American literature
80 theses under this subject heading
Wolfgang Kayser and Mikhail Bakhtin's typology of the grotesque: Flannery O'connor's selected short fiction
This thesis aims to analyze the development of American Southern gothic literature and the grotesque characterization as its essential feature through the characters in Flannery O'Connor's selected short fiction based on Wolfgang Kayser's classification and Mikhail Bakhtin's theory. American Southern gothic flourished as a subgenre of American gothic following the Civil War (1861-65) in the 19th century, and its increasing popularity coincides with the 20th century when O'Connor published her works. American Southern gothic writers dwell on the inherent problems of the society such as the stigma of slavery, racial discrimination, and class distinctions. They also make a number of references to Southern history and culture. O'Connor is regarded as one of the leading figures of this subgenre. In her fiction, which is the quintessence of American Southern gothic, she deals with the grotesque theme in order to expose the shortcomings of the society. Three categories of grotesque characters have been identified in her short stories on the basis of Wolfgang Kayser's classification in his The Grotesque in Art and Literature (1963). These categories are the characters whose appearance is grotesque, the intellectuals with their flawed perception of the world, and the demonic characters with a tendency to violence and cynicism. Keywords: American Southern gothic, the grotesque, Flannery O'Connor, Wolfgang Kayser, Mikhail Bakhtin, The Grotesque in Art and Literature.
Understanding chicana feminism: The feminist elements in Sandra Cisneros's the house on Mango street
This thesis aims to examine Sandra Cisneros's (1954) The House on Mango Street in the light of Chicana Feminism. Chicana Feminist thought has emerged as a consequence of male dominated structure of Chicano Movement, which is a product of Civil Rights Movement in 1960s. Chicana feminists, who are against the sexism in Chicano Movement, also carry the spirit of nationalistic discourses. Chicana feminists, who are the product of Brown society, cannot find a place for themselves with the White feminists, so they stand against racist sexism as well. In this thesis the issues of race, class and gender will be examined in terms of Chicana Feminism in Sandra Cisneros's, who is the first Chicana writer entered the American mainstream, The House on Mango Street. This novel, which deals with the issues of female and male roles in a male dominated society, race, class and gender in a Chicago barrio, is an effective sample of Chicana Feminism. Key Words: Chicana Feminism, Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street, race, class, gender, sexism.
William Faulkner'ın Döşeğimde Ölürken romanı ile Adalet Ağaoğlu'nun Ölmeye Yatmak romanının psikanalitik kuram açısından incelenmesi
Sigmund Freud'un çalışmalarıyla temelleri atılan psikanalitik eleştiri, yazarın psikolojisini, yazarı yazmaya iten bastırılmış arzularını, bilinçdışı dünyasını ortaya çıkarmak, aynı zamanda eserlerini incelemek ve eserlerindeki kişilerin de davranışları altında yatan nedenleri açıklamak amacıyla uygulanmaktadır. Türk Edebiyatından Adalet Ağaoğlu'nun Ölmeye Yatmak adlı eseri ve Amerikan Edebiyatından William Faulkner'ın Döşeğimde Ölürken isimli eserini psikanalitik duyarlıklı bir bakışla inceleyerek iki eser arasındaki benzerlikleri ve farklılıkları tespit etmeye çalışmak tezimizin amacını oluşturmaktadır. Yaptığımız tez çalışmasında psikanaliz kavramı, psikanalitik eleştirinin ortaya çıkışı ve yaratmanın bilinçdışı kaynakları çeşitli aydınların görüşlerinden yola çıkılarak açıklanmaya çalışılmıştır. Ayrıca çalışmada eserlerin daha iyi anlaşılması ve incelenmesi amacıyla iki yazarın kısa hayatı ve edebi kişiliklerine de değinilmiştir. Bu tezin odak noktası, her iki eseri Freud'un bilinçdışı, id, ego, süperego, rüya analizi, savunma mekanizmaları, oidipus kompleksi gibi temel kavramlarıyla incelemek olsa da çeşitli kuramcıların görüşlerine de yer verilmiştir. Çalışmada her iki eserin kişilerinin davranış ve tutumlarından yola çıkılarak, bunların ardında yatan nedenler araştırmacılara ve okura sunulmuştur.
