English literature
378 theses under this subject heading
J. M. Coetzee's Foe as rewriting of Robinson Crusoe: The problems of Canon and narratorial voice
This study analyses Nobel Prize-winning South African writer John Maxwell Coetzee's postcolonial period novel Foe (1986) as a rewriting of Robinson Crusoe from two focus points. Firstly, it shows how Foe attempts to gain canon status by using Robinson Crusoe's status of being a member of the Western Canon. And it also shows that Foe as a postcolonial period novel seeks canon status in order to give the right to presence to people who were formerly ignored existence and silenced in colonialist novels. Secondly, it shows that there are multiple narratorial voices in the novel and the reason why they are present in the novel.
The posthuman condition: A comparative study of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake
Recently, numerous scientific and technological advances have taken place and the humanist attitude that man is the measure of all things has been challenged by the flourishing manifestations of trans-/posthumanism. Therefore, what it means to be human has been questioned by various theoreticians like Cary Wolfe, N. Katherine Hayles, and Donna Haraway. In this regard, concepts like Self/Other, human/non-human, body/mind are analysed anew in the framework of trans- and posthumanism. As part of dystopian literature, Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go (2005) and Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake (2003) not only indicate a posthuman condition but also illustrate the question of identity regarding the characters. Consequently, this study discloses breaking points which involve issues of authenticity, othering, as well as identity explorations of the individuals based on post-/transhumanist theories and significant issues of the contemporary age. Besides developing self-awareness to gain individual autonomy, the subjects' ability to liberate themselves through the rejection of grand narratives is discussed with references to posthuman ethics in Never Let Me Go and Oryx and Crake in a comparative manner. Key words: Kazuo Ishiguro, Margaret Atwood, metanarrative, othering, posthuman subject, posthumanism, self-awareness, transhumanism
Discourse and identity in Louis De Bernieres' Novel Birds Without Wings
The aim of this present thesis is to discuss the concept of identity in a discursive perspective in Louis De Bernieres' Birds Without Wings. Identity concept is studied on in six chapters to observe the construction and deconstruction processes of identity formation based on the related identity theories. In the first chapter the focus is on the individual identities in relation to the narrative technique applied in the novel. In the second chapter, social construction of identity, its reflections on society and social structures are discussed. The third chapter focuses on the reflections of religious identities on individual and social levels with reference to religious characters in the novel. Chapter four deals with dislocation of identities or exiled identities with reference to the event of exchange of populations of Turks and Greeks being one of the central themes in the novel. In the fifth chapter sexual identity is discussed under the concepts of gender and gender roles mostly on the social level with reference to inter-relationships and the last chapter took the concepts of disidentification and non-identity with reference to some isolated, marginalized selves as characters in the novel. As a study of identity focusing on the artificial shaping and reshaping of its structures and types in the postmodern novel Birds Without Wings written with a general attitude to make the existing multiplicities visible with the narrative technique employed by the author, identity concept, identity construction and deconstruction are aimed to be examined to discuss the awareness and effects of change, transformation, fluidity and instability of human identity in individual and social structures within a discursive frame. Key words: Identity, Discourse, Individual identity, Social identity, Religious identity, Gender identity, Exiled identity, Disidentification
Death and dying of the self in Louis de Bernières' Birds Without Wings
Throughout the periods of literature, Death has been one of the most interesting and attractive themes. In that meaning, Death has been used as theme many times in literary works. The ways of describing death has been altered by periods in order to circumstances and contemporary theories. Especially in Postmodern Period, theme of Death has gained another aspect with Dying process of the self. According to this aspect, authors have been curious about the process of dying and imagination has had great contribution. In Postmodern Period, Heidegger has become guide to authors by his theories about Death, Dasein and Authenticity. He has enlightened authors with his theory of Dasein. Theory of Dasein questions the Existence and Inexistence and tries to disclose the self. In this process of struggle, Death owns a mirror role, which reflects Dasein' self. Facing with the self induces great panic, fear and anxiety. It is another threshold of the self. It is the most difficult process that Dasein gets through. With questioning the existence, life and death, Dasein alters the mode of live to authentic one. In this mode, Dasein begins to observe own existence and the self. This questioning and observation lead to self-awareness and self-exploration. One of the best novels which describe this journey for self-realization and self-exploration is Louis De Berniéres' Birds Without Wings. With this narrative, readers accompany characters in their life journey. In these journeys, readers and characters witness many various kinds of deaths and dying processes. Key words: Heidegger, Dasein, Authenticity, Self – awareness, Death, Dying Process, Existence, Inexistence, Non-existence, Self – exploration, Louis De Berniéres, Birds Without Wings
The profane vs. The sacred in medieval theatre
This work aims to discuss the sacred and its representations in medieval drama by focusing on the character of the Devil in medieval plays. In this work; contrary to the notion that the Devil is a figure of profane and the first example of the secularization of the medieval drama; the Devil is taken as an example of representation of the sacred. This work consists two chapters. In section one, the researcher dealt with the the cognitive and social situation of medieval society. First, the dynamics that constitute the medieval society are discussed. Afterwards, the correlation between theatre and church is handled. In chapter two, the focus is on the character of the Devil. The concept of the Devil is in Medieval period is dealt with via oppositional thinking. In addition, The Devil in cycle plays; The Creation and The Fall of Angels, The Fall of Man, The Deliverance of Souls; is analysed to support the argument of this thesis.
