Literary discourse analysis in Robert Musil's novel "The Confusions of Young Master Törless"

In the early 20th century, as a result of the crisis of modernity in Europe, the thinking subject model was adopted. The effects of this crisis manifested themselves in literature by breaking away from traditional forms of expression with themes such as the isolation of the individual, his search for identity, and his turning towards his inner world. Robert Musil's (Öğrenci Törless'in Bunalımları) "The Confusions of Young Master Törless", one of the modernist representatives of Austrian Literature gathered under the umbrella of German literature, is a multi-layered novel in which the education system and moral values are criticized as well as the depressions experienced by an individual living under the Austro-Hungarian double-headed monarchy as a result of social pressure. This thesis is a qualitative research method, pioneered by Foucault and developed with the contributions of important linguists such as Van Dijk, Potter and Wetherell, also known as Discourse Analysis, By separating the text from the linguistic level, it aims to reveal the multilayered meaning structure formed by the nature of modern literature at the discourse level with quotations that include the education system, decadent bourgeois moral values, homosexuality, religious motifs and developmental factors affecting identity formation. Within the framework of the study, first the theoretical background was created, then it was related to the literature, and finally, the application part was started. Value systems and knowledge/power relations revealed by the novel's characters and plot were analyzed. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that it was not sufficient to classify the novel "Öğrenci Törless'in Bunalımları" as an adolescent novel in the field studies. The effects of authority, discipline, power and normative pressure mechanisms on the individual in the background of the novel have shown that the literary text has not only aesthetic value and concern. Musil's work, which reflects the crisis of modernity, examines the relationship between the individual, society and power, and reveals the ideological structure, offers the possibility of interdisciplinary analysis through discourses.