Francıs Scott Key Fitzgerald'ın muhteşem Gatsby ile Peyami Safa'nın Sözde Kızlar romanlarının karşılaştırılması
Karşılaştırmalı edebiyat, farklı ülke edebiyatlarından olan eserlerin ortak konu ve motif anlamında benzerlikleri ve farklılıklarıyla karşılıklı incelenmesidir. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald'ın Muhteşem Gatsby adlı eseri Amerika'da Birinci Dünya Savaşı sonrası yılları kapsayan dönemin toplumsal yaşantısından kesitler sunmaktadır. Kolay kazanç, eğlence ve yozlaşmanın belirgin olarak öne çıktığı bu dönemi Fitzgerald "Caz Çağı" olarak isimlendirmiştir. Türkiye'de aynı dönemde kaleme alınan Peyami Safa'nın Sözde Kızlar adlı romanı da geleneksel değerlerden uzaklaşan yozlaşmış bireyler aracılığıyla toplumdaki bozulmaya dikkat çekmektedir. Her ne kadar farklı toplumlar olsalar da, her iki romanda da savaş sonrası toplumsal yapı değişmekte, kuşaklar birbirleri ile benzerlikler göstermekte ve her iki kuşağın bireyleri de yitik bireyler olarak adlandırılmaktadır. Bu çalışmada Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald'ın Muhteşem Gatsby (1925 )adlı eseri ile Peyami Safa'nın Sözde Kızlar (1922-1925) adlı eserleri farklı coğrafyalara ait olsalar da aynı dönemi (1920-1930) anlatmaları, toplumların ortak yönlerine işaret etmeleri bakımından, karşılaştırmalı edebiyat yöntemlerinden biri olan metne odaklı inceleme metoduyla öz ve biçim bakımından karşılaştırılmış, eserlerin benzer ve farklı yönleri ortaya konulmuştur.
Sylvia Plath'in Sırça Fanus ile Leyla Erbil'in Tuhaf Bir Kadın romanlarının feminist edebiyat eleştirisi açısından karşılaştırılması
Leylâ Erbil (1931-2013) kendine has üslubuyla modern Türk edebiyatında önemli bir yer edinmiştir. Sylvia Plath (1932- 1963) ise Amerikan edebiyatında Sırça Fanus (1963) isimli otobiyografik romanıyla tanınmış bir yazardır. Bu tezde Türk edebiyatından Leyla Erbil'in Tuhaf Bir Kadın (1971) isimli romanı ile Amerikan edebiyatından Sylvia Plath'in Sırça Fanus isimli romanı "feminist edebiyat kuramı ve eleştirisi yöntemiyle" ele alınmıştır. Tezimizin amacı iki eser arasındaki benzeyen ve ayrılan yönleri ortaya çıkarmaktır. Bu bağlamda, tez çalışmasında feminist edebiyat eleştirisi hakkında bilgi verilmiştir ve feminist edebiyat kuramının eserlere katkısı çeşitli kuramcıların görüşlerinden esas alınarak anlatılmıştır. Bu tezin merkezini, her iki eserin kadın karakterlerinin ataerkil toplumda yaşadıkları toplumsal ve kültürel baskı, biyolojik cinsiyetlerinden dolayı eğitim ve iş hayatında yaşadıkları negatif ayrımcılık, kadına yüklenen cinsiyetçi rol ve sorumluluklar ile roman karakterlerinin eril topluma karşı verdikleri varoluş mücadelesi oluşturmaktadır. Çalışmada her iki kadın karakterin söylemlerinden ve serüvenlerinden yola çıkılarak cinsiyetçi yaklaşımların edebiyata yansımaları ortaya konulmuştur.
Refik Halid Karay'ın Yatık Emine adlı eseri ile Nathaniel Hawthourne'un Kızıl Damga romanının Feminist Edebiyat Kuramı ve eleştirisi açısından karşılaştırılması
Türk edebiyatının çok yönlü kalemlerinden biri olan Refik Halid Karay (1888-1965) Anadolu'ya sürgüne gönderildiği dönemlerde Memleket Hikâyelerini yazmıştır. Dönemin sosyal-kültürel yapısının da gözler önüne serildiği eserinde, Yatık Emine (1919) adlı hikayesi tasvirlerindeki gerçeklik ve ayrıntılı gözlem gücü ile dikkat çekmiştir. Amerikan edebiyatının güçlü ve aykırı kalemlerinden olan NathanielHawthorne (1804-1864) görev yaptığı yerden ayrıldığı süreci acı ve tatlı yönleri ile anlattığı ayrıca da Püritenler 'in katı yaşamını ortaya koyduğu eseri The Scarlett Letter 1850 (Kızıl Damga) ile Amerika'da çok satan eserler içerisinde yerini almıştır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, Türk edebiyatından Refik Halid Karay'ın "Yatık Emine" öyküsü ile NathanielHawthorne'un "Kızıl Damga" adlı eserini feminist edebiyat kuramı ve feminist eleştirisi bağlamında karşılaştırmaktır. Çalışmada feminist edebiyat kuramı ve feminist eleştirinin tarihsel gelişiminin yanında Refik Halid Karay ve NathanielHawthorne'un hayatları, edebi kimlikleri ve eserlerine de yer verilmiştir. Tezin odak noktasını, feminist edebiyat kuramı ve feminist eleştirinin de ele aldığı toplumsal cinsiyet, bekaret, aşağılanma, aldatma, ataerkillik vb. temel kavramlar üzerinden incelemek oluşturmaktadır. Bu bağlamda "Yatık Emine ve Kızıl Damga" adlı eserlerde yer alan kadın karakterler seçilen temel kavramlar üzerinden karşılaştırılarak incelenmiştir.