The post-war and postmodern English campus novel: Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis and Changing Places by David Lodge
The present thesis focuses on a particular fictional event – the campus novel – having a long developmental history but largely a product of the twentieth century, which is a very complex artistic and literary period encompassing various other literary periods, and also historical and cultural periods, as well as many literary movements and trends. Its first part is twofold consisting of realism or traditional versus modernism or modernist art and literature. Modernism is the late modern experimental and innovative art standing as a self-reflection and a late modern self-criticism of modernity. The period after the 1960s is the contemporary historical, social and cultural condition, which is called postmodern period or postmodernity. It is a reaction to modernity; also, postmodern as adjective refers to a particular period in literary and perhaps cultural history and to a set of aesthetic styles and principles. The reflecting mentality and artistic practice of postmodernity is called postmodernism or postmodernist art and literature; hence postmodernism is a reflexive cultural phenomenon or attitude of the postmodern period, an aesthetic phenomenon, and a reaction to modernism as late aesthetic modernity. But there is also a period after World War 2, which lasted for some ten or fifteen years, called the post-war period and coming before the postmodern one. In the second half of the twentieth century on the whole, the most prolific and popular genre is novel, which developed a remarkable typology: Angry Young fiction (Braine, Amis, Brain, Wain), neo-realist novel, campus novel, philosophical and visionary novel (Golding, Murdoch), magical realism (Carter, Rushdie), historiographic metafiction (Swift, Ackroyd), postcolonial novel (Rushdie, Ali), and so on. The two novels that constitute the main concern of our study – Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis and Changing Places by David Lodge – represent the post-war period and the postmodern period, respectively. We embark on their comparison on the premises that they are both campus novels and as such, even if they belong to different periods and trends, they can be subject to a comparative approach in order to reveal their similarities and differences with regard to both their thematic perspectives and narrative strategies. Having the academic background, which is open to larger social and cultural contexts, as its central element, the campus novel receives in Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis a realist perspective specific to the post-war English literature of the Angry Young Man with its social and moral concerns, and the drama of individual consciousness in constructing the protagonist. A prolific novelist and literary critic, David Lodge provides his campus novel with various postmodern aspects, such as metafictional elements, intertextual perspectives, fragmentariness, and so on, while primarily employing the structuralist principle of "binary opposition" and making it acquire a structural dimension in his Changing Places.
The representation of Eurydice Myth in Sarah Ruhl's play Eurydice and Kathy Acker's Eurydice in the underworld
Mythology with its universal traits, becomes a backbone and an archive of cultures and societies with the help of the shared and similar features. Myths include serves multiple purposes and have various characteristics that via their functions, forms, and contents become an attraction centre in several fields. Therefore, myths became a focus for several writers, poets and playwright who assumed a responsibility to revise the perspectives and meanings. In the meantime, Orpheus and Eurydice myth is one of the myths that was highly alluring not only to the ancients, but also continues to impress contemporary readers. In the original myth and its adaptations, the focus is on Orpheus figure, whereas in the twentieth century the focus is given more to Eurydice figure and especially female authors give voice to Eurydice. In this context, two of the versions of the classical Greek myth serve this purpose, which are Kathy Acker's play Eurydice in the Underworld and Sarah Ruhl's play Eurydice. Two of the writers use the myth and mythical units by juxtaposing the new and old meaning with new ones to present the position of the character Eurydice in their works. In the process of using these mythic patterns, the writers tell the story from Eurydice's point of view, with the aim to revise and construct new meanings and viewpoints. In this sense, the aim of this thesis is to analyse the representation of Eurydice in the myth and mythical units as the examples of psychological archetypes in the works of the two writers and also present ambivalence of the myth by displaying the binary oppositions as death and life, femininity and masculinity, matriarchy and patriarchy through the lens of feminist theory.
