Tracing the ''document'' gender of ''reality'' through the September 12 coup

Abstract

This thesis concerns the relationship between power and the document. Based on one-to-one interviews conducted with former members of illegal political organizations of the September 12 period in Turkey, it argues that there is a structural link between power and the document. Starting with the question “what do the documents document?” and then tracing the meaning of the document in various fields, it claims that there is always a gap between the document and the “reality” which it claims to document. This gap can never be closed but can be made invisible through various forms of power. For this reason the main problem becomes, who has the power to document. By tracing the document in the axes of the state, narrative and body, this study argues that the reality constructed by the document is always gendered and always masculine. Drawing on three stories about encounters with the state, it considers the state as a magical power which makes the gap between the document and reality invisible. Then, analyzing interviews about document forgery within leftist organizations of the September 12 period, it illustrates that not only the documents but the state itself was forged by these organizations. Comparing men’s and women’s interviews, this thesis demonstrates that men claim to document the reality of September 12 in their narratives. However, women are rendered invisible in such public narratives, and their own narratives, which cannot count as documents due to women’s position in the margins, narrate silence and invisibility. As a result, the thesis imagines women’s bodies as archives on which layers of documents, narratives, and violence are inscribed.