A psychoanalytic approach to works of children literature works (examples of Roald Dahl's children books)

Psychoanalysis, which became a science with the influence of Sigmund Freud in the twentieth century, has a great place in the criticism of art-literary works. Freud found a tight relationship between the artist's act of creation and the neurosis, and tried to determine the role of the subconscious in creation. Freud likens creativity to daydreams; argued that an old desire, unsatisfied desires, and motives, that did not find the opportunity to realize itself, sought satisfaction in the imaginary world. In this respect, literary works are concrete documents that reflect the day dreams of their creators. Jacques Lacan, one of the leading names in contemporary psychoanalysis, says that the unconscious is structured like a language. Lacan re-read the unconscious formations that Freud pointed out (such as dreams, slips of the tongue, jokes, hysterical and obsessive symptoms) with modern linguistics tools created by Ferdinand de Saussure, especially the concept of signe; gave psychoanalysis a new perspective. Within the scope of the study, Roald Dahl's translated children's literature works were interpreted and analyzed within the framework of Freud and Lacan's psychoanalytic theory. Roald Dahl's role in creating the subconscious was determined in the study, and the operability of subconscious-unconscious elements in the works was evaluated. Considering that there is an unconscious fantasy in the essence of the literary work, the effect of the messages embellished with unconscious elements on the child reader is examined; linguistic discourses and symbols in the works are evaluated. According to the findings of the study, it was observed that Dahl's traumatic memories in his childhood also affected his literary life. Images and certain themes that are repeated within the basic fiction of Dahl's works point to a central "meaning" structurally. The author's escape from the brutality and frightening of the symbolic order to another realm (fiction) expresses the role of the subconscious in creation.