Kaptan Corelli'nin Madolini'nde Orpheus ve Eurydice Miti
Since primordial times, myths have had an important effect on literature. Along with the influence of postmodernism, myths are deconstructed. Like myths, music is an indispensable part of man, and Orpheus Myth shows a close connection between music and myth. The aim of this thesisis to define myth and examine the artistic means used in Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières through the lens of an appropriate comparative methodology such as Carl Gustav Jung's archetypes, Joseph Campbell's monomythical journey and Claude Levi-Strauss's my themes, focusing on the similarities and differences between the Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and Captain Corelli's Mandolin as well as deconstructing the myth and focusing on the relationship between music and myth.
David Foster Wallace'in eserlerinde ahlaki ve etik konular
David Foster Wallace's works and the period post-postmodernism display a link. The ethical and moral concerns of David Foster Wallace's works in the meaning of post-postmodernism is explained. This thesis will discover the ethical and moral values and the consistency in the meanings of post-postmodern via Wallace's works. These create and improve the analysis of Wallace's work and the scholarly comprehension of the very last history. This gives a unique and imperative use of the language of a growingly vast form. Wallace's writing and his figure of depression are analysed in terms of moral and ethical concerns in post-postmodern literature. Also, to elucidate what post-postmodern should mean, it brings together a significant part of recent literary theory in its multiple styles. It demonstrates the benefits of research of Wallace's work and the use of post-postmodernism for a diversity of critical projects. The present thesis contributes the insight into Wallace's writing by providing an outline of his work and presenting an analysis of the minor and major text, interviews, fiction and nonfiction. In this thesis, two works "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men" short story collection, "Consider the Lobster" collection of essays and two short stories that Wallace penned in different periods of his career are analysed in terms of ethics and morality and also examined the concept of depression as a developing literary and social critique.
David Mitchell's Black Swan Green and the childhood perspective of the formative process within and beyond the postmodern context
This thesis points out those characteristics of Postmodernism and postmodern fiction which would be most congenial in the approach to a particular type of novel, which is the Bildungsroman. The aim of the thesis is to identify certain postmodern elements that makes David Mitchell's novel Black Swan Green a postmodern Bildungsroman and to demonstrate how, as a bildungsroman, it belongs to the postmodern context. Mitchell's fiction, which is considered experimental and innovative by the literary critics, is analysed by looking at the narrative and thematic aspects of the novel in postmodern context and, at the character dynamics in the story which is very essential for the overall meaning of the story. For this reason, the study reflects on how the main characters, especially the child characters, are represented in a postmodern environment, and how the people interact with such an environment. Key words: Postmodern fiction, Bildungsroman, experimental, child characters, Postmodern Bildungsroman.
Theseus mitinin postmodern tiyatroda yeniden düşünülmesi
Edebi tür olan efsane yüzyıllar boyunca canlıydı ve etkileri hala yazarlar tarafından gözlenebilir. Bu yüzden efsanenin önemi bu çalışmada verildi; dahası, Amacı efsane konseptini özelleştirmek olan çeşitli yazarlar tarafından efsanenin tanımı yapıldı. Theseus efsanesi açıklandı ve efsanede bulunan veya bahsedilen mini temalar ortaya çıkarıldı. Efsanelerin rollerini açığa çıkaran çağdaş çalışmalar özgün ve aynı zamanda bağlantılı olabilirler. Motifler, mini temalar, karakter özellikleri ve kahraman maceraları, efsanevi yönlerin önemini göstermek adına başka edebi çalışmalarda gösterilebilir. Böylelikle, bu çalışma içeriğinde Theseus efsanesinin gösterildiği postmodern oyuna odaklıdır. Bir postmodern çalışması olan ve postmodern koşullarını taşıyan Mercury Fur Theseus efsanesinde gösterilen evreler, karakterler, motifler, ve mini temalar gibi efsanevi yönler kapsamı altında tartışılmıştır. Anahtar Kelimeler: efsane, Theseus, postmodern tiyatro, Mercury Fur
Henry James's novels within and beyond the tradition of the Victorian bildungsroman
This study aims at discussing Victorian artist Henry James's literary practice within and beyond the framework of the Victorian Bildungsroman tradition in order to reveal the ways in which James's novels follow and at the same time depart from this literary phenomenon. The Art of Fiction by Henry James is the subject matter of this study alongside his famous novels Roderick Hudson and The Portrait of a Lady. The subject matter is discussed and elaborated first by introducing the adopted critical approaches in relation to the literary timeline in which fiction embarked on a long process of maturation. In this context, while asserting its distinguishing features from other types of fiction, it is analysed how the Victorian Bildungsroman flourished as a genre. Henry James's novels are approached through a comparative analysis in relation to the texts from the realist school (Charles Dickens's Great Expectations and Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre) and from the non-realist school (Walter Pater's Marius the Epicurean).