A descriptive study of of Mice and Men; a change in text type through translation
The aim of this thesis is to illustrate and account for the differences between the two translations of Of Mice and Men –the translated prose text and the translated play script version. Since the source text is originally written in prose from, its translation into a play script brings many changes and throughout the present study, the aim and the results of this text type change are investigated along with a descriptive study of a target oriented translation of Of Mice and Men. Each chapter deals with the analytical steps taken towards the comparison of two different translations of Mice and Men. Even-Zohar's Polysystem Theory, Vermeer's Skopos Theory and Functional Approach are some of these theories that the present thesis is grounded with a view to showing that the text is translated according to a target oriented perspective to function on a communicative ground. The very concept of drama, its language and its relation with Translation Studies are illustrated with the reasons for changing the text type and how it contributes to culture repertoire. The conclusion reveals the detailed reasons for changing the text type with a descriptive study of translated versions of Of Mice and Men. In the descriptive study, it is argued that converting a prose text into a play script in translation makes it possible for it to reach a wider public who may prefer to watch the play on the stage rather than read the novel and it shows how translation contributes to culture repertoire through spreading foreign works in Turkey.
The road not taken: The socialist utopia of Edward Bellamy
In the aftermath of American Civil War, the United States underwent a serious change in its social, political and economic order. Gone was the Thomas Jefferson?s ideal of the United States that stood on the shoulders of the yeoman farmer. The blessings of technology and economic growth in addition to the firm belief in laissez faire capitalism and individualism shaped the future of the American nation. Under the leadership of captains of industry, namely the robber barons, the largest industries rose. Nevertheless, the inevitable consequences of this boom such as urbanization, immigration and pauperization were obviously seen in the growing portrait of an industrial America and the dissenting voices soon heard after many recurring economic depressions and labor unrest.At the turn of the new century, the attempts to address these social problems of America have been well documented by historians. For many, there was a better road to prosperity than rampant capitalism. Cooperation, planned economy, positive assistance by the state could turn social anarchy, caused by capitalism, to social order for unity and happiness for all. Although these socialistic means were criticized for being anti-American and foreign born ideas, they are in harmony with American traditions because they highlight social justice, economic security, equality of opportunity and peace which were also underlined by both Declaration of Independence and American Constitution.In this context, utopian literature undertakes a crucial role to exhibit the ills of the social order and reinvigorate the hopes for a better tomorrow. Their importance is neglected in historical analysis, yet the great bulk of utopian literature produced during the fin de siècle portrays another American dream for future. The most significant of these socialist utopian novels was Looking Backward 2000 ? 1887 written by Edward Bellamy. It sold millions and inspired many more at a time when the labor question was the most serious issue. Therefore, the objective of this thesis is to study how Bellamy frames the promised American dream for every citizen and to examine the reasons why it fell short of its goals despite its popularity and the great impact it had on society.Keywords: Gilded Age, Utopian Literature, Edward Bellamy, American Socialism.
