A discoursive analysis on the identification and suicide in melancholic subject: The cases of Sylvia Plath and Nilgün Marmara

The main aim of this study is to discuss the suicide concept through the notions melancholy and identification. For this purpose, besides the other theories that have been explained the concept of suicide, also the study is aimed to discuss suicide with the notion of identification which occurs as a result of melancholy. The study describes the suicide concept in the context of Lacan's theory of identification. In this context, firstly, the historical process of the concept of suicide has been discussed and has been approached within the framework of comparative theories. Subsequent to the approach of the concept of suicide in that way, it is discussed how the melancholy notion built itself throughout the historical processes. It is theoretically explained what the melancholic subject is and how this subject's suicide takes place. Then through the identification theory which is a Lacanian view and is the basis of the study what is the suicide of the melancholic subject is discussed. In this sense, by focusing the main factors in the unwillingness of the subjects -who had experienced loss- to survive, it is discussed what degree gender roles affects this experience. Discourse Analysis which is a qualitative research method is used as a method in the study and all the theories above mentioned within the theoretical framework are analyzed in this context. Furthermore, the lives and works of Sylvia Plath and Nilgün Marmara which are chosen as cases to the study are handled with this method. First of all, Plath's Diaries (2014), Jar Bell (1987), Ariel and Selected Poems (2016) and the Chronicles of Sylvia Plath (1998), which was published by her husband Ted after her death, were examined. Then from Nilgün Marmara, Kırmızı-Kahverengi Defterler (1994), Daktiloya Çekilmiş Şiirler (2008), Metinler (2015) and Sylvia Plath'ın Şairliğinin İntiharı Bağlamında Analizi (2016) were examined. Through the data obtained as a result of the study, it was analyzed that the mourning state was occurred after a loss (loss of a loved one, loss of a place or object, loss of an emotion, etc.). This mourning, which transformed into melancholy, resulted as the subject's suicide occuring. From this point of view, the suicide of Sylvia Plath and Nilgün Marmara were explained through Lacan's identification theory; It was discussed how the suicide occurred with the identification, that became melanchony, after the loss and then experienced. Keywords: Suicide, Melancholy, Melancholic Identification, Melancholic Subject