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Women's empowerment in Leni Zumas's Red Clocks and Christina Dalcher's Vox
The 21st century is marked by the boom of feminist dystopian writing because of the social, cultural, and political movements which paved the way for feminist writers' exploring the concerns for women's rights. Feminist dystopian writing, which portrays a society where women are suppressed, stresses the importance of ongoing efforts to achieve equality and solidarity in society. By focusing on women's reproductive rights and autonomy, these narratives delve into mothers' devalued roles and ongoing struggles in patriarchal society. Leni Zumas's Red Clocks (2018) and Christina Dalcher's Vox (2018) deal with women's restricted role in society and the loss of control over their bodies. Both authors present a world where women's worth is reduced to their ability to bear children. Women characters in both novels are subjected to oppression such as forced pregnancies and reproductive surveillance. Both novels explore socially constructed roles of mothers, the patriarchal oppression women suffer from, women's resilience and empowerment against marginalization within a dystopian context. Zumas's Red Clocks is a networked and fragmented narrative where the plot revolves around five different women living in a small Oregon town and with the outlaw of abortion and fertilization by the Personhood Amendment. Since women have no options, they try to flee the country or follow illegal and lethal abortion procedures in secret. Dalcher's Vox, in the same way, focuses on women's restricted roles in a religious, totalitarian regime. Women are confined within the realm of their houses, and they lose most of their rights in a very short time such as working, travelling, and reading books except Bible. Women are also fitted, with bracelets that prevent them from speaking more than 100 words a day. However, contrary to the essentialist ideology that imprisons women within gender roles, women in both novels find an alternative way of experiencing their motherhood and employ their maternal roles as an act of resistance against the male-dominated society. In addition, both novels show that through solidarity and unity between women and men, the power to challenge the patriarchal order may be attained. Keywords: Motherhood, Matricentric Feminism, Feminist Dystopian Writing, Resistance
Beyond irony: The cult of sophistication in contemporary American literature
The purpose of this study is to read creative nonfiction and fiction of Nicholson Baker, William T. Vollmann, Jonathan Franzen, David Foster Wallace within the context of topics surrounding recent literary criticism about new directions after postmodernism and offer a new outlook on contemporary literature. The basic premise of this study is that when considered in light of the newly emerging schools of the so-called ethical turn and the oft-mentioned end of postmodernism and the re-birth of realism, the selected works demonstrate another vista for contemporary literature that tends towards re-establishing literature?s ethical inquiry into the human element before all else. The analysis of the creative nonfiction and fiction of these four contemporary American writers present new theories of reading for contemporary literary scholarship. The selected works are all, in their own particular ways, symptomatic of a recent aspiration for ethical treatment of certain social and cultural issues and a commitment to the human. In charting the manifestations of these symptoms as evidences of a new movement in contemporary literature, this study bears witness to the common anxiety of these writers who move toward the truthful representation of the human, of reality. The selected works of creative nonfiction and fiction account for contemporary American literature?s various conflicts and dilemmas as well as searches for revitalization.
Representation of transcultural memory in "His Hundred Years" and "Farewell to Salonica"
Sephardic Jews are a community of Jews who initially settled in the Iberian Peninsula through forced migration but later sought refuge in the Ottoman Republic in the early 15th century to escape the Catholic Christian persecution in Spain. After the 1492 Alhambra Decree, tens of thousands of Jews were expelled from Spain. During the reign of Sultan Bayezid II, thousands of Sephardic Jews were accepted and settled in Ottoman territories. Following their invitation to the Ottoman Empire, the Sephardim were particularly settled in areas like Salonica, Izmir, Istanbul, and the Thrace region. Together with other Jewish groups living in the Ottoman Empire, Sephardic Jews enjoyed a tolerant, affluent, and productive life in the Islamic world for centuries. However, the political, social, and economic changes brought about by the Balkan Wars and World War I accelerated the migration of Sephardic Jews to Western countries, especially America. My thesis aims to explain the migration of Sephardic Jews to America in the early 20th century from the perspective of transcultural memory studies, focusing on the characters in Shalach Manot's "His Hundred Years" and Leon Sciaky's "Farewell to Salonica," as well as the memories of Sephardic Jews who lived in the Ottoman Empire for approximately five centuries. It explores the multicultural environment Sephardic Jews experienced. Transcultural memory studies shed light on the dynamic, evolving, and interconnected nature of the memory. It emphasizes the fluidity of memory, illustrating how memories interact across diverse cultural landscapes, contributing to the formation of societal narratives and identities without being confined to a single cultural or national border. In recent years, there has been increasing academic interest in memory studies due to growing attention to interculturalism, identity, and ethnic-religious studies. This study aims to elucidate the relationship between the multicultural structure of Sephardic Jews in the Ottoman Empire and their migration to the United States in the early 20th century through the lens of transcultural memory studies.