Beyond irony: The cult of sophistication in contemporary American literature
The purpose of this study is to read creative nonfiction and fiction of Nicholson Baker, William T. Vollmann, Jonathan Franzen, David Foster Wallace within the context of topics surrounding recent literary criticism about new directions after postmodernism and offer a new outlook on contemporary literature. The basic premise of this study is that when considered in light of the newly emerging schools of the so-called ethical turn and the oft-mentioned end of postmodernism and the re-birth of realism, the selected works demonstrate another vista for contemporary literature that tends towards re-establishing literature?s ethical inquiry into the human element before all else. The analysis of the creative nonfiction and fiction of these four contemporary American writers present new theories of reading for contemporary literary scholarship. The selected works are all, in their own particular ways, symptomatic of a recent aspiration for ethical treatment of certain social and cultural issues and a commitment to the human. In charting the manifestations of these symptoms as evidences of a new movement in contemporary literature, this study bears witness to the common anxiety of these writers who move toward the truthful representation of the human, of reality. The selected works of creative nonfiction and fiction account for contemporary American literature?s various conflicts and dilemmas as well as searches for revitalization.
A nietzschean reading of cormac Mccarthy's Blood Meridian Or the Evening Redness in the west and The Road
Through his career, as an appreciated American Southern writer, Cormac McCarthy has written on issues such as necrophilia, incest and violence by creating gothic atmospheres and employing grotesque elements to disrupt the norms of the world and the society. Some critics also assure that some of McCarthy's works are the critique of contemporary agendas of the time in which the works were written. While Blood Meridian, Or the Evening Redness in the West (1985), which is indeed a western novel set in the mid-1800s, can be read as a critique on America's capitalist and expansionist policy against communist Vietnam, McCarthy's recent novel The Road (2006) is considered as a signifier of the crisis of climate change. This thesis offers a Nietzschean reading of the two novels mentioned above, mainly based upon Nietzsche's idea of eternal return, by emphasizing the implicit connection between them. According to Nietzsche, time moves in a circular shape in which everything repeats itself eternally. This philosophy opposes religious doctrines which construct all their norms on a linear time line. The concept of a linear time line serves religions' reward and punishment notions because owing to time's horizontal movement, man can be held responsible for his actions in the past and be rewarded or punished in the future. However, in Nietzsche's circular time, the past is also a point in the future, while the future has already occurred in the past. Taking Nietzsche's philosophy into consideration, in Blood Meridian, McCarthy does not only criticize the violence the U.S. committed, but also reveals that war and destruction are ever-present in human history and they will always prevail. The cauterized world of The Road is the consequence of the violent acts which man performed to rule the world in Blood Meridian. In both novels, the representation of the ambivalent nature of existence that depends on creation as well as destruction is based on Nietzsche's idea of eternal return. By emphasizing the ambivalent nature of the eternal return in history, McCarthy portrays humankind simultaneously entrapped and liberated within the cycle of life. Keywords: Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, The Road, Nietzsche, Eternal Return
Myth, folkways and identity in Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima and Tortuga
The 20th century is marked by social, cultural and political movements which paved the way for new literary studies. One of these movements is El Movimiento, or the Chicano Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 70s, which was a reaction against the Anglo-American status quo due to the fact that Chicanxs were treated as minorities living in the United States. Therefore, the Chicano Movement was a big step for 'Mexican- Americans' or 'Hispanics' to cry out their own Chicanidad, or Chicanx identity, which indicates not only Spanish roots but also particularly brings back the indigenous heritage that was disregarded by the status quo. Born out of the Chicano Movement, the cultural framework of the Aztlán Myth, which is the idea of an Aztec homeland, is the strategy to re-claim indigenous culture and traditions. These reactions which were practiced in the social and political arena of the Chicano Movement also found a place in the literary world. Rudolfo Alfonso Anaya, who is regarded the founder of the Chicanx literary canon, participated in the Chicano Movement. He has been holding a cultural nationalist stance in Chicanx cultural criticism and this stance is reflected in his fiction. Thus, in Chicanx consciousness, it is essential for him to revive the lost and repressed indigenous past, culture and tradition that flourished in the Southwest United States with particular reference to New Mexico, which is used as a symbolic representation of the ideal homeland for Chicanxs. Based on this context, the aim of this study is to analyze the representation of Chicanx identity formation in Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima and Tortuga within the theoretical framework of Mary Louise Pratt's contact zone and Fernando Ortiz's theory of transculturation. This study also shows how Anaya deals with Chicanx identity by applying the mythical past by means of the Aztlán myth, which exerts a healing and uniting power on Chicanx people. Chapter 1 will illustrate how the protagonists represent the dualities of Chicanxs through the application of Pratt's theory to the lives of the protagonists. Later chapters within the framework of transculturation will demonstrate how the protagonists harmonize their bi-cultural heritage through myth, New Mexico's natural features and the curandera figure, which are three connected concepts that stand for indigenous traditions. Keywords: Chicanx identity, Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima, Tortuga, Native culture
Complex childhood trauma and coping mechanisms in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina
