Abstract
FROM DARÜLFUNUN TO İSTANBUL UNIVERSITY: INVOLUNTARY MIGRATION, SULBALTERNITY AND A POEM
As there is variety in the causes of migration, there are various types of migration which are widely explored and discussed. Besides, there is a type of migration which emanates from an abrupt change, independent of the migrants’ will, in the (back) ground on which they are situated or the context encompassing them without replacement or mobility; such sort of migration takes place merely in peculiar historical situations. In case the official alphabet of a country is altered, the nation goes through a forced alphabet migration. Likewise, the citizens of a destroyed or overthrown state experiences a coerced state migration by becoming the citizens of a different state. In such cases, people experience migration without replacement. Darulfunun Reform Act of 1933 caused a coerced migration, that is to say, an exile for the teachers dismissed from the institution. Additionally, the students at Darulfunun had to transfer from Darulfunun to Istanbul University immediately and involuntarily. This article explores the effects of the abovementioned “migration without replacement” on the ignored subordinates through the analysis of a poem written by a medical student receiving education at Darulfunun in 1933 when the purge took place. This article, first, presents general information about Darulfunun Reform Act of 1933.
Keywords
Istanbul University, Reform, Migration without moving, Subaltern, Poetry