A new historicist approach to Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" and A Tale of A Tub
The purpose of this thesis is to discuss how the British society and political approach of the kingdom in the course of eighteenth-century is criticized by Jonathan Swift employing the genre satire. The thesis is aimed at explaining his critical perspective by means of providing pertinent background information and carrying out new historicist analysis of "A Modest Proposal" and A Tale of a Tub. The reader is provided with information about some fractions of the author's life and the eighteenth-century as well as the genre satire and the works of Jonathan Swift. It has been discussed that Swift criticizes the mentality of the society of his age and major political doctrines of the era making extensive use of the satire genre. In A Tale of a Tub, Swift underlines the political, social, religious, and economic subjugation England exercised over Ireland in the last decades of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries. Swift, in "A Modest Proposal", points out the colonial practices of England on Ireland. He lays emphasis on the indifference of the people in ruling and upper-class Ireland regarding the colonial practices of England. By suggesting cannibalism as an alternative solution to Ireland's monetary problems, he chooses to reflect his concern ironically in his pamphlet using literary techniques such as irony, parody, and allegory. On a larger scale, Jonathan Swift aims at attacking the universally-shared human emotions and aspirations like arrogance and greediness. It has been observed that even though his original purpose is to berate and reform the people of his age, Jonathan Swift proves himself to be an influential writer in any age through the use of satire.
Hybridity in Monica Ali's Brick Lane and Arundhati Roy's the God of Small Things
This study presents an analysis of Monica Ali's Brick Lane and Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things. In each novel, the characters go into a transformation period to find their identities in the cultures they live in. The first chapter explains the theory of postcolonialism by focusing on the ideas of Edward Said, Frantz Fanon, Robert Young, Bill Ashcroft and others. Terms such as hybridity, mimicry, ambivalence and cultural identity are defined mainly in reference to Homi Bhabha. The hybrid characters with different problems find different techniques to cope with them and they reach different levels of hybridity which is studied in detail in the second and third chapters. The final chapter draws a conclusion commenting on different hybrid situations. Finally, it is observed that all hybrid characters try to find their own voice to create a 'Third Space' but only some of them can achieve this.
The Heroine's Journey in Birds Without Wings by Louis de Berniéres
Louis de Berniéres is one of the most accomplished novelists of the 21st century and his books are among the best-sellers. As a postmodernist novelist, de Berniéres deconstructs the history and constructs it with a postmodernist approach using monomyths and archetypes. This thesis studies the heroine's journey in Birds Without Wings, which is written in 2004, translated in several languages, and represents one of the greatest works of de Berniéres. We encounter with several mythical structures throughout the novel as apocalypse myth, Aphrodite myth, Medusa myth, or most importantly, the hero myth. In his book Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell defines what the hero's journey is and explains the stages of the hero's journey creating a pattern in the myths. However, the heroine's journey is different from the hero's journey in that it has more psychological elements rather than being simply a physical journey. Maureen Murdock, in her book The Heroine's Journey, reorganizes the stages of the heroine's journey in which the inner journey of the heroine is more emphasized. In this thesis, I am going to study the journey of Tamara and Leyla and try to explain their inner journeys using monomyths and archetypes.
