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İlköğretim okulu dördüncü sınıfta İngilizce derslerinin planlanması ve uygulanmasına ilişkin bir değerlendirme (Elazığ ili örneği)
IV ABSTRACT Master's Thesis Aynur YÜKSEL AN EVALUATION OF ENGLİSH TEACHİNG PROGRAMME AND IMPLEMENTATIONS IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS (4TH GRADE) (ELAZI? SAMPLE) HRAT UNIVERSITY THE INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT 2001, Page 100 This thesis presents and discusses the present implementation of the English classes in the 4th grade in primary schools. In this respect, the thesis was organised under different concerns considering the status of the teachers teaching English to 4th graders; the programme stated by the Ministry of Education; application of the programme in the 4th grade; general views of the teachers about the programme and the teaching environment, methodology and the attitudes of the students towards English classes respectively. Additionally, the applications in the classroom setting were presented. Finally, the techniques, methods, classroom activities, the teaching aids and activities that are assigned to the students were analysed. The population was limited to 64 teachers teaching English to 4th graders in primary schools. The questionnaire was developed by the researcher. The analysis presented that children exhibit a positive attitude towards English. However, the teachers teaching in primary schools who were novice teachers were trained in different majors. The results of this study revealed that the number of teaching hours were not sufficient and the classes were over -crowded. The programme was stated to be, more or less, applicable to the classroom setting. Ultimately, more teaching aids and materials were required to establish a sound teaching environment. All the results suggested that new English Education programmes were required to provide qualified English teachers. The forthcoming teachers should be trained to teach English, especially, to children. For the currently employed teachers, the Ministry of Education should organise seminars or in-service training programmes. Though the programme for the 4th grades seemed adequate, studies should be carried out to develop a more sufficient programme and provide the continuity of the programmes in different grades. The teaching hours should be increased and the size of the classes should be decreased. The teachers should be provided with an opportunity to arrange their classes to achieve the best teaching environment. Finally, the Ministry of Education should provide the schools with teaching aids and teaching materials. Key words: Basic Education Schools, English teaching.
The problem of otherness in George Eliot's The Mill on The Floss, Silas Marner, and Middlemarch
This thesis examines how societal contradictions shape identity and otherness in the Victorian era, focusing on George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, and Middlemarch. Drawing on Julia Kristeva's feminist theoretical framework, especially her concepts of abjection and melancholia, the study explores the profound impact of the Industrial Revolution and urbanization on identity construction. Mikhail Bakhtin's theories of heteroglossia, dialogism, and the carnivalesque provide a complementary social and linguistic perspective to Kristeva's psychoanalytic approach, offering insights into identity and marginalization. In The Mill on the Floss, Maggie Tulliver's family dynamics, gender dilemmas, and societal expectations are analyzed through Kristeva's semiotic and symbolic theories, Bakhtin's dialogism, and the carnivalesque. In Silas Marner, strangeness is explored through the application of Kristeva's theory of abjection to Silas's alienation and identity transformation, framed by Bakhtin's concepts of dialogism and heteroglossia. Finally, Dorothea Brooke's identity formation, desires, and rebellion are explored in Middlemarch, within the social constraints of her time, highlighting Kristeva's melancholia, abjection, and strangeness theories. Bakhtin's theories of dialogism and heteroglossia are employed to examine Dorothea's struggle with established gender roles. This thesis underscores how Eliot's narratives mirror societal conflicts, providing a critical framework for analyzing identity, gender, and otherness. By integrating Kristevan psychoanalysis with Bakhtinian dialogism, it offers insight into Eliot's contributions to the discourse on societal change and individual formation.
A lacanian reading of Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit and Zadie Smith's White Teeth
This study aims to examine two contemporary British novels, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson and White Teeth by Zadie Smith from the perspective of Lacanian psychoanalysis. The self-discovery processes of the female characters in both novels render it possible to carry out this study in the light of Lacan's psychoanalytic criticism. In this respect, Jeanette, the protagonist, from Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Irie, one of the major characters, from White Teeth are to be analysed within the framework of Lacan's key concepts: the Mirror Stage, unconscious desire, the theory of sexuation, and his three Orders called the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real. Within their Lacanian journeys of self-discovery, both Jeanette and Irie undergo similar conflicts and challenges in the course of their identity formation. Living through complex familial relationships and romantic entanglements, both female characters struggle to achieve their desired identities in spite of the constraints imposed by their respective symbolic discourses. While Jeanette explores her sexual identity as a lesbian woman despite her strictly religious environment, Irie discovers her racial identity as a mixed-race woman in a multicultural environment predominantly shaped by white British culture. Hence, for this study, these two young women's individual experiences as Lacanian subjects in different symbolic discourses are considered distinctive examples to reveal the Lacanian psychological identity construction process.
Colonization of woman in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Christina Dalcher's Vox
This thesis examines two contemporary dystopian novels, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and Vox by Christina Dalcher, from a feminist perspective, focusing on the systemic strategies that patriarchal ideologies employ to reinforce dominance and suppress female autonomy. Both novels depict societies in which oppressive regimes strengthen institutionalized patriarchal ideology through education, religion, language control, constructed gender roles, distinguished spheres, and panoptic surveillance to maintain the dominant ideology. Furthermore, this study investigates how these means are used to objectify, commodify, silence, control, and confine women to the private sphere, aligning with Simone de Beauvoir's concept of women as the 'second sex'. It also examines how female identity is defined and constructed by patriarchal structures that reshape gender roles, positioning women as silent, obedient, and submissive figures. Women's autonomy is systematically erased and undermined through political and theological strategies of subjugation, with both texts illustrating how such oppression is normalized under ideological extremism. Subjected to the political and religious control of patriarchy, women struggle to retain their autonomy. The Handmaid's Tale and Vox reveal the colonization of women's bodies, identities, and voices under oppressive patriarchal authorities. The theme of resistance, explicitly or subtly, is also portrayed throughout this thesis, as the novels under discussion serve as cautionary tales that underscore the dangers of patriarchal control and the silencing of women. Ultimately, this thesis highlights the importance of awareness of women's suppression and calls attention to the need to question and resist dominant ideologies that reduce women to subordinate identities, advocating for the recognition of women as autonomous and equal individuals.
Parody of the academy in the novels of david lodge and malcolm bradbury
This thesis explores a comparison of two of the principal craftsmen of Modern BritishFiction, David Lodge and Malcolm Bradbury, whose works, as well as their lives, areimmensely interrelated and dialogic. My attention is devoted especially to the two authors'differing deployment of postmodernism and post-structuralist theory, as well as variants ofmore traditional devices such as parody, satire, and double imagery in a discourse aimed atcriticizing the academy by being seriously funny. I also underline both authors? contributioninto the academic novel with their representative works while keeping the development thissub-genre as a background to this study and analysing it according to the perceptions ofElaine Showalter in Faculty Towers: The Academic Novel and Its Discontents (2005).This study takes into consideration four novels by David Lodge: (The Picturegoers(1960), The British Museum is Falling Down (1965), Changing Places (1975), and SmallWorld (1984)) and three novels by Malcolm Bradbury namely Eating People is Wrong(1959), Stepping Westward (1965), The History Man (1975), and a novella titled Mensonge:My Strange Quest for Structuralism?s Hidden Hero (1987). During the course of the study, Iconsult and refer to various literary criticisms written by both authors as well as other theoriesof the major critics of literary theory but my utmost attention is on Mikhail Bakhtin?sconception of parody with means of having ?dualistic characteristics? that is directly linkedwith his idea of ?Carnival?.In my comparison of these two equally talented craftsmen, I concentrate on two mainpoints. My first point is to analyse both authors? treatment of the academy through theirimaginary characters that are mainly shaped as academics, who are pictured in an endlessquest for recognition and power. My second point is an attempt to reply Amanda Craig?swondering in her review of David Lodge?s Consciousness and the Novel (2002), ? ? why[David Lodge], unlike Bradbury, has not been knighted yet for his services to literature [for]he is the much better critic and novelist? (2).