Trauma is the psychological response to an event or experience that breaks through the shield of the mind and overwhelms the functioning of the subject. Traumatization may occur through a single event such as rape but may also occur because of an ongoing chronic condition such as classism, racism and sexual abuse in society. With the advent of PTSD in 1980, the study areas of trauma expanded to rape, child abuse and various other traumatic experiences that especially involved women and non-western people. Thus, trauma has become a concept that transgresses disciplinary boundaries. Considering this, taboo topics such as rape and child sexual abuse started to be discussed in literature. Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye (1970) and Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina (1992) deal with the protagonists' complex traumas that are caused by child sexual abuse and other social, cultural and political factors. Both Morrison and Allison depict the shaming of their protagonists, Pecola and Bone, their mothers' negligence and their fathers' sexual abuse as the reasons for their traumas. Despite the similarity of their cases, their coping mechanisms and their responses to their traumas differ from each other. Accordingly, the possibility for healing and recovery is not alike. In The Bluest Eye, Pecola, who is a dark skinned African American girl, takes refuge in madness and realizes her ultimate wish of having blue eyes in her imaginary world, in turn, she refuses to become a part of the patriarchal order. She cannot heal; however, madness is not a sign of weakness or failure but an act of resistance and survival. In Bastard Out of Carolina, on the other hand, Bone tries to reconstruct her identity via regaining her control over her body by masturbating to her fantasies and listening to gospels, and revolts against the oppressive norms of patriarchal ideology by attaining a lesbian identity. Both characters present a possibility to reconcile with their traumatic experiences and act against the patriarchal society by using excessive ways of survival.
Feminist representations of the vulnerable self and vulnerable relationality in Idra Novey's Those Who Knew and Ways to Disappear
In her novels Those Who Knew (2018) and Ways to Disappear (2016), the American author Idra Novey depicts how vulnerable people of the twenty-first century have been subjected to multiple forms of political, social, cultural, economic, and gender-based oppression, and how all of these oppressions create a variety of struggles that render them invisible, fragile, and powerless because of deeply entrenched patriarchal practices and mindsets, all of which have had a vulnerable impact on each of the characters to varying degrees. Every single one of these traumatic occurrences, whether directly or indirectly, has affected the characters' entire lives as individuals and members of society. As that of the essential aspect in the formation of the weaknesses, helplessness, and fragility of the self and connection to the other, patriarchy is the primary cause of the abuses and wounds that lead to vulnerability. Idra Novey brings attention to patriarchal norms and practices while shedding light on vulnerable people in her novels Those Who Knew (2018), which addresses a group of people subjected to political oppression; and Ways to Disappear (2016), which portrays a group of individuals in search of a missing author. This thesis will examine how vulnerability arises in individual and relational selves as a result of violence, hegemonic masculinity, and an absence of ethical understanding, hence leaving them invisible, powerless, vulnerable, and dispossessed. This thesis will establish the context within which, from a feminist transformational perspective, the negative connotations of vulnerability will be deconstructed by examining the concepts of openness, passivity, dispossession, irresponsibility, otherness, and unethical practices on the self and relationships. Keywords: Vulnerability, Relationality, Idra Novey, Those Who Knew, Ways to Disappear
Masochism and art as a response to trauma: Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch
This study aims to examine masochism and art as a coping mechanism for trauma by using Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (2005) and The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (2013). In the scope of trauma studies, this thesis will analyze the characters, Oskar Schell and Theo Decker, who mourns for their beloved parents. This study bases on the unpleasure principle theory and regards art as dissociation. Both of them use masochism that drives from unpleasure principle as well as developing an emotional relationship between art and themselves so that they can understand and handle their traumatic experience and its effects. Key Words: trauma, masochism, art, dissociation
(Im)possibility of identity formation: Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and William Gibson's Neuromancer
With the evolving technology, our daily lives are changing extremely fast; the economy, knowledge, human connection and even emotions. As this technological era proceeds humans are straying away from humanity and turning into puppets of this said technology. William Gibson's Neuromancer and Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep both depict a dystopian world in which the technology is extremely advanced but instead of benefiting the society, this advancements turn into control tools for the government over the society. Both of these novels are a perfect criticism of how the present and future day technological advancements swallow the society, and how this is abused by the government in order to gain power over society. Initially Katherine Hayles's and Donna Haraway's cyborg and posthuman theories were used to analyze the (im)possibility of identity formation. This thesis claims that by portraying post-apocalyptic worlds, both novels address the collective fear of losing the ability of feeling in the face of rapid technological advancement and show that without emotions one cannot possess an identity. Since emotions define human beings, they play an important role in the identity formation process. In this respect, this thesis explores these novels by focusing on the protagonists' struggle with the technology used as a state power and control, and their strategies to form a liminal identity that can adapt to technological developments while preserving their human traits. They also offer ways to survive in a dystopian world by using technology in a beneficial rather than a harmful way. In other words, combining technological elements with human traits such as feeling, thinking and the ability to act ethically, both novels show that the humanity can only survive through adopting this liminal identity. Both novels through their ideas and their way of applying the elements of dystopia and posthuman; support the idea of a necessity combination of both posthuman and human identities in order for a chance of survival in the future.
