Word, Writing, and Memory: Oeuvre of Ünal Nalbantoğlu

Abstract

Hasan Ünal Nalbantoğlu is worthwhile to remember, not just because of what he taught, also especially with the mediation of conscience conveyed in his lessons. Nalbantoğlu has been well known in academia as a critical figure. In particular, he tried to both criticize and reveal efforts to produce functional knowledge in the humanities. In order to avoid this kind of production, the courses should be carried out to express the love of wisdom not to seek functional usage of knowledge. He recalled that the relationship with knowledge has very different modalities. Being critical with knowledge comes before accepting its truthness in advance. This is the most basic and primary ideal of the academy. In this respect, Nalbantoğlu's legacy not only consists of what he wrote but also what has been recollected by his students. In order to assess what he left behind, it is also necessary to be an active participant of his courses. His oeuvre has an important oral aspect in addition to the written part. Nalbantoğlu refused to reinscribe the knowledge into written expression, and rather argued the necessity of a constant skeptical approach and revision. This makes impossible the reinscription of acquired knowledge into a written form, and to create power fields around this inadequate knowledge.