The Fate of Innocence and Independence in the Corrupt European Society: A Study of Henry James's American Girls in Daisy Miller, The Portrait of a Lady, and The Wings of The Dove
In this thesis, in one novella and two novels by Henry James, namely Daisy Miller, ThePortrait of a Lady, and The Wings of the Dove, the innocent and the independent Americangirl?s predicament against conventional, patriarchal, and conservative Europe society of thelate nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, her free will against her fate, herimaginative desire, her love relations, and her subject position in the marriage institution arestudied.In this context, The American woman?s dilemma in the patriarchal processes of the corruptedEurope will be foregrounded in .Daisy Miller, The Portrait of a Lady, and The Wings of theDove by the readings of the feminist theoreticians of the period.
A narrative of the life of Mrs. Charlotte Charke and the eighteenth century English society
This thesis seeks to display the struggles of the women of eighteenth century England to have a profession, a self and a life of their own. Charlotte Charke?s autobiography portrays these problems in ways which are on the one hand very contemporary (depicting the psychology and the socio-cultural and economic concerns of its writer), on the other very traditional and dated since it follows the eighteenth century male autobiographical writing practices, reflecting the artistic, religious, class and sexual biases of its age. Accordingly, the thesis first discusses the important aspects of autobiographical writing. It is followed by a brief panorama of the autobiographical practices from its origins till the eighteenth century. Then, it seeks to examine the ways in which the socio-cultural events of mid-eighteenth century have changed Charke?s life and contributed to her self-fashioning and the self we find in her autobiography. The changes that are mentioned and discussed are: a redefinition of the middle class and middle class consciousness, the value given to arts and letters, the decline of royal patronage, how bookseller-publishers replace the aristocracy in financing literary productions, the way women are perceived in eighteenth century English society, the split between the public and private spheres, and the rising levels of literacy and its effects on the education of women. By giving such a lengthy discussion of the eighteenth century English society, the thesis hopes to highlight the significance of Charlotte Charke?s autobiography in displaying the struggles of the women of her society to have a respectable self and a profession through which they can survive.
Self,intention and confession in "confessions","deliverance from error" and"circumfession"
The central concern of this thesis is to explore the different and similar ways in which three self writers (Augustine, Ghazali and Derrida), who lived in different times in history and belong to different religious traditions tackle the problems of ?self portrayal? and ?truth? in their confessional works: Confessions (397-398), Deliverance from Error (1090-1100) and Circumfession (1989-1990). The life stories seek to display the inner world and the intellectual concerns of their authors. Since the writers construct their stories on or around their respective belief systems and the role their beliefs play in the way they conceive of themselves, Christian, Sufi and Jewish mysticisms are discussed in a separate chapter of the thesis. In the chapters focusing on the texts of the authors, the similarities but mainly the differences in the way each writer approaches ?religion?, ?truth? and ?world? are discussed. The chapter on the Confessions analyzes Augustine?s self portrayal in the context of Augustine?s intentions and his commitment to Christianity. Here, the significance of God?s grace and other Christian dogma for Augustine are studied with references to the text. In the section on Ghazali?s Deliverance from Error discussions concentrate on the performative nature of Ghazali?s writing and the way his intention erases the private self of the writer and gives the readers an account of the struggles of a Sufi believer on the way to Truth. Derrida?s Circumfession is shown to be a multilayer text in which Augustine?s Confessions, Bennington?s Derridabase, Derrida?s own interpretations of these texts and his own life as a text are written and rewritten as supplements of one another.
Magical realism in Toni Morrison's Beloved and Song of Solomon
This thesis examines magical realism in literature and its reflections on Toni Morrison?s two novels Beloved and Song of Solomon. As an African-American writer whose aim is to represent the reality of black people in America, Morrison not only narrates the realistic events and people but also ghosts, magical characters and extraordinary events. Combining rational stories that are considered as the reflections of her American heritage and magical ones that are derived from her African heritage, the author narrates the reality of African-Americans from different aspects.In the first part of the thesis the history and meaning of magical realism is explored. Then the movement is compared with other literary movements such as; realism, postmodernism, surrealism and the fantastic. The second part seeks to prove that there are magical realist elements in Morrison?s novels. In order to display the realistic events that have been recorded or experienced and the supernatural characters, events and myths in Morrison?s novels, the books are observed in details. Moreover, the narration of Morrison and the important themes of her novels are also emphasized.Finally, this thesis explains how and why Morrison uses magical realism in her two novels and suggests that through magical realism the writer portrays the expanded reality of African-Americans that is not only realistic but also magical.
Zamyatin, Huxley, and Orwell: Utopian ideals and dystopian worlds
The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the transformation of utopian dream to dystopian reality through an analysis of Yevgeny Zamyatin?s We (1921), Aldous Huxley?s Brave New World (1932) and George Orwell?s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). Zamyatin, Huxley and Orwell present a prophetic vision to make a warning against a future totalitarian dictatorship by displaying the desperate mood of the protagonist who struggles to preserve his identity and individuality yet ultimately fails in his attempt.The thesis begins with the analysis of utopian ideals which are based on equality and solidarity among people in the illuminating light of Thomas More?s Utopia. For this purpose, the Introduction part elucidates utopia and utopian characteristics as a literary genre starting with More?s Utopia with the help of the ideas of critics. Then, it seeks to discuss the characteristics of utopian and dystopian fiction and how utopian ideals are changed. In the first, second and third chapters the eclipse of the utopian ideals is introduced in three dystopian novels; We, Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four. These chapters discuss how utopian ideal of solidarity is replaced with uniformity of individuals to turn them into identical citizens, who are under constant gaze of an omniscient and omnipotent ruler. So they depart from individualism and freedom. The future totalitarian states in these three novels control the consciousness and imagination of man through manipulating a highly developed technology for surveillance and torture. In these technological worlds, people are designed to serve the demands of the state through a strict control of their genetic qualities. The dystopian character who does not have an identity is desperate for his individuality and emotions. Moreover, restriction on language and distortion of both history and literature add more to this despair and pessimistic mood of the dystopia. The themes which can be seen as utopian ideals in More?s Utopia are reversed, with dystopian reality and transformed into a dark vision through the annihilation of imagination and emotions in We, Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four.This dissertation is therefore primarily organized around these topics, to show that utopia and dystopia mingle with each other and it will demonstrate and exemplify that eradication of emotions, imagination and individuality in utopias of these three authors? works merely create dystopian dark worlds.