From Postmodernism to Post-Postmodernism: Rewriting history in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five and George Saunders's Lincoln in the Bardo
Although rewriting history has been recognized as a literary sub-genre, it has evolved into a prominent literary technique with the rise of postmodern era. With this approach, older texts or accepted historical facts have been revisited and rewritten through the deconstruction of grand narratives. Through this process, authors endeavor to challenge readers with entirely different perspectives. In light of this, this study aims to analyze Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) and George Saunders's Lincoln in the Bardo (2017) as they present a new perspective on the United States' involvement in the World War II and the American Civil War. Both novels employ a postmodern narrative technique of rewriting history. As demonstrated in the postmodern novel Slaughterhouse-Five and also observed in post-postmodern novel Lincoln in the Bardo, the postmodern narrative technique of rewriting history remains influential in contemporary literary works. In this context, Kurt Vonnegut rewrites the history of the Second World War in his novel, using metafictional and science-fictional elements. In post-postmodern era, George Saunders, often regarded as modern-day Vonnegut, through the creation of a fantastical realm, employs metaffective elements to rewrite the American Civil War. Published within different literary periods, postmodernism and post-postmodernism, both novels challenge the grand narrative, critique these historical epochs and underscore the value of empathy, kindness and humanity. While both literary works share a thematic focus on these values, the evolution of the narrative technique from postmodernism to post-postmodernism is apparent as Slaughterhouse-Five adopts an ironical and detached tone, whereas Lincoln in the Bardo uses a constructive and sentimental tone.
Trauma and mourning in Don Delillo's The Body Artist and Zero K
In his oeuvre, DeLillo's numerous works deal with trauma, art, technology, consumer culture, and capitalism. Thanks to DeLillo's ironic tone and fragmented techniques, DeLillo is regarded as one of the greatest postmodern writers. DeLillo, in The Body Artist (2001) and Zero K (2016), presents art and its relation to trauma and several ways of healing it from different perspectives. This thesis argues that in The Body Artist and Zero K, Don DeLillo presents trauma as an experience of ontological liminality between forms of process that are suspended until a transformation of subjectivity takes place by mainly subverting the conventional meanings of the notions of body, identity, time and art. In The Body Artist, Lauren, the body artist of the title, puts her traumatic experience into stage art after the suicide of her husband, Rey. Therefore, even though trauma is inexpressible, she uses her art as a response to or a coping mechanism for her traumatic experience. While expressing her traumatic experience, Lauren alters her body and identity multiple times throughout the novel. However, in Zero K, art is demonstrated through the Convergence setting and the cryogenic bodies created there. The protagonists in Zero K perceive art in multiple different ways. Artis Martineau, who is suffering from lethal illnesses, embraces transhumanist ideals and believes that preserving bodies is kind of a body art that is supposed to live immortally. By contrast, Jeffrey, the narrator, feels outcast due to the art represented in the Convergence which does not fit in his apprehension of art. Besides, he is unable to understand his father's (Ross Lockhart's) quest of joining Artis to be cryopreserved. The novel unveils that the narrator Jeffrey was traumatized by the loss of his mother, Madeliene, and the abandonment of his father, Ross, when he was a child. For Freudian trauma theory, Jeffrey's disorientation in the Convergence mainly points out his unhealed traumatic experiences. The novel also indicates trauma on a collective basis through Artis and the others in Convergence who attempt to skip death as an ultimate trauma. As a consequence, death stands as a counterforce for art in both novels. The protagonists of both novels attempt to use art as a tool for therapeutic healing or a solution to their traumas by employing distinct approaches.
