Haricilerin Kutsallığı

Abstract

The aim of this thesis, by approaching the concepts of ‘sacred’ and ‘outsider’ on a sociological and psychological basis, is to seek an answer to the question of whether a new concept of ‘sacred’ is possible, and to examine these two concepts on a new ground through art. This thesis focuses on the tension between the concepts of ‘sacred’ and ‘outsider’. With new connections established between these two concepts, the aim throughout this study has been to search for an alternative space for dogmatic sacredness. The sacred is at the core of religions and is expressed through phenomena such as objects, places and forms of behavior that express moral, social and religious values that are cherished and must be protected. The outsiders, on the other hand, corresponds to a group of people that Becker considers not to be a part of society. The outsiders are in a position that can be seen as opposite to the sacred in terms of being outside social and cultural norms.

It has been observed in researches that the formation of the concept of ‘outsider’ is directly related to the concepts of ‘myself’ and ‘the other’. Therefore, during this study, issues such as the self and being an individual were first examined and then, as the study continued, the concept of ‘the other’ was looked into. Next, by focusing on the outsiders within ‘the other’, the direction of the research was turned towards the similarities and contrasts between the outsider and the sacred.

As a result, within the scope of the thesis, sacredness was evaluated within a new framework and the idea of the ‘individual sacredness’ was put forward. With this newly emerged concept, paintings were drawn by focusing on the reflections of the alter ego and the state of being outsider in art.