Samuel Beckett: A postmodern playwright of silence and negation
In this study, Samuel Beckett?s four plays, Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Krapp?s Last Tape and Not I, will be analyzed with a view to highlighting Beckett?s major concerns as a postmodern playwright. These plays were chosen on the grounds that they comprise the main themes of Beckett?s drama and illustrate how he subverts the norms and conventions of traditional drama in order to convey the plight of the modern man in a meaningless world that is devoid of stable values and that therefore resists any traditional interpretations. An in-depth analysis of Company and Stirrings Still will also be offered as these two particular prose works, written in the later period of Beckett?s career, shed light on his previous plays and fictional writings by `revisiting? them in numerous references and allusions.
Wilde against Victorian England
This work seeks to display Wilde?s art, aesthetic and moral principles and the practice of these concepts in The Picture of Dorian Gray as well as in his play The Importance of Being Earnest. Wilde?s art and morality cannot be separated and have to be assessed together to understand his approach to art and morality clearly. In this study, Wilde?s art, aesthetics and moral vision are discussed in relation to the Victorian period and are depicted as a protest to the aesthetic and moral views of the period. Evaluation of Wilde?s moral vision and aesthetics in this respect illuminates his discussion of The Picture of Dorian Gray and provides a useful approach to the interpretation of The Importance of Being Earnest. In accordance with this target, the depiction of the social dynamics of the Victorian Era is followed by a brief discussion of Victorian moral values, which developed under the influence of this social structure. Later Wilde?s moral principles that appeared as the antithesis of Victorian morality are assessed and then prior to the literary exploration of Wilde, in order to contextualise him in the period, the observation of Victorian literature is included in the discussion. Subsequently, Wilde?s art and aesthetics, which developed in this period, are analyzed bearing his relationship to aesthetic and decadent traditions in mind. Later on, the aesthetic and moral values he adopted in The Picture of Dorian Gray and in The Importance of Being Earnest are analyzed as a rejection of Victorian moral and aesthetic values; his refusal of conventional Victorian values is investigated by utilizing details from his works as a source for the argument.
Woman and love in medieval courtly literature: The real and the fictional
The purpose of this study is to examine the formal and thematic interaction of the poetry of medieval Arabs with Western literature through the Troubadour poets in France. In the love poetry of Arabs, where divine love is the central theme, the poet?s muse is sometimes described as an unattainable divine being, sometimes as a very beautiful woman with earthly qualities. This attitude to woman observed in the poems of Arab writers has had a significant influence, firstly on the Troubadour poets of Southern France, then through the French and the Italian writers on the English. In tracing this influence the present study also tries to draw attention on the paradoxes and dilemmas inherent in the presentation of courtly love and the image of the woman which arise from the unrealistic conditions of life in medieval Europe. In medieval Christian societies ?woman? was seen either as Eve, the temptress to be avoided by men or as Virgin Mary, the unreal, unattainable noble and virgin lady who could not be a wife and a beloved but a divinity to be adored. The present study argues that the courtly love poetry that had its sources in Arabic and Troubadour poems foregrounds the irreconcilability of fact and fiction concerning the medieval European man?s approach to the concepts of love and the ?woman?.In building this argument the study will analyze first the love poetry of three early medieval Arab poets namely: Ibn Hazm, Ibn Quzman and Ibn Arabi, who are considered the leading figures of Arabic literature; and then The Knight?s Tale of Geoffrey Chaucer and Le Morte Darthur of Thomas Malory as the two most well-known chivalric love romances of British medieval literature.
Failure of American dream in Arthur Miller's plays
The purpose of this study is to portray the failure of the American dream as represented in Arthur Miller?s plays. The promises of the American dream render it attractive for many people. Throughout history, the United States has been conceived as a country that provides economic, social and political welfare to all her citizens. Accordingly, people living in the United States would reach high economic, social and political standards by working hard and making use of proper opportunities. While the reality of that dream is far more complicated, expectations and hopes have attracted immigrants from all over the world. However, people who chase after this dream mostly witnessed its illusory side. Economically they have perished in the capitalist system; socially they have lost their identity; and politically they have witnessed the lack of freedom of opinion and speech. For that reason, the failure of the American dream has been criticized and discussed by many historians and writers. Arthur Miller is one of the passionate advocates who depicts the failure of the American dream in his plays. This thesis attempts to trace Arthur Miller?s engagement with the American dream in his plays, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and A View from the Bridge. Although economic, political and social dimensions of the problem are necessarily intermingled, the thesis will concentrate on the economic dimension in Death of a Salesman, political dimension in The Crucible, and social dimension in A View from the Bridge.
Deconstruction of conventional gender and identity through rewriting in Jeanette Winterson's Sexing the Cherry
The purpose of this study is to examine the gender issues in rewriting in Jeanette Winterson's Sexing the Cherry. Rewriting is the act of reexamining, rewording, reconceptualizing the classics with a certain perspective in contemporary world. In literary history, there are a lot of examples for rewriting and the writers all have different purposes in their acts. Political, postcolonial and feminist rewritings are the most popular techniques to be employed by writers. Among these, feminist rewriting with its gender and identity concerns can be taken as the most popular since it deals with both the physicality and the psychology of the self. In general, the inferior position of women in a patriarchal society is criticized in feminist theory. In order to achieve such criticism, rewriters like Winterson use the classics to give a different perspective and place to the women in society. In building up this argument, the concept of rewriting will be explained in detail in the light of the theories of Saussure, Kristeva and Bakhtin. After giving the theoretical background of rewriting, this thesis will specifically focus upon the gender issues in rewriting under the guidance of the feminist theory. Along with the theoretical discussion, Jeanette Winterson's Sexing the Cherry which is the rewritten version of the popular German fairy tale the Twelve Dancing Princesses will be examined in depth.
An analysis of two translations of Mrs. Dalloway into Turkish
This study focuses on the Turkish translations of the work entitled Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf who is a world literature author. Woolf used in her novel Mrs. Dalloway the stream of conciouness technique for the first time. This precious novel has been translated into Turkish twice. In this study, the aim will be to analyze these translations comparatively which are today available in the bookshelves of the bookstores in Turkey. The first part of this study will focus on analyzing this technique in Mrs. Dalloway. The second part of the study will analyze both translations of Mrs. Dalloway with regards to the concept of "retranslation". The third part of the study will attempt to answer the question of where the retranslation of Mrs. Dalloway (Ilknur Ozdemir's Translation) is situated in the target literary; at "polysystem" according to Even Zohar's Polysystem Theory. The last part of the study will aim to analyze the decision that the translators took during the translation process within the framework of Toury's translational norms. The conclusion will attempt to position the retranslation of Mrs. Dalloway from Ilknur Ozdemir in today's Turkish literary system and analyze the different translations of Tomris Uyar and Ilknur Ozdemir.
The image of Jews in British novel The case of Oliver Twist and Our Mutual Friend, Ulysses and The Finkler Question
This study aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the representation of Jewish characters in English literature by exploring the historical and conceptual development of antisemitism. The research delves into how antisemitism evolved from religious prejudice to biological and racial ideologies, tracing its transformation from ancient times to the modern era. The analysis focuses on Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist and Our Mutual Friend, James Joyce's Ulysses, and Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question. These literary works are examined to uncover how Jewish characters were perceived by society and how these perceptions were shaped by factors such as economic crises, national identity debates, and cultural shifts of their respective periods. Furthermore, the study investigates how antisemitism transitioned from a religious discourse to racist ideologies in the 19th century and evaluates its reflections in literature. By examining these representations, the research sheds light on how antisemitism persists through literature and its implications for cultural memory and societal attitudes.
