The Literary Galata Bridge: A Heterotopian Space on the East-West Axis
The Literary Galata Bridge: A Heterotopian Space on the East-West Axis

Summary/Abstract: Drawing on David Harvey’s urban chronotope that determines different conceptions of space and time in distinct societies as well as on Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, which assembles various apparently incongruent spaces, juxtaposing them in a single real place that reflects the symbolic perfection of the world, this article considers the significance of bridges in cultural history. More specifically, the article focuses on the role Galata Bridge (Köprü) has had in the history of Istanbul as a space of transition between cultures, geographies and ethnicities. The study will investigate how three Western narratives spanning three different geographical and time zones invested Galata Bridge with the symbolism of an autonomous space within a city, while the narratives reconfigure the discursive practices of society and the social relations among individuals in ways that can be resistant or not, but which, nevertheless, change the structural relations that organise society as they do, attributing them with a new function.

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