Narrating mother-daughter relationships: A kleinian analysis of Joyce Carol Oates's later novels
The mother-daughter relationship has been a recurrent theme in Joyce Carol Oates's fiction, whose career spans a period of over fifty years. Three of her recent novels—I'll Take You There (2002),Missing Mom (2005), and Mudwoman (2012)—attest to the writer's sustained interest in placing the stories of the protagonists within the context of their complicated psychological connections with their mothers. Oates's novels gain added interest when read in the light of the Austrian British psychoanalyst Melanie Klein's object-relations theory, which posits that an infant's early relationship with his/her mother will bear an immense influence on his/her psychological life as an adult. According to Klein, an infant goes through two main developmental phases in the first year of life: "the paranoid-schizoid position" and "the depressive position." In the former, the infant perceives the mother in a fragmentary way, as a composite of the part-objects of "the good breast" (when his/her needs are satisfied) and the "bad breast" (when s/he feels frustrated). As s/he continues to work through the polar emotions of satisfaction and aggression, love and hatred through this stage, the infant gradually enters the second phase where s/he begins to perceive the mother as a whole object and develops more sophisticated emotions such as guilt: entertaining the notion that his/her own aggression might have caused the loss of "the good breast," s/he attempts "reparation," an emotional state that can also be observed in adults who mourn for their loved ones. While all of Oates's three recent novels are plotted around the common core of the daughters' struggles to come to terms with the loss of their mothers, this thesis argues, Oates introduces compelling variations to her representation of the mother-daughter relationship in each novel, variations that can best be understood through the insights provided by the Kleinian theory. The thesis discusses how these variations are reflected in the narrative technique of each novel as well.
Bellow's assimilated protagonists:The representation of Jewish American nessand identity in Saul Bellow's the Victim, Seize the Day, and Herzog
Jewish-Americanness is an overwhelming and recurrent themein Saul Bellow's fiction. Three of his novels—The Victim(1947), Seize the Day (1956), and Herzog (1964)— affirm the author's sustained interest in placing the stories of the protagonistswithin the context of their social and culturalin-betweenness.AsaLeventhal in The Victim, Tommy Wilhelm in Seize the Day, and Herzog in Herzog lack father figures,and they internalize American culture as they accept it as the moral authority.Yet they entrap themselves into their neurosis, which is brought about by their Jewish collective unconscious. Eventually they come to terms with their Jewish-American identity. In exploring the representation of the assimilation process of the three Bellovian protagonists, this thesis applies Sigmund Freud's super-ego formation process and Carl G. Jung's concept of the collective unconscious and rebirth. By doing so, this thesis initially demonstrates how Bellow's three protagonists, namely AsaLeventhal in The Victim, Tommy Wilhelm in Seize the Day, and Herzog in Herzog deny their father's authority and internalize American culture. Thereafter, the aim is to present how these three protagonists are under the control of their Jewish collective unconscious. Ultimately, they achieve self-awareness. As they assimilate themselves into American culture and also embrace their Jewish heritage, they are finally reborn and they come to terms with their Jewish-American identity. The Freudian concept of the super-ego provides the assimilation process of Bellow's protagonists in The Victim, Seize the Day and Herzog into the American culture by denying their father figure and internalizing the moral principles of American culture. Thus, the assimilated protagonists internalize the moral dictates of American culture that they accept as an authority, which have an impact on the development of their characteristics. Meanwhile, the Jungian concept of the collective unconscious provides compelling forces into the psychological trials the assimilated protagonists of Bellow undergo upon the loss of their Jewish ancestors in the Holocaust. Finally, the Jungian concept of rebirth provides the framework in which the representation ofBellow's assimilated protagonists become meaningful. As they observe death and are, then, able to accept life as it is, thereby are reborn. They embrace both the values of American culture and their Jewish heritage in such a way that they celebrate their hybrid identities. Keywords: Saul Bellow, The Victim, Seize the Day, Herzog, Jewish-American Identity
Bildungsroman'i yeniden yazmak: Jhumpa Lahiri'nin the Namesake ve The Lowland eserlerinin postkolonyal analizi
This study will analyze the cultural change and development of an identity in the novels of Indian-American author Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland and The Namesake, through exposing to an alien culture by immigration. The notion of dual identity, cultural colonialism, postcolonialism and the form of Bildungsroman will be discussed and analyzed in detail. The aim of this study is to underline that the concept of identity is not national or pre-given, and that it is an alterable and re-creatable notion through the cultural exchange and cultural differences. The cultural transformation and the development of identity of the first and second generation immigrants and the immigrant experience will be discussed in the light of Homi K. Bhabha's theories on identity, culture, cultural colonialism and the structure of Bildunsgroman which contributes to the notion of development as it depicts the life span of its protagonist.
