Topography is the culturally directed space as the recent direction of the research which means "sentences of place/space," or "description of the place". "Cultural topography' which comes from 'topographical conversion' means describing culture or c ...
Topography is the culturally directed space as the recent direction of the research which means "sentences of place/space," or "description of the place". "Cultural topography' which comes from 'topographical conversion' means describing culture or cultural products from aspect of space, or the analysis of cultural forms that gives rise to the space. This study attempts to research the cultural topography which appeared in the trip of Rilke to Egypt. In that case, I would like to examine whether if the modern space discourse, mythic and aesthetic space of Cassirer, hetero-topia of Foucault and the smooth space of Deleuze are found in literary space formed by the trip of Rilke to Egypt, and if these theories of space deepen the understanding of shaping of space of Rilke.
Rilke's images on Egyptian geographical features and landscape, the Egyptian monuments, buildings, meeting with art, the old Egyptian mythology, shaping of customs and cultures were dealt with, as the cultural topography of Rilke, through the analysis of the works and letters. While discussing these factors, I explained relating the injection of modern space theory according to each time. Rilke depicted the Nile River, desert and sea, as the landscape of Egypt. He referred the Nile River as indicating the origin of the myth of Egypt, and represented it as the ancient and mythological space. This spatiality is reminiscent of the mythical space of Cassirer which surrounds human by unknown and secret forces and binds human by the evil restrictions. The dessert is experienced as the infinite space, but as the space not yet touched by human. Desert as the open space which is not limited or divided, corresponds to "smooth space" which Deleuze meant. In the remark of Rilke, sea appeared as the mythical space. But it belongs to the smooth space by the declaration as the "uncalculatable", in other words, unmeasurable, and "incomprehensible". In short, for Rilke, the landscape of Egypt preserves something that is ancient and cosmic. From the spatial aspect, the mythical space appears combined with a smooth space. As the Egyptian monuments, Sphinx is well known, and the face of Sphinx is soaring into the cosmic space, out of the ground of human life and through the vast desert, reaching into the realm of kingdom of cosmic stars. As the aesthetic space of Cassirer is perceptive, Rilke makes us to recognize the aesthetic space of Cassirer by constantly recognizing the contemplation from the face of Sphinx, and viewing that there springs the infinite spatial space around this form. Because artistic contemplation with the power to make chaos into cosmos prevails in the aesthetic space of Cassirer. The Pylon of the Egyptian temple has mystique due to its huge scale, and mediates the mythical space. Pillars that hold up the sky of Egypt itself directly is something that soars into the comic space, and it is regarded as the establishment of infinity by Rilke. As the artistic contemplation and functions of expression make us to recognize the intrinsic law in the aesthetic space of Cassirer, the old Egyptian sculptures forms an aesthetic space by recognizing the universal law in itself for Rilke. As well as the old Egyptian sculptures in museums, continuously accumulated and deposited as to time, itself belongs to the hetero-topia of Foucault outside of time.
Among the old Egyptian cultures, Chepre which was identified with the creator Atum and one of the types of sun god, Osiris mythology which is god of the dead in ancient Egypt, customs of funeral such as woman crying in the funeral and the trial of the dead, and "worship of the dead" are formed in Rilke's work. The problem here is the mythical representation in the world of the dead, that is, the belief in nirvana of Egypt. "The kingdom of pain" that Rilke is forming related to the worship of the dead, is the space of consciousness and culture. In other words, it is the space of sadness and culture that we know, instead of remembering the dead and expelling death and suffering. This world which the dead are going through, is the a spatialization of states of pain and grief. Grief leads to "grave" of "old people", he burial chamber of Pyramid and the place of the dead. Grief disappearing with time leads to the cultural space of hetero-pia which exists outside of time as a form of art. Worship of the dead is one of the cultures that hetero-pia produced, the cemetery. In the result, interaction of Rilke and the tension between culture and identity are referred. But Rilke found his own representation and developed in front of the strange cultural background called Egyptian culture.