Jean Baudrillard's Concept of Museumification as revealed in Julian Barnes' Flaubert's Parrot and Orhan Pamuk's Museum of Innocence
This study investigates the concept of 'Museumification' by Jean Baudrillard in terms of postmodernism. Museumification is a term which was theorized by Baudrillard to emphasize a belief or a habit that could not be practised any more. The purpose of this study is to analyse an English novel Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes and a Turkish Novel Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk in terms of Jean Baudrillard's concept of 'museumification' which is mentioned in his own book Simulacra and Simulation. Published in 1984 the third book of the novelist Julian Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot is about being in search of his favourite French writer Gustave Flaubert and the parrot which is taken place in Flaubert's works and his life. Barnes tells the story from a fictional character's George Braithwaite's omniscient point of view with first person narration. Published in 2008 the twelfth book of the novelist Orhan Pamuk, Museum of Innocence is about the love among the characters Kemal Basmacı and Füsun Keskin from the fictional character's Kemal's omniscient point of view with first person narration. Kemal's obsession of collecting his lover Füsun's objects and Pamuk's collecting the objects that represents the time of Istanbul and society. Pamuk's collecting objects which represent the time of İstanbul and Kemal's real objects, which are belong to Füsun, are exhibited in the museum. So the novel becomes a museum. These arguments are analysed both according to Baudrillard's concept of 'museumification' and other sources about the concept of 'museumification'. Keywords: Jean Baudrillard, Museumification, Postmodernism, Julian Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot, Orhan Pamuk, Museum of Innocence
Grotesk ve İngiliz Edebiyatındaki Groteskin edebi ifadesi: Lewis Carroll'un "Alice Harikalar Diyarında" ve Jonathan Swift'in "Gulliver'in Gezileri"
Bu tez grotesk ve İngiliz edebiyatındaki groteskin edebi ifadesi ve Lewis Carroll'un "Alice Harikalar Diyarında" ve Jonathan Swift'in "Gulliver'in Gezileri üzerindeki grotesk konseptin analizi hakkındadır. Carroll'un "Alice Harikalar Diyarında" romanı ana karakter, Alice'in hayal dünyası tarafından yaratılmış olan fantezi dünyasına yapılan bir yolculuk olarak yaklaşılır. Okuyucu, belli bir gerçeklik görülmeyen dünya olan Harikalar Diyarı'na yolculuk ediyor. Bu dünya saçmalıklar, anlamsızlıklar ve tutarsızlıklar tarafından yönetilir. Aynı zamanda, romanın çoğu elementi yazarın yaşadığı zaman olan Viktorya dönemindeki İngilitre'nin fikirlerini ifade eder. Amaç, Carroll'un esas niyeti grotesk konsepti kullanarak gülünç karakterleri göstermek ve Victorya toplumunu yermektir. Burada tezim grotesk, karnivalesk ve yerme gibi teorik yapıları kullanarak Victorya döneminin tarihsel, kültürel ve sosyal alt yapılarını gösterir. Bu tez, grotesk elementleri üzerinden Harikalar Diyarı'nın kendi kuralları ve değerlerin olduğunu anlamakta Alice'in yetersizliğini gösterir. Carroll, Kraliçe gibi Harikalar Diyarı'nın otoriter karakterleri üzerinden Victorya toplumunu ve İngiliz hukuki sistemini yerer. Romanın yermesi , grotesk ve karnivalesk elementleri kullanılarak Harikalar Diyarı'ndaki varlıklarla tuhaf figürleri gelenekleri, diyalogları, ve olayları kapsar. Swift'in "Gulliver'in Gezileri" romanı dört farklı yolculuk hakkındadır. Bu yolculuklar sembolik.temsili ve önemlidir. Jonathan Swift, grotesk gerçeklik ve grotesk bedenleri kullanarak İngiliz toplumu üzerindeki yermesine odaklanmaktadır. Gulliver'in ilk yolculuğu Swift'in insanların küçük bedenlerini yerdiği Lilliput; ikinci olan insanoğlunun yetersizliğini yerdiği Brobdingnag; üçüncü olan felsefe ve bilimi yerdiği Laputa ve son yolculuğu insanoğlunu genel olarak kınaması üzerine hiciv yaptığı Houyhnhnms'dır. Bu dört yolculuk Swift'in hicivi kendi dönemi ve gelecek insanoğlunu üzerindeki eleştiriyi yansıtmaktadır. Bu tez, Lewis Carroll ve Jonathan Swift'in tuhaf figürleri, saçma gelenekleri ve anlamsız diyalogları gibi grotesk elementleri kullanarak İngiliz toplumu yermek için ana karakterleri Alice ve Gulliver'i inşa eden yolları göstermek istedim. Anahtar Kelimeler: Grotesk bedenler, Grotesk gerçeklik, Hiciv, Karnivalesk
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o's representation of The Mau-Mau Uprising in his Petals of Blood and A Grain of Wheat
This research is about two African novels in English, Petals of Blood (1977) and A Grain of Wheat (1967) written by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, He is a well known African contemporary postcolonial writer. The purpose of his novels was to show the role of a long-lasting resisting movement of the Kenyas against the oppressive colonial rule in Kenya. These novels reveal people's dreams of new Kenya, the type of Kenya where everyone will be free to express their voices, where everyone will be able to get their stolen lands back from the colonizers. In addition, the other purpose of these novels is to subvert the power of the colonial text that misrepresents Kenya as a whole and that misrepresents Mau Mau revolution, depicting Mau-Mau as very evil.
