Memory, history and culture: The image of Mardin in the works of Murathan Mungan

Abstract

The urban image of Mardin where Murathan Mungan spent seventeen years of his life has a crucial place in his works. Mardin with its historical and cultural richness not only reflects itself at level of symbolic reality in Mungan’s works but also functions as a source for multiple perspectives and themes. Mardin, as a crossroad of different cultures, is an everlasting fountain to which Mungan often returns for self-realization. Being situated at the crossroad of Mesopotamia and Anatolian cultures, Mardin with its historical and cultural richness provides sources for narrations based on mythology, story, legend and tradition in the works of Mungan. Elves of Money (Paranin Cinleri) is a journey to this past where the author’s self is at the centre. Mardin with its street, houses and life styles shows itself in a decorative manner in the work of In Front of Kafdağı (Kafdağı’nın Önü). In his work of Mesopotamia Trilogy (Mezopotamya Üçlemesi), Mungan deals with individual problems within the deadlock of traditional life in the light of lifesytle in the region. The perspectives feeding Mungan’s lyrics also find their inspirations from Mardin. In this paper, it is aimed to show how Mardin as a memory setting is reflected in the works of Mungan