Implementing the European language passport standards into the advanced reading course at the elt department,Gazi University
This thesis aims at developing a syllabus for the Advanced Reading course at GaziUniversity English Language Teaching Department according to the standards defined in`European Language Passport? which is designed by the Council of Europe.Turkey has been a member of the Council of Europe and now is a candidate memberof the European Union. As a result, the education system in Turkey has been underreconstruction; the Ministry of Education and Council of Higher Education are offeringcertain changes and reforms in the current curricula, including primary, secondary and alsohigher education curricula. As for Foreign Language Education, the definitions in theCommon European Framework of Reference for Languages are taken into consideration sothat language teaching policies in Turkey will be parallel to those of other European countries.Considering these latest trends, the standards defined in the Common European Frameworkshould be implemented in the syllabuses of foreign language teaching in education faculties.In order to achieve this, the present syllabus for the Advanced Reading course is re-designed. First a checklist was prepared so as to determine the topics that the students areinterested in. Then a 12-unit syllabus is designed according to the scales offered by the CEF.While designing the syllabus, language strategies were treated as a major concern togetherwith tasks and text types. Communicative tasks were designed, for reading skill should beintegrated with speaking, listening and writing skills.Key words: Common European Framework, teacher training, teacher education, reading skill,syllabus design.
The factors that affect the english instructors' motivation: A case study at Hacettepe University the school of foreign languages department of basic English
The aim of this study is to find out the factors that affect the motivation of the English instructors who are currently employed at the School of Foreign Languages, Department of Basic English, Hacettepe University. To achieve this aim, a questionnaire was used as a data collection instrument. Before administering the questionnaire to the instructors, the pilot study was done to see the reliability of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was applied to 100 instructors at the preparatory school. The analysis and interpretation of the questionnaire were done by descriptive analysis, t-test and ANOVA. The analysis of the data collected has indicated that the instructors are reasonably motivated. Approval by colleagues and administrators, involvement in decision-making but to some extent, autonomy in the class, the success of the students are the intrinsic rewards which outweigh the extrinsic motivators such as, salary, job security, teaching loads, physical condition. The first chapter gives a general background to the study, states its aim and makes some assumptions about it and also it defines the limitations. The second chapter deals with the definition of motivation and its types. Also, it gives information about teacher motivation. In chapter three, methods of data collection and the data collection device have been discussed. The analysis and interpretation of the questionnaire is studied in chapter four. The summary, conclusion and suggestions have been given in chapter five.
Attitudes towards testing speaking at Gazi University Preparatory School of English and suggested tests
Speaking is an important part of language learning. However, generally it isnot integrated in curricula of most schools, and hence it is not focused on in classes.A language is a whole and has components each of which is important and necessarywhile one is learning a foreign language. Speaking is one of the components whichshould not be neglected. Otherwise, the process of learning a foreign language willnot be complete.This study serves to demonstrate whether speaking is given the necessaryemphasis at Gazi University Preparatory School of English. This is realized throughthe questionnaires given to both the instructors and students at prep school. Theresults yield that grammar, reading and vocabulary are the skills that are mostlyemphasized whereas the students want speaking skills to be given the most weight inclass.Afterwards, speaking tests are prepared in line with the coursebook `CuttingEdge? used at prep school. Three classes took the test. The teachers of these classesalso participated in the test as raters. The students who took the test and theirteachers were delivered questionnaires in order to get feedback about the givenspeaking test. Having completed the data collection process, all the questionnairesare analyzed and the results were interpreted. The analysis of the questionnairesillustrate that both the instructors and the students take positive attitudes towards thespeaking test conducted. Moreover, they think that a speaking course and speakingtests should be a part of the curriculum of prep school.To sum up, the thesis is proved to be successful in demonstrating the lack ofemphasis on speaking in class at prep school. The instructors and the students?positive attitudes towards the speaking tests comprise the most significant result ofthe questionnaires applied after the test, which indicates the necessity and usefulnessof a speaking course and speaking tests at Gazi University Prep School.
An Improved syllabus for engineering preparatory classes of Gazi University
110 ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to re-form a new syllabus which is in parallel to the existing one in order to help the engineering students in the Preparatory School of Gazi University to overcome the difficulties that they may encounter later during those faculty courses in their field of study which are taught in English. To realize this aim, the needs of the students at the Faculty of Engineering have been specified. The interpretation of the needs analysis have shown that after the Preparatory School, some academic skills will be needed by the engineering students to succeed in and to follow a number of their courses in their field of study taught in English. Thus, the academic skills such as note-taking, summarizing, writing a report, reading for specific information and the like have been integrated within the existing Preparatory Class syllabus. The first chapter gives a general background to the study and states its aim and the scope and makes some assumptions about it. The second chapter deals with the definitions of the terms 'syllabus' and 'curriculum'. Also, the types of and shapes of syllabuses have been summarized. In chapter three the present system has been discussed. The student's questionnaire and the teacher interview have been analyzed and interpreted in chapter four. The suggested syllabus has been presented in chapter five. In the sixth chapter a brief summary has been given.
Alterity and hybridity in Bola Agbaje's Gone Too Far! and Caryl Churchill's A Number
This study evaluates the life and works of Caryl Churchill and Bola Agbaje, two of the most important female playwrights of the Contemporary British Theatre. In this dissertation, Agbaje's comedy, Gone Too Far! and Churchill's science fiction, A Number are critically examined for the concepts of alterity and hybridity. The first part of the thesis traces what alterity and hybridity are and how they are defined in different contexts. Various definitions of the two concepts are introduced in the light of some prominent philosophers' and critics' views. Gone Too Far! is an autobiographical play created by Agbaje depending on her personal experiences. Her characters struggle with the challenges of being black and immigrants in multicultural Britain. Agbaje shows this problem through the identity conflicts between black teenagers of different ethnic backgrounds. The issue of alterity arises both because of prejudices, racist thoughts and stereotypes, as well as the fact that characters do not embrace their own otherness, that is, their ethnic identity. What they need to overcome the issue is to build a hybrid identity and to live in harmony by having respect for the differences of the others. In A Number, the concept of alterity is a stand-out factor because the characters seek for originality as a result of cloning, even though they have different personality traits. Any efforts to build a self-centred identity negatively affect the relationship between "the self" and "the other." By shedding light on a future where hyperreality occurs as a result of the hybridization of reality and artificiality, Churchill highlights that it is important to build an identity by awareness of differences and similarities.
A heroine in-between: Forging fluid gender roles
This study broadly examined the representation of gender performativity and fluid gender roles of a young female adolescent in the oppressive and patriarchal mindset of a dystopian society in Suzanne Collins's trilogy: The Hunger Games (2008), Catching Fire (2009) and Mockingjay (2010). Using feminism as a critical framework, it referred to several influential figures of the second and the third wave feminist movements such as Kate Millett, Simone de Beauvoir, Adrienne Rich, Judith Butler and R.W. Connell in order to analyze the young protagonist of the trilogy as a powerful female figure who manages to empower and liberate herself, along with her society, in the end of her story of survival. Under the monitor of the ideology which encourages patriarchal values by defining and policing traditional gender roles, she metamorphoses into an autonomous, powerful feminist heroine who rejects the social and traditional gender roles tailored for her, and liberates herself as an empowered woman, thus becoming a figurehead of social change. As an androgynous figure, she continually challenges and transgresses gender boundaries defiantly navigating between male and female performances, which enable her to construct her own role and identity as a free agent.
