until it was discovered and was released posthumously in 1977 in Kolkata, within a very short time, the movie was an instant hit. Mr.Ghatak had started working in a period dominated by Satyajit Ray, rare mastery of the art of motion pictures, and of his profound humanitarian outlook, which has 154 Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road) marked him as one of the pioneers of Italian neo- rea have preceded Pather Panchali which had come out in 1955 and in turn Nagarik would have taken the centre-stage as the ground-breaking phenomenon in Indian realist cinema. Thus began Ritwik Ghatak's tryst with ill-fated luck and failure with one movie after the hand where Satyajit Ray received immediate public acclaim, Mr.