A dialogic quest for identity: Coming to terms with the present through the past in Leslie Marmon Silko's Almanac Of The Dead and Gardens In The Dunes.
This study investigates Native Americans' quest for identity in two of Leslie Marmon Silko's novels, Almanac of the Dead (1991) and Gardens in the Dunes (1999). The cultural coexistence of white Americans and Native Americans leads to an awareness that the world is not the same in which Native Americans used to live. The changing world which is depicted as a consequence of the appearance of white Americans in both novels constructs one of the central themes of Almanac and Gardens. With the appearance of white Americans, Native Americans try to adjust to the changing world, in other words, the co-existence of the two cultures brings the question of identity. This thesis provides a comparative examination of the two novels in which the protagonists try to come to terms with their present through the past, since the past plays a significant role in the life of Native Americans who endeavor to adjust to the changing world. The analysis will be conducted in the light of M. M. Bakhtin's theory of dialogism, which is based on the discourse in novels. Bakhtin's theory defines the system of languages to point out the ideological centre in a novel, and the aim of this study is to underline the difference between the two cultures through their utterances.
A portrayal of the south in F. Scott Fitzgerald's short stories: From nostalgic idealism to critical skepticism
Each decade has a major author who captures the culture and spirit of the era and sets the literary context from which other prominent works emerge. For the 1920's it was Francis Scott Fitzgerald, the "social historian" of the "Jazz Age," a term Fitzgerald himself coined to describe the glitz and glamour of the Roaring 20s. Fitzgerald epitomized his generation with personal experiences; his characters became symbols of his generation and facet of American culture. Nevertheless, to remember Fitzgerald only as a spokesman of the Jazz Age would be to do injustice to many of his insightful other stories that reflect his keen interest in the Old South and its dying traditions. Despite being a Northern and a new generation writer, for Fitzgerald the south had a special meaning and place in his memory. His fascination with the South is due to nostalgia; gracious assets that are gone with the wind as he regarded the South as romantic and aristocratic. And thus, the loss of the romantic South in the face of new world ideals furthered the decay of American societal values and since he believed there was no hope for its betterment, the South could no longer become the redeeming force Fitzgerald once envisioned. So, his treatment of the Southern region in his short stories also changed and the once romantic and optimistic writer of the turn of the century turned into the very bitter and cynical social historian of the Jazz Age. From the very first to the last, his short stories that are based on his real life experiences, feelings, and the prominent people in his life manifest his assessments and sentiments, and in this dissertation, I aim to scrutinize his reflection of the South and what South represents, from its landscape to its belles and cavaliers, from its eloquent beauty to its gradual deterioration and devastation. Keywords: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda Sayre, Autobiografiction, South, North,Short Story, Jazz Age
Linguistically constructed worlds: A comparative analysis
Our lives are composed of big or small stories. People, who are born to these stories, unconsciously accept both the prevailing the "big stories" they are subjected to and the "small stories" they themselves tell as reality. This collectively accepted reality, which is constructed via language, is actually a composite of "big stories" told by the powerful elites. Since power shifts from one group to another through time, what is accepted as reality also changes historically, making the reality of one period falseness at another time. The fact that the ones who hold the power in their hands have changed throughout history results in the emergence and acceptance of different realities in different times. This dissertation aims at analyzing the processes and results of the engulfment of the small stories of the protagonists by the socially constructed big stories in the Canadian author, Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin and the Turkish novelist, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar's Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü (The Time Regulation Institute) against the narratives of these characters who finally manage to tell their stories, hence their own versions of reality. That both these novels underline the constructedness of reality and demonstrate the constant competition among different versions of these realities lies at the core of this dissertation. These novels indicate how those individuals who cannot cope with this competition disappear along with their stories. In this dissertation, the foregrounding of small stories in these two novels has been interpreted as an effort of raising awareness about many other small stories and hence realities.