A wonderful carnival: An analysis of Lewis Carroll's Alice books as carnivalized Menippean satires
This study has analyzed Lewis Carroll's two Alice books, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1871) from the standpoint of Menippean tradition and Mikhail Bakhtin's carnival theory. Both Menippean satires and carnival spirit propose a subversive upending of existing social order. The Alice books use Menippean genre characteristics to disrupt established literary traditions while carnival acts and images in the books revert the cultural and social structures of Victorian England. Carroll achieves these reversals through subversive, yet humorous carnivalesque practices such as decrownings, parodies, and employment of grotesque imagery. Menippean adventure plot and the dream frame aid in the creation of carnivalesque worlds that offer an alternative to the authoritative Victorian world order. Carroll utilizes these traditions to humorously parody Victorian ideas of propriety and etiquette, as well as Victorian education. At the end of each adventure, Alice rejects the authority figures of these alternate worlds and undergoes mental maturation in the process. Taking the Menippean qualities and carnivalesque acts and imagery in these works into consideration, the study concludes that Alice books are Menippean satires that are infused with carnival spirit.
Woman's alternative refuge far from the earth: Woman on the Edge of Time and The View from Here
Ecofeminism upholds equality among all living species while it acutely objects to the subjugation of woman along with nature. It discusses the double exploitation of woman and nature caused by patriarchy. In Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time, the protagonist Connie finds herself in a utopic future world called Mattapoisett after being institutionalized. Mattapoisett becomes Connie's comfort zone where she comes to a realization about her self. Besides, it presents an ecologist world where people appreciate and protect nature, animals, and human rights perfectly, contradicting the world Connie lives in at present. Analogically, in Lynne Hinton's The View from Here, nature becomes a shelter for Kate, the protagonist, where she looks over her life and the inequities she has encountered. Living in a tree, Kate realizes that she is more peaceful there with nonhuman beings. By shedding light on the characters' lives in both novels, this thesis aims to discuss Piercy's and Hinton's works from an ecofeminist perspective.
Archetypes and the process of individuation: A Jungian reading of Pamuk's the New Life and Joyce's a portrait of the artist as a young man
Carl Gustav Jung, the founder of analytical psychology, calls the psychological development of human beings the individuation process: a journey towards wholeness and the synthesis of opposites. Jung's individuation process takes place through the manifestation and acceptance of archetypes of a universal collective unconscious found in all humans. Orhan Pamuk's postmodern novel The New Life, published in 1994, is about the journey of Osman, a university student. Osman's journey begins with the influence of the book he is reading. Similarly, Joyce's modern work A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, published in 1916, chronicles Stephen Dedalus' journey from childhood to adulthood. This thesis analyzes the individuation processes of both characters and their experiences with the archetypes of "anima", "shadow", "child", "persona" and "self" by juxtaposing the journey of Osman and Stephen within the framework of Carl Gustav Jung's analytical psychology.
Alan Ayckbourn'un komedisi: Komedinin geleneksel kaidelerini benimseyip, komediyi füturizm, fars ve bilim kurgu ile güncellemek
As a comic tragedian of modern theatre, Alan Ayckbourn has produced eighty-four full-length plays, as well as numerous other playlets, revues, and adaptations. Walking a fine line between comedy and tragedy, Ayckbourn employs various classical devices ranging from satire, parody, stereotypes, and sarcasm to slapstick physical comedy in his works. Masterfully balancing the dark and tragic with the light and comic via his use of mistaken identity, surrealism, repetition, and farce, Ayckbourn manages to provide his audience with a comic catharsis. What is more, he utilizes these comedic devices, and thus their constructive power, as a tool to educate his young audience and provoke thought. Similarly, in his cautionary tales, Ayckbourn manages to combine comedy with science fiction while creating a realistic and grounded future, seeking not only to entertain but also warn his audience against the dangers of modern technology. This thesis aims to illuminate Ayckbourn's embracement of the classical codes of comedy while updating comedy via futurism, farce, and science fiction in the selected works: Henceforward, Communicating Doors, Comic Potential, Whenever, My Sister Sadie, and The Divide.
Irksal zorluklara ilişkin toplumsal cinsiyet temelli bakış açısı: Bola Agbaje ve Inua Ellams'ın eserlerinin eleştirel okuması
Theatre presents current problems of the society and it gives minorities a chance to be heard and for that reason, black British theatre has a significant role for the immigrants. Bola Agbaje and Inua Ellams, who share very similar backgrounds as they are both British playwrights of Nigerian origin, use the stage to write themselves into the script. They both experience similar identity problems as they feel torn between Nigeria and Britain; however, their perspectives on the gender issue reflect on their plays differently. Their focus varies in each play, but they share similar gender elements such as hypermasculinity, women's solidarity and gender nonconformity. In this thesis, Bola Agbaje's Gone too Far!, Off the Endz, Playing the Game and Belong, and Inua Ellams' Barber Shop Chronicles, Three Sisters, The Half-God of Rainfall and Black T-Shirt Collection are analysed in order to show the effects of Agbaje and Ellams' gender has on their perspective on the racial challenges they experience in the Nigerian diaspora in the United Kingdom.
Reflections of racial segregation and social injustice in the movies: Mudbound and the help
Today it is a well-known fact that there is no relation between skin colour and intelligence; hence no sign of inferiority. Cultural and physical differences constitute only the variety among the races. Thus, today it is claimed that the delusion known as racism is just a social construct used by whites to dominate blacks brought from Africa as enslaved people. According to Critical Race Theorists, racism is not merely a scientific error either since, for about 250 years, it was legally and socially practised deliberately. In her great movie, Mudbound (2017), based on the novel by Hillary Jordan, Diandrea Rees, an African American director, skilfully portrays and criticises the social and legal inequalities and injustices endured by Blacks during the post-war era in the 1940s in segregated Southern America. Tate Taylor, a white American director, also reflects on the injustice and inequalities of a segregated and prejudiced society in 1960s Southern America, particularly the exploitation of Black American women working as maids, in his movie The Help (2011), based on the novel by Kathryn Stockett. Although both films reflect the difficulties and consequences of discrimination against Blacks by shedding light on the lives of the characters, the directors' approaches to the subject differ significantly. By analysing Diandrea Rees's Mudbound and Tate Taylor's The Help, this thesis aims to illuminate the differences between the two directors' approaches and portrayals of racial segregation in the American South through the perspective of Critical Race Theory.
A postmodern approach to gender roles, stereotypes, and woman's identity quest in Tracy Chevalier's falling angels and John Fowles' the collector
Tracy Chevalier's Falling Angles and John Fowles' The Collector stand out as postmodern works, with their multiple narrations and ambiguous endings. It is also critical that the two novels reveal the challenges that their protagonists face in their personal lives and present the shifting nature of truth from person to person. In this context, this thesis focuses on the identity quests of the female characters in the novels and examines how social gender roles affect their search. In addition, it compares the struggles of the characters by drawing attention to the similarities and differences in their social conditions. Moreover, as the settings of the two novels are chronological continuations of each other, the reflection of Kitty's fight for women's rights at the beginning of the 1900s on Miranda's identity quest in the 1960s is analysed.