Aestheticism and identity information in Walter Pater's Marius The Epicurean
The novel of formation, or the Bildungsroman, is among the most popular types of fiction in Victorian England, especially with realists. Opposed to realism and representing one of the most powerful late-nineteenth-century avant-garde trends is aestheticism. Its initator, Walter Pater, is mostly known and widely acclaimed as the theoretician of this innovative aesthetic movement. In this respect Pater's novel Marius the Epicurean is written in accord with the Bildungsroman, but,distinguishably in the sense of its thematic and narrative elements, the text differs from both socially and morally concerned realistic novel of formation. Even if Marius have found no appropriate philosophy and ended prematurely his life, nevertheless he continuously investigate and prove distinctive philosophical systems objectifiying Pater's unique aesthetic doctrine. To Pater, carrying the spirit to the fleeting chain of impressionisms in a powerful way is the keystone for a succesful and productive life. The aim of the present thesis is to explain the literary importance of the novel, reveal its non-realistic pattern and show the ways in which Pater follows the tradition of the Bildungsroman while relating it to the philosophical and aesthetic issues in many aspects.
Mark Ravenhill'in oyunlarindaki mitsel motifler
The focus of this study is to discuss the mythical motifs in Mark Ravenhill's plays; Shopping and Fucking, Faust is Dead and Some Explicit Polaroids, in relation to their positioning in the postmodern culture with the liberal capitalist systems. The concepts of relationships as a site of economic exchange, the quality of choice in market economies, free will, subject, knowledge and power are investigated through the theories of prominent postmodernist philosophers such as Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari, Michel Foucault and Francois Lyotard. Moreover, the provocative nature of the plays as a part of being representative of in-yer-face theatre is further explained in its historical and socio-cultural context. Such investigation not only brings political issues to the forefront, emphasizing the cultural change and its impact on individual lives but also the change in theatrical concepts of their milieu. Shopping and Fucking investigates the autonomy of the individual, the idea of sacrifice and suffering as a way to come to self-realization, the body as a place of control in authenticating the self and sexual relationships as a site of transaction. Faust is Dead explores the issues such as alienation, the loss of faith in the progress of man, the authenticity of experience, desire and the reconcilability of the phenomenal and noumenal worlds. In the last play, Some Explicit Polaroids examines the hedonism and the capitalist values that the younger generations adopt, contrasted with the values of older generations, the positivist decay experienced by twenty-somethings which is also a part of capitalism, the masculinity crisis, violence and abuse on the body and the transition from disciplined to controlled societies.Also, shopping myth which was found to be encompassing all the plays was inverted by the playwright through transforming the act of shopping from being personal and limited to the objects to be public and including humans and their emotions.
Building female identity within immigrant background in Monica Ali's Brick Lane
This study examines the development of the Bildungsroman literary genre, which can be also described as a literary system and / or literary tradition, and its place in contemporary English literature. Bildungsroman, which reached its traditional form in Victorian English literature, is evaluated in this study through Monica Ali's novel: Brick Lane in terms of the new elements and principles the genre acquired in Modernism and Postmodernism. The focus in the study is on the identity formation of the main character, which is considered to be the central element in the Bildungsroman, and on her personal developmental process according to the Postcolonial context. Brick Lane is exemplary to the Bildungsroman literary genre in contemporary English literature when it is analysed with regard to the personal development of Nazneen, a woman who immigrated from Bangladesh to England. Monica Ali, who is also from Bangladesh and started living in England at an early age, narrates the physical, mental and social development of a woman who was born and raised in Bangladesh and immigrated to the United Kingdom when she married at a young age. In this context, it is possible to evaluate other characters besides Nazneen with their impact on the personal development of Nazneen and within their own personal and social development in respect to culture and identity. From this point of view, Monica Ali's novel Brick Lane is analysed within the context of the development of Bildungsroman literary genre in English literature and with regard to the Postcolonial literary theory on the effect of migration and culture on personality formation.