Racial identity through a trauma based approach in Passing (1929) by Nella Larsen and the Vanishing Half (2020) by Brit Bennett
This thesis analyzes the theme racial discrimination in Nella Larsen's Passing (1929) and Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half (2020) through the lens of trauma theory. The aim of this study is to shed light on the significant effects of racial trauma on the psychological makeup of individuals and the dynamics of communities within these literary works by closely examining the lived experiences and psychological dynamics of characters negotiating racial identity and social expectations. Utilizing multidisciplinary frameworks from the disciplines of psychology and literary criticism, a qualitative textual analysis methodology to investigate the complex ways in which racial trauma is manifested throughout the experiences of the main characters is provided. The intricacies of racial classification, intergenerational trauma, identity formation, and racial passing are among the main subjects that are examined. The theoretical framework of racial trauma offers a critical perspective to study the characters' psychological struggles, interpersonal relationships, and societal boundaries. Thus, the ongoing consequences of systematic racism on individual consciousness by examining the ways that historical legacies of racial oppression resonate through the narratives are clarified. Additionally, in this study, how Larsen and Bennett illustrate the complex aspects of racial trauma using literary devices including narrative structure, characterization, and symbolism is analyzed. To this end, this study demonstrates the many yet related ways in which these writers address the legacy of racial injustice through close readings and comparative analysis. To sum up, fresh perspectives on the intricacies of racial identity construction to the larger discourse about race, trauma, and literature are added in this study. Through the application of a racial trauma theoretical framework to these literary texts, this study aims to shed light on the agency and resilience of individuals navigating these dangerous environments while also contributing to a deeper understanding of the deep and frequently unseen wounds caused by systemic racism.
Reclaiming authenticity and sincerity in the digital age: Patricia Lockwood's No One Is Talking About This (2021) and Jennifer Egan's The Candy House (2022)
In the digital age, starting with the millennium, authenticity and sincerity have become increasingly elusive concepts as technology reshapes the way individuals connect, communicate, and perceive themselves. The social media, hyperconnectivity, and memory-sharing technologies have introduced new complexities into human relationships, often blurring the boundaries between the real and the artificial. This thesis examines how these issues are reflected in contemporary literature, specifically through Patricia Lockwood's No One Is Talking About This (2021) and Jennifer Egan's The Candy House (2022). Both novels explore the impact of technology on human identity and relationships, criticizing the erosion of genuine connection while navigating the frameworks of postmodernism and post-postmodernism. While both novels employ postmodern techniques to reflect the fractured nature of contemporary life, they also transition toward post-postmodern themes of reconstruction and reconnection. No One Is Talking About This adopts a more optimistic stance, emphasizing the possibility of reclaiming authenticity and sincerity through disengagement from technology. On the other hand, The Candy House portrays a more complex relationship with technology, acknowledging both its dangers and its potential for fostering self-discovery and connection. The research concludes that these novels illustrate the severe impact of technology on authenticity and sincerity, while also offering pathways for their recovery. In a world where hyperconnectivity often leads to isolation, pretense, and superficial relationships, literature remains a critical tool for examining what it means to be human. As technology continues to evolve, these narratives emphasize the enduring importance of authenticity and sincerity in preserving meaningful human experiences.
Insanity's crescendo: Mental illness and its effect on literary production with(out) treatment in John Porcellino's The Hospital Suite (2014) and Rachel Lindsay's RX: A Graphic Memoir (2018)
In this thesis, the representation of mental disability, stigma, and patient autonomy in John Porcellino's The Hospital Suite (2014) and Rachel Lindsay's RX: A Graphic Memoir (2018) are explored through the frameworks of disability studies and medical humanities. In this thesis, it is argued that both memoirs challenge the stigmatization of mental illness by foregrounding the experiences of psychiatric patients, drawing on the distinction between the medical and social models of disability. While Porcellino's narrative portrays obsession triggered by physical illness, Lindsay criticizes societal and familial pressures that normalize forced treatment, especially considering past pathologization of feminine emotion and gender-based standards. The ethical debates surrounding autonomy in mental health care, particularly the right to refuse treatment or hospitalization, are studied in detail. By analyzing how Porcellino and Lindsay navigate these issues, the significance of patient-centered approaches that take individual experiences and preferences into account is underscored. As both works illustrate how artistic expression can serve as a tