Coordinates of the East and West in Mim Kara’s Do？uya Hüzün Turlar？ (Sorrow Tours to the East)

This study aims to determine the borders of the east and west through arguments in Mim Kara’s Do？uya Hüzün Turlar？ (Sorrow Tours to the East), a volume woven with prose poems. It will scrutinise the poet’s thoughts regarding the identity of the easterner and westerner through the said borders. When contemporary Turkish poetry and orientalist studies are taken into consideration, it is seen that the thoughts in Mim Kara’s Do？uya Hüzün Turlar？ do not draw a distinction on places contrary to the general east-west tendency which is created with imperialist purposes. Mim Kara states that the places that are located east and west are not just determined by their coordinates. In the book, the general tendency is to escape, and this escape is from rationality and quantifiable knowledge towards innocence. When this escape is considered as a journey, not the coordinates but sorrow is the loadstar. In line with this, Kara’s multidimentional, innovative and profound narratives that are put forth in his book motivate us to write. Moreover, the east-west distinction that is presented differently from the premises in his book, is the focal point of the study. In this article, first the general orientalist arguments are studied, then, the profound investigation in terms of the perception of east-west, pure and rational reason is determined as a method of this study. In the conclusion, the thoughts that Kara puts forth in his book constitute the perception of east-west, and it is seen that eastern pure reason cannot be understood by means of western quantifiable knowledge and rationality