The 1912 Galata Bridge as a site of collective memory

Abstract

This work looks at the 1912 Galata Bridge as a case study and attempts to examine it as a dual construction in two senses: space and memory. Acknowledging that space and memory mutually construct each other, this thesis explains each term in general but also elucidates the relationship between perception and remembrance of space by reading the materiality of the 1912 Galata Bridge. In that respect, changing meanings attributed to space over time are analysed lead us to recognise two different ways of conceiving space named as 'spaceness' and 'placeness'. This dual existence is conductive to raising questions about perception of the 1912 Galata Bridge in two layers. Taken separately, its function of conveyance and the property of inhabitation lead us to read 'spaceness' and 'placeness' that also correspond to two ways of remembering it. Its 'spaceness' is perceived by the gaze and remembered through looking at its images, its 'placeness, on the other hand, is experienced by the body and recollected through reading texts that describe the actual engagement. Hence, 'spaceness' and 'placeness', gaze and body, image and text are correspondingly related with each other by the agency of the 1912 Galata Bridge as situated in collective memory.