Violence in Sarah Kane's three plays: Cleansed, crave, and 4.48 psychosis
This study evaluates the life and works of Sarah Marie Kane, the most outstanding playwright of the 1990s who in total wrote five plays. In this thesis, Kane's last three works -Cleansed, Crave, and 4.48 Psychosis- are critically examined for the elements of violence .The first part of the thesis traces what violence is and why it emerged in life and drama. Various definitions of violence are introduced under the bright thoughts of the profound philosophers, thinkers and critics. The study also defines in-yer-face theatre which Kane has been credited with pioneering. Sarah Kane's childhood, her education at the University of Bristol and Birmingham, Jeremy Weller's play Mad, and the Bosnia genocide were some of the factors that affected her life and writing. In all her works, love stands out as the most superior concept, even though the violence in which it was cloaked often blocked the audiences' grasp of it. Violence, however, is the stand-out factor of Sarah Kane's plays as it enabled her to shock the audience into paying greater attention, giving the plays a greater impact and prompting the audience to re-evaluate themselves.
The concept of national self as reflected in walt whitman's civil war poetry
In the middle of 1850?s when the America nation was gradually drifting apart as aresult of the debates over slavery, an ex- journalist stepped into the literary stage of theperiod. This work presents the journey of Walt Whitman from a Democratic journalist to an?American Bard? who believed that the key to get over all the conflicts was a unity andequality among the members of the American nation and his attempt to create a ?nationalself? that Americans could absorb by heart. He chose poetry as a medium to embrace all menborn on the American land no matter of what color, class and gender they were. In the firstbook of collected poems called Leaves of Grass,(1855) his main intention was to raise anational consciousness by constructing a new model of democratic, equal and humanist self.Until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, he called Americans to gather around values likeequality, democracy, brotherhood and national unity. However what Whitman hoped for thefuture of the country, came true not with poetry but with a bloody war. He kept his optimismby assuming that the war could finally be able to unite the nation. After all, he believed that itwould only last for a couple of months. Unfortunately it didn?t. The experiences that he hadon the battle field and in the military hospitals of Washington proved that the nation hadfinally united but the price was too much to pay. While thousands of American men weredying, Whitman began to rethink all the values that he believed and defended for. In 1865 hepublished a new collection of war poems, Drum Taps in which the equal, democratic self wasreplaced by the common, national selves of heroic, courageous and brave American men whodied for the ideals that they believed in and most importantly for their beloved country,America.
Womanism vs. feminism
It is generally known that feminism is a well-known term around the world. It isalways called as the ?war of the women against men? but actually, feminism is the war ofwomen to gain some social, political or economical rights alongside men. Recently, especiallyafter the Civil Rights Movement, the issue of ?race? has become important and caused peopledeal with the racial issues. As the issue of ?race? has become significant for certain group ofpeople, especially the black generation, black women have understood that they should followanother way to their liberation as black people, especially as black women; because the term?feminism? has started to refer to the movement of white women. Consequently, the term?womanism? has occurred as the movement of black women. To examine the issue, this studyrecovers the two works of the authors; one is critical and the other one is novel. In theseworks, the similarities and the differences of womanism and feminism are observed deeplyand this observation has been resulted as that both terms include some characteristics whichare very close and the main difference appears in the idea of racism. In other words,womanism gives more importance to white racism and this oppression is reflected in theworks of the authors, who follow the idea of ?womanism?. Womanism is a new word andmost of the people around the world are not familiar with it; so it is interesting to deal with thesimilarities and the differences between womanism and feminism. From this point of view,this study will contribute to future research on similar topics.
The desire for writing, remembering and laughing is constituted in the minds of human beings who are in a quest for the survival of their souls against the ceaseless lack of being
I will examine Kundera?s book, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by using the reader?s response theory, which is an important tool in literature. Reader?s response theory focuses on the reader or audience and their experiencing of a literary work. It is the study of how we feel as we read a literary work, what literature aims to do, how literature affects us morally, or how we perceive the world described by the writer.Then I will elaborate on Psychoanalysis of Forgetting, Laughter and Writing with respect to `Reaction to death of the Soul?. I claim that remembering, laughter and writing are the reactions, the weapons of the people who are oppressed and unhappy. The soul desires unity and stability. This desire creates the urge to become a whole being in harmony with the universe. This is a process which can never be completed but people have always tried and will always try to fill that emptiness which `lack of being? causes.. I aim to explain some concepts and express my ideas about the argument which I have mentioned earlier.I will analyse and interpret different uses of language, like metaphor, metonymy, variation, polyphony, parataxis, syntaxis and repetition in order to support my thesis which is based on psychoanalysis through language. I will support my ideas with references to what I believe are in harmony with my comprehension. I am not going to dispute the supremacy of my comprehension to my references which point to the interpretation of my thesis.
A psychoanalytic approach to the female selfhood and the male gaze in Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea
The aim of this project is to examine the factors constituting the female self inVictorian society within the framework of the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud andJacques Lacan. It has been argued that there are many factors in Victorian society, which isalso the representative of the patriarchy, that have influences on a female who is in search ofher real selfhood. The theories emphasize that these factors are always psychical andpsychological and they are resulted from the relationships between the child and his/herparents. The familial relations affect an individual?s later relationships with others and her/hislife as an adult unconsciously. It is through these relationships that an individual can reachself-awareness and the real selfhood. To examine the female self hood under the ?male gaze?in Victorian society, Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea have been analyzed. My aim inanalyzing the female characters in these novels is to show how their ?lacks?, physical andpsychical needs shape their later lives and how their self hood is subject to destruction by themale gaze, suggesting two different possible solutions to save their selves in a society ruledby patriarchy. These solutions are to develop the ego in order to survive, balancing the desiresof the unconscious and the expectations of the society; or to find real selfhood in selfannihilation, which means to refuse any kind of obedience and conformity.
