Abstract
Between Disappearance of the Storyteller and Emergence of the Reader: The Problem of Reading as Gloomy Pleasure
In his prominent article “The Storyteller: Reflections on the Works of Nikolai Leskov”, Walter Benjamin, discusses the crisis of the reader faced with the written text due to the disappear of the storyteller of oral culture. Basically, the reader and the text are alone together with the disappear of the storyteller's body and voice in the written world. In our opinion, this position reveals the double-dimensional world of meaning that emerges in the contrast of pleasure and sadness of the reading experience. With the disappear of the voice and body of the storyteller, the reader, who is left alone with the text, becomes active and free in producing the meaning of the literary text creates the pleasure dimension of reading. On the other hand, the gloomy dimension of reading manifests itself when the reader moves away from the direct experience of the storyteller in a fictional world textured only with letters. This article analyzes the essays of Hasan Ali Toptaş, entitled “What Happened to the Storyteller?” and “Being a Reader of the Reader” in Letters and Notes (Org: Harfler ve Notalar) in the context of the problem of gloomy pleasure of reading. While it highlights the role of the reader, also makes room for a reading thought that does not ignore the concept of experience in overcoming this problem, referring to the author's outstanding novel, A Thousand Gloomy Pleasure (Org: Bin Hüzünlü Haz) by name. It also discusses how the exchange of experience can be enlivened in the practice of reading in the relationship that Peter Brooks established between psychoanalysis and storytelling or hermeneutical thought that emphasizes the dialogue environment between the reader and the text.
Keywords
Storyteller, Reading, Experience, Pleasure, Walter Benjamin.