The study of "Beloved" by Toni Morrison from the perspective of psychoanalytic approach
This critical study explores psychoanalysis as a form of literary criticsm on Beloved, a Plutzer prized novel by Toni Morrison. Key concepts of the psychoanalytic approach is overviewed through the lenses of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis; Jacques émile Lacan, the forerunner French psychoanalyst; Alfred Adler, one of the initiatives of the school of the psychoanalysis; and Julia Kristeva, a living representative of French psychoanalysts. This makes up the theoretical background for the thesis. The necessary information about the literary career of Toni Morrison and the plot summary of Beloved has been viewed as central to the textual analysis. The psychoanalytic theory is applied both to the author?s life and the novel in order to show the close relation between the psychoanalysis and the literary criticism. Finally, this study challenges drawing out some psychoanalytic elements in the form of teaching materials so as to illustrate how it is possible to read a novel through the psychoanalytic perspective.
Zora Neale Hurston's motherless heroines
Mother-daughter bonding and the importance of mothers in the development of the daughter?s personality, femininity, and sexuality have been one of the core themes and issues from ancient myths to modern psychoanalytic, feminist and literary criticism. Many pivotal psychoanalysts and feminists have been preoccupied with how the maternal figure determines, shapes and modifies the daughter?s psyche and personality. In their work not only the importance of this early attachment between mothers and daughters but also the significance of the quality of this relationship have been underscored since the daughter?s well-being, perception of self, sexuality, consciousness, and subjectivity are all consistent with her good and mutual emotional relationship with her mother. In this sense, what mother loss or emotional absence of the mother means to a daughter gains vital importance. Therefore, in many women?s writing, we often see a heroine who tries to recover the psychological wound caused by her mother?s death, abandonment, or inadequate mothering.Zora Neale Hurston, who is one of the prominent writers of Afro-American literature, also illustrates the psychological and emotional conflicts of heroines who are simultaneously struggling for their individual freedom and longing for the reunion with their mothers. Having lost her mother at the age of nine, Hurston felt the agony of her mother?s death. Although mother-daughter bonding is not a recurrent theme in her oeuvre, we can easily detect that in addition to her autobiography Dust Tracks on a Road (1942) there is an implicit manifestation of mother-daughter bonding with its all complexities and ambivalences in her novels Jonah?s Gourd Vine (1934), Their Eyes Were Watching God (1934), and Seraph on the Suwanee (1948). In the light of classic psychoanalysis, object-relations theories and feminist literary criticism, this thesis aims to explore the variations of mother-daughter bonding in these selected novels. The main emphasis goes to the elaboration of motherless heroines? psychological journey to gain an autonomous and individuated identity.Key Words: Mother-daughter bonding, psychoanalytic theory, object-relations theory, feminist literary criticism, Seraph on the Suwanee, Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Gertrude Stein's cognitive poetics: The deconstruction of self and time
Gertrude Stein, one of the prominent authors in American modernist literature, positions herself among the most important figures in the modernist canon in the transition period from the nineteenth century to the twentieth century. She establishes her literary approach by arguing that the twentieth century literature should develop in a different direction. This approach mainly includes the rupture from the patriarchal conventions and the traditional literary methods of the nineteenth century. In this dissertation, the author?s two autobiographies, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas and Everybody?s Autobiography, and her magnum opus, The Making of Americans, are addressed within this framework and examined in terms of object relations theory.The prominent issue in Gertrude Stein?s effort to form an innovative writing is her attempt at relating and defining herself in relation to writing. The position of writing in the the author?s life is examined by focusing on her effort in terms of D.W. Winnicott?s concepts of ?transitional objects? and ?potential spaces?. After questioning the importance of the literary searches in the formation of true self, how this affects the experimental structure of Gertrude Stein?s novel is discussed.In the dissertation, the past histories taking place in the author?s life and affecting her identity as an author it is focused on while examining the autobiographies,. After discussing how the sense of temporality and selfhood is formed and goes under continuous transformation in terms of the relation with other selves within the framework of object relations theory, the reflections of these issues in The Making of Americans are examined.