Gender and sexuality building identity in Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex
The current study presents the thematic characteristics and history of the Bildungsroman and its origins in the German literature and its flourishing in the English literature. The terms of gender and sexuality are also defined in the study. The aim of the present thesis is to analyze the postmodernist author Jeffrey EUGENIDES's Middlesex which deals with the "new" American identities of the second and third generation Greek immigrants who live in the US, and to present it through the protagonist of the novel, Calliope/Cal's point of view. The present study displays how the events and actions in the novel make it possible to be regarded as a Bildungsroman in terms of gender and sexual identity formation of Calliope/Cal. Identity formation, ethnicity and generation gap as well as the interaction between generations are presented by the novelist benefiting from myths and mythical heroes. The study reflects how the expectations of the family and society impact identity formation as well as the 5-alpha reductase disease, which results in the intersex condition of Calliope/Cal. In a world, which becomes more and more global each day, the protagonist of the novel is an intersex person, a minority in terms of gender and sexuality but also a Greek-American, a minority in terms of ethnicity. The history of the country and the globalization of the world are reflected through the protagonist. Cal/Calliope is born twice. When he is born the second time, he begins to grasp the world better. The novel, Middlesex, can be regarded as a Bildungsroman when it is analyzed in terms of gender and sexuality and the novel, in general, presents the postmodernist thematic concerns of immigration, generation gaps, inclusion of myths and mythical heroes into the contemporary life and identity formation. Key Words: the Bildungsroman, gender and sexuality, Eugenides, Middlesex, intersex
Anti odipus figür olarak Tristram Shandy
Tristram Shandy is one of the most discussed novels in English language literature since the day it was written. For instance, at the time of its writing; Samuel Johnson, one of the most distinguished names in English literature, was skeptical of this work. He thought that nothing awkard would be permanent. Similarly, contemporary critics of Sterne found his novel to be strange, unusual, and unsuccessful in terms of unconventional narrative techniques. In contrast, Tristram Shandy has still inspired many literary theories, post-modern narrative technique and anti-hero examples, despite more than two centuries since the day it was written. Long before postmodern literary criticism, Sterne problematized the mimetic reality, the myth of integrity, linearity, and the archetype of the hero's journey that the odipal hero completes to reach inheritance, law, and phallus. He has presented a successful parody. Using Don Quixote and other bildungsroman hero parodies, he presented a satirical collage. He glorified the hero's grotesque image of the body, the plane of immanence beyond the self, and the body without organs against the Father's obsession with completeness and perfection. In this context, Tristram Shandy is not disciplined by imperfection, loss, and lack, on the contrary, as a meta-reflexive hero who is aware of his fictional reality, he without hesitation deciphering his fictionality. As a result, Tristram Shandy is a parody, an anti-odipal hero who has been against the concept of hero-subject under the burden of objectification and of guilt and odipal ideals. Keywords: Tristram Shandy, Sterne, Anti-odipal, postmodern literary
The Persephone myth as a reflection of mother-daughter relationship in Louis de Bernierès' novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Captain Corelli's Mandolin is among the most famous postmodern novels reconstructing some of the mythemes of the Persephone myth, such as the heroine's descent into the underworld and the heroine's dominance by intelligence. At the centre of this study lies the representation of the characters Pelagia and Drosoula as Persephone and Demeter figure. While the author presents the characters of his novel, he deconstructs the structure of Persephone myth, like the heroine's assertion of intelligence, sovereignty and victory in each attempt and revives the mythemes once more. The aim of this study is to draw attention to Carl Jung's one of most famous concepts: archetype. Another aim is to retell and discuss the Persephone myth in relation to de Bernierès' work. In this respect, one of the significant intentions is to take Demeter and Drosoula as mother archetypes and analyse in relation to myth and novel and discuss the heroine's monomythic journey.