Slavery vs. enslavement: A black feminist analysis of the slavery in Toni Morrison's Beloved and Sula
This dissertation aims to discuss the reasons and consequences of the black slavery inthe continental America through a comparison of the enslavement of the Black people by theWhite hegemony and the symbolic enslavement of the Black female by her own communityas depicted in Beloved and Sula by Toni Morrison. It intends to exhibit how slavery works ondifferent levels-not only historical and factual but also symbolic-while it follows the samepattern in it processes of dehumanization. It presents a Black Feminist evaluation as a theorythat aims to deconstruct the racist and sexist implications against the black female voice thatis systematically and deliberately omitted and negated in the dominantly White Westernliterary tradition.Keywords: Black Feminism, Black Female Voice, Slavery, Enslave
Evolution of the vampire from mythologies of the ancient world to the twentieth century gothic fiction
The aim of this thesis is to examine the transformation that the vampire image goes through from folktales of the ancient world to the twentieth century Gothic fiction. The vampire, one of the most popular embodiments of the evil, evolves in different contexts that are dominated by different worldviews of people.In the folktales and mythologies that circulated around the world, `the evil? was attributed to non-human, supernatural beings by ancient people whose limits to understand the ways of nature were immense. So the vampire, as an entirely supernatural creature, provided a persona for people through whom they could explain things they normally can?t, such as the essence of life and death, the source of evil, the life after death.During the eighteenth and nineteenth century, the vampire was present in the Gothic narratives of many writers. Coleridge, Keats and Le Fanu resurrected the ancient vampire Lamia/Lilith and presented vampirism and evil as the outcomes of their heroines? non-human nature. Lord Byron was the first writer to depict the male vampire in English literature. he portrayed his vampire as a Romantic hero who has acquired vampirism as a curse that he inherited as a result of his confrontation with `the Other?. Later Polidori took up `the Byronic Vampire? and created his own `aristocratic? blood sucker Lord Ruthven in his short novel The Vampyre , which prepared a transition ground for Stoker?s Count Dracula, the most complex vampire figure; the perfect `Other?; the source of all kinds of anxieties of the Victorian people.In the twentieth century, Anne Rice depicted existentialist, human vampires who invited the reader out for a journey to seek the source of good and evil; the `ultimate? meaning of life and death. At the end of this journey, they found out that there are no divine authorities to tell them the secrets of their existence; the source of evil is not the `supernatural?, not `the other? but the human nature itself.Key Words: Vampire, Myth, Supernatural, Fear, Evil, Anxiety, the Other, Existentialist
Angela Carter's feminist reconstruction of the classical fairy tales
?Once upon a time ?? is a pleasant echo from our early childhood memories. It is associated with a magical world which is peopled with beautiful and virtuous. Fairy tales are the basic means to create and settle the major images and structures about ?ideal? and ?bad? women in the young brains and indeed in a very dangerous way.Since fairy tales serve to traditional, patriarchal and man-centered policies, the characterization and the structure of the tales are almost always identical; the princess in the tale is always incredibly beautiful, elegant, virtuous, kind, mild, affectionate and forgiving. Yet, interestingly enough, she is always in a big trouble and she desperately waits passively to be saved by a white-horsed prince. Actually, because of her ?qualities?, this princess ?deserves? to be saved and be married by an ideal man.However, the feminist writers of the 20th century sternly attack these archetypes and attempt to redefine women?s individual, social and cultural identity. They point to the fact that women are not weak, submissive, passive, muted and controlled beings in need of a male protection. So, they create more realistic female characters based on actual experiences. Within the framework of this search, they also redefine the characterization and structure of fairy tales.Among these writers, Angela Carter is a prominent name. She carefully deconstructs and reconstructs the classical fairy tales, especially focusing on the characterization. She indirectly criticizes the clichéd ?ideal? and ?bad? women archetypes by carrying her female characters into a real and realistic realm with authentic experiences. Thus, she leads us to question the essential nature of womanhood, female experiences and the particular drives directing women to act in a certain way. The reconstructed image of classical fairy tales? female characters can perhaps be best exemplified with the tales in Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter.Key Words: Fairy Tale, Classical, Traditional, Feminist, Realistic
An analysis of Thomas Hardy's Tess of The D'Urbervilles and Jude The Obscure in the light of feminist criticism
Victorian Age was a great time of change in many ways. The growth of urban civilization, the technological developments, the gradual increase in personal wealth were some of the reasons which caused to change the period of that time. Paralel to the innovations on technology, class issues, economy, family and love relationships, writers started to reflect such kind of changes in their work of arts. It was such a powerful era that most of the great novels were written in that period. The fiction of that era has taken its name from the Queen Victoria and has been called as Victorian fiction.Thomas Hardy was one of the most prolific writers of the Victorian Age. As a reflection of great changes in social and economical life in the Victorian Age, he creates his own style in English literature. He focuses on the complex issues such as class distinctions, family and love relations with a various, open and self conscious form. His novels mainly deal with issues concerning women in this time period.My argument in this study is focused on his ambiguity towards his female characters. On the one hand, he is praised by some critics as he defends his female heroines thinking that they are oppressed under the rigid norms of Victorian society. On the other hand, as other critics support, his perception towards women was influenced by the conservative society, therefore his novels are criticized as being biased from a male point of view.In my thesis, I will examine his most well-known novels, Tess of the d?Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure in the light of feminist criticism in order to show his ambiguity towards his female characters.Key Words: Victorian Age, Hardy, women, feminist criticism
A psychoanalytic approach to the lonely men of Shakespeare: Hamlet, Lear and Prospero
The object of this thesis is to examine William Shakespeare?s depiction of his lonely male protagonists in his significant plays, Hamlet, King Lear and The Tempest within the framework of psychoanalytic criticism and also drawing attention to the colonial theme running in these three plays. The reason why Shakespeare?s works are still so powerful and criticized even today is not only because of his style but also because of the themes he discussed such as jealousy, good versus evil, happiness and loneliness, which are still contemporary for the 21st century readers. In this respect, Shakespeare?s plays both treated and appealed to all classes and to different levels of intelligence and education of Elizabethan society. In other words, there is no class distinction in Shakespeare?s depiction of human psyche.Shakespeare depicts Hamlet, young prince of Denmark, as a melancholic and introverted character as he has learnt about his father?s unnatural death and his mother?s hasty marriage with his uncle, while he portrays an abandoned king figure who has turned mad in his King Lear. Differing from the other two plays as a comedy, the protagonist of The Tempest, Prospero is also depicted as an isolated character, both physically and psychologically. In this sense, all these protagonists resemble each other in terms of their psychological states and symbolize isolation as they can not adapt themselves to the realities of their lives and their social circles. Consequently, this project will discuss how these characters lack evaluating life objectively and become isolated.
Oedipus complex in D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers and Virginia Woolf's to the Lighthouse
The aim of this research project is to prove that Oedipus Complex that is normally known as the love felt for the mother and the hatred felt for the father by male children also refers to female children. This study analyzes D. H. Lawrence?s Sons and Lovers and Virginia Woolf?s To the Lighthouse within the framework of psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud, specifically Freud?s theory of Oedipus Complex. Sigmund Freud was courageous to talk about unconscious, sexuality and especially child sexuality which were considered as taboo subjects. His theories concerning child sexuality have especially met great reaction. By his `Oedipus complex? theory, he explains his ideas about child sexuality. Freud was inspired by the play `Oedipus the King? in formulating his theory. According to this theory, both male and female children love their mothers in an affectionate way and their first love object is the mother. However, when females realize that their mothers lack a penis, they turn their attention to their fathers. Freud calls this Oedipus complex. D. H. Lawrence?s Sons and Lovers is a classical example of the theory of Oedipus complex. It portrays male children who are suffering from Oedipus complex deeply and they cannot overcome it. Virginia Woolf?s To the Lighthouse is an unconventional example of this theory because it presents a male child and a female one who fall victim to this complex, nevertheless, who can overcome it.
An analysis of Lacanian concept in A.S. Byatt's possession and in Erendiz Atasü's the Other Side of the Mountain
The aim of this thesis is to show how A. S. Byatt in Possesion and Erendiz Atasü in The Other Side Of The Mountain have their own subjectivity in language and how they try to change the language along with social change by emphasizing the socially constructed order around us. In relation with the Lacanian `Symbolic Order?, the debate explores the struggle of two literary figures, Byatt and Atasü, to find a place in society having a separate identity, social status and freedom of expression. In the first chapter, the concept of otherness, father figure and mother-daughter relations, and expressing self-identity using metonymy and metaphor in language will be discussed based on Possession by A. S. Byatt and in the second chapter, the focus will be on the recent position of women mentioned in The Other Side of The Mountain by Erendiz Atasü in terms of being ?other?, being constituted by the patriarchal order of Turkish society, defining their family relations, and finally women?s expressing themselves in language through metaphor and metonymy. Last chapter is about the similarities and differences between the works of two authors.
