Official Letters Letters discussed so far are written for personal communication, as Naficy points out they “provide access to multiple viewpoints, and voices, the epistolary form enhance the work’s verisimilitude and psychological depth” (p. 102). However, when a letter is official, written for or by an institution, the meaning and the function of the letters change, especially the meanings generated from the institution are included. For instance, in Mold the use of epistolary media poses questions about the gap between personal experience (personal memory) and the official truth (history). Basri, whose son has been missing for 18 years, writes letters of application to the state twice a month demanding information about the loss of his son. …show more content…
The only accurate information Basri gets is the identity card, the symbol of citizenship, becomes a proof of death before the scientific proof. The last official paper is the death certificate. Basri signs the papers in order to get the remnants of his son in a box. In Voice of My Father, postman delivers a letter for Hasan, a not guilty of verdict notification. Although Hasan is absent for an unknown time, his family becomes the addressee. Meanwhile, the police officers keep harassing the family by asking for Hasan. The letter becomes dysfunctional for Hasan because the law is not binding for him as he left the country. One of the rare memories Base tells Mehmet is how Hasan changed the name in Base’s identity cards without her will. Base only realizes that her name was changed to Asiye when she had to go the hospital. Traumatic memory of Base reveals the shame of Mehmet of his Kurdish identity as a kid, how identity cards play a crucial role on Turkification, and the meaning of institutions for Kurdish people, especially for those who do not speak