A Story To Tell: Seeing Through the Minds of Two Admirals
- Eda Ozyesilpinar -
DISCUSSION
From this visual-material rhetorical analysis with a focus on the connection between space and place, it is clear that the Reis map functions in a different way today than it did five hundred years ago. The socio-cultural context and the bodily experiences which took part in the meaning construction of the map leads us to see and understand this heterotopic piece as a contact zone where two cultures meld through the metaphorical border crossings. This map tells the story of an imaginative borderless territory where Columbus and Reis met at different times and places by crossing the geographical borders. This map contains and combines the cultures Columbus and Reis represent with the culture of the Americas; these cultures function to connect today’s audience to the history, to the discoveries of the 16th century. This map is a metaphorical contact zone which has been connecting the changing cultures of West and East for the last five hundred years; it is the oldest map of a contact zone.
Thus the Reis map reflects that Columbus crossed the unknown border of this time, and through his crossing, two different cultures and civilizations met. This border crossing changed how we see the world today including our interpretation of the geographical and imaginative borders, and the concept of border-crossing by presenting a historical contact zone in the Reis map. This map brings these cultures together and tells the story of interactions between different cultures by crossing the bodily borders of two different contexts. Reis meets with these cultures and brings in his own cultural background by crossing the borders of his mind and imagination; he pushed the limits of his perception to understand this new land and its culture and how Columbus interacted with them. Reis sees everything as an outsider; he looks at this contact zone through a projector, from a distance; but he manages to cross the borders of his mind and his cultural restrictions and discovers this new land through Columbus. His map becomes a broader contact zone where Columbus and Reis meet with each other and meet with the Americas and its culture.
Today, we try to understand the different layers of meanings hidden in the Reis map to explore how it functions as an authentic contact zone. This map, due to its rich texture and layers of meaning, can be analyzed and interpreted from many different perspectives by applying many different methodologies and theories. In this study, by conducting a visual-material rhetorical analysis with a focus on the connection between space and place, the Reis map is understood as a historical, cultural, and authentic visual artifact which functions as a heterotopia and works as a contact zone for the audience of the 21st century. People still study this map to discover the meaning and the story hidden in it. This study was an attempt to reveal maybe a small portion of the map’s message.