Characters as victims of slavery: A black feminist analysis of Beloved by Toni Morrison
This dissertation examines Toni Morrison?s novel Beloved to reconstruct the traumatized history of the African-American people, and to constitute the notions of race, history, and community without sexual difference. Beloved commemorates the struggle for selfhood that has been taken from them by the White hegemony; the overwhelming historical, political, economical, physical and psychological force. Lost historical and racial memories are recovered through the daughter?s desire for reunion and reconciliation with the mother. This dissertation presents how slavery works on different levels- not only historical and factual but also symbolic- while it follows the same pattern in its processes of dehumanization. It presents a Black Feminist evaluation as a theory that aims to deconstruct the racist and sexist implications against the Black female voice that is omitted and negated in the dominantly White Western Literature.Key Words: Slavery, Black Feminism , Sufferings, Selfhood, Hope
Examination of Charles Bukowski's prose through Bakhtin's concept of carnivalized literatures
This thesis examines the consubstantiality of Charles Bukowski?s prose with the literary sorts which are defined as carnivalized genres by Russian literary theorist Mikhail Mikha?lovich Bakhtin. Bakhtin maintains that those genres, which he scrutinizes from ancient Greece to 19th century?s Russia, constantly regenerate by utilizing a literary heritage. In its general meaning Bakhtin?s theory is based on an idea that those literary genres, which are inspired by the unofficial nature of carnival rituals, express themselves in a similar way to carnivals, under some alternative forms. Carnivalized genres, utilizing the subversive energies of those folkloric themes for the benefit of their literary styles, attempt to subvert the author-based, authoritarian one-sided seriousness of the main stream literature conceptions. On the other hand the cosmopolitan structure, which occurs as a result of a fusion of lower and upper classes during carnival times, finds its literary reflection as dialogism in novel; which enables all the characters to have their own voices. This thesis asserts that Charles Bukowski?s prose also bears those carnivalesque items that Bakhtin conceptualizes.Key Words: Carnival, Carnivalesque, Laughter, Humour, Subversive, Unofficial, Material, Bodily
Women images in Boccaccio's the Decameron and Chaucer's the Canterbury tales
This thesis shows how Giovanni Boccaccio and Geoffrey Chaucer present the conditions and problems of medieval women in their respective narratives as they are and how the women characters are sympathetically treated by the above mentioned authors of the Middle Ages. To serve this purpose, this studyanalyzes the aspects of life in the medieval era in terms of women images. Therefore, in the first chapter of this thesis, the women images created by Boccaccio in the Decameron and the tales and the novellas are told by basically the women characters with specific reference to Fiammetta will be presented. In the second chapter, Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales will be dealt with through the characters, The Wife of Bath and the nuns. In this comparative analysis, the perception of womanhood as well as the role imposed on women from different social classes will also be presented in the light of the two works of art. In the third chapter, the women images will be compared and contrasted as these two works bear some striking similarities and differences. Finally, the thesis concludes by foregrounding each of the above mentioned works as a model which presents the women landscapes from the two different countries, Italy and England, of the 14th century.
Brave New World: The correlation between social Darwinism and Freudian psychoanalysis in the decision-making process of the characters
Numerous studies have been done to date to identify the factors affecting people's decision-making processes. Different ideas have been brought forward about what these factors are, and Social Darwinism and Freud's Psychoanalytic theory have become two prominent concepts among them. Social Darwinism contends that the society in which people live is the most important factor in their decision-making processes, because the rules set by the society play a key role in an individual's survival in an adaptation to that particular society. While Social Darwinism examined this process under the dome of social science, Psychoanalytic theory sought answers for this decision-making process under the science of psychiatry and claimed that the most important factor in people's decision-making was the subconscious. This study aims to establish a direct correlation between Social Darwinism and Freud's Psychoanalytic theory through the analysis of the characters and their decision-making processes in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.
Racial relations in Spike Lee's four movies: School Daze, Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Get On The Bus
Today, it is a well-known fact that racism does not have a scientific basis. Racism has been a judicial and economic propaganda tool used to keep a race exploited by the dominant ideology or race. As long as racism exists, it will create different traumas in many parts of the society and negatively affect social relations in many ways. This thesis focuses on four films by Spike Lee and aims to show how racism affects social relations in American Society. These movies are School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, and Get on the Bus. While the thesis demonstrates how the phenomenon of issues such as slavery, racism and colorism affect social and emotional relations among races, it also focuses on social and emotional relations within the same race. In addition it highlights the social challenges experienced by the black community such as, the breakdown of black family structure, prejudice towards whites, police violence and hatred, invisibility of black women, internalized racism, ganging, and propensity for crime, in the light of Critical Race Theory.
A study of threatened masculinity and tragic flaw in David Mamet's Edmond, Glengarry Glen Ross, and Oleanna
In David Mamet's Edmond, Glengarry Glen Ross, and Oleanna, the protagonists are portrayed as men who are plagued by the belief that their masculinity is being challenged and threatened. These men seek to overcome these challenges and claim their masculinity through various means: Edmond through sexual conquest, Levene through business success, and John through academic discourse. By analysing the three plays and their protagonists, this thesis aims to discuss that these men have a common tragic flaw: hubris. Their hubris causes them to make fatal mistakes, which in turn lead to their tragic downfall. As a consequence of their tragic downfall, the protagonists experience a reality that contradicts their initial conceptions of masculinity. Key Words : Masculinity, Tragic Flaw, Hubris, Femininity, Tragedy
Unveiling a collector's psyche: A psychoanalytic study of John Fowles's novel The Collector
The main purpose of this thesis is to discuss and analyze Frederick Clegg, the main character in John Fowles's novel entitled The Collector, within the context of psychoanalytic literary theory to reveal when and in what way a butterfly collector acquires the collecting behavior, and to investigate how this behavior turns into an obsession in adulthood. Traumatic experiences are expressed through specific changes in behavior and ritualistic participation in potentially criminal acts. Therefore, in the current thesis, the experiences and behaviors of the novel's main character in early childhood and adulthood are evaluated. The data obtained are interpreted by making use of the studies of distinguished theorists and experts in the field of psychoanalysis such as Freud, Jung, Lacan, Randy O. Frost, Donald Black, David Tolin, Bowlby, and Ainsworth. According to the results of the research, Clegg's hobby of collecting butterflies in his early childhood was reinforced by the traumas he experienced during his childhood. This hobby turned into an obsession in adulthood, causing him to kidnap a woman and cause her death.
Women of the Dark Labyrinth: Oppressed women in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, Sula and Beloved
Postcolonialism theory is based on the problems that started with the West's exploitation of many continents with a political, economic, and moral breakdown of the exploited societies. The theory deals with the results of exploitation, like cultural differences and their outcomes related to gender and race, which directly shape the identity of the colonized people. Primarily, black and poor women are seen as the most victimized among the subalterns. Black female identity has become a complex issue due to many factors. Black women have suffered racial trauma that causes emotional and mental injuries. Postcolonial theory and oppression of black women can be apparently observed in Toni Morrison's books: The Bluest Eye, Sula, and Beloved. Characters are malignantly being exposed to oppression because of their gender, skin color, and social status. Although their stories are different, the emotions they experience and the impacts on their identities draw them in the same ending, which is a labyrinth they cannot get out of. Even if they get out, the life will be dark like their skin. It is important to explore these issues because although slavery is a thing of the past, its traces are still present today, and black women are still experiencing discrimination in different ways. This study aims to explore the journeys of the female characters in Toni Morrison's novels: " The Bluest Eye, Sula, and Beloved "in search of identity and to prove that although each character's journey is different, they encounter similar fate and destiny.