Levinasçı bir yolculuk: The Ambassadors ve The Talented Mr. Ripley'deki başkası olmayı arzulama; Baskı ve umutsuz uyanışlar

This thesis examines two different periods and authors of American literature. One of them is Henry James, the representative of Modern American Literature, and the second one is Patricia Highsmith who is a writer of American literature Post-World War II. Although these two periods and writers do not seem to be very relevant to each other at first glance, the point that enables them to be examined together in this study is the motivation of the characters they create and the non-traditional sexual identities. In both Henry James's The Ambassadors (1903) and Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955), there is the desire to fetch "the wayward sons" from Europe, where they have left to explore. This will be done by Lewis Lambert Strether and Tom Ripley, the two main heroes sent to Europe as ambassadors. The ethical perspective of Emmanuel Levinas; Levinasian concepts such as directedness towards the other person and encounter with the face of other will constitute the theoretical basis for the focal arguments of this study. On the other hand, Queer Theory will serve as the key to interpreting these works because the implicit and suppressed desire for individuals of the same sex will play a stimulating role in the ethical or unethical behavior of the characters discussed here. The two novels chosen in this thesis are suitable for queer interpretation by their content and the contrast between them can be seen in terms of how the concept of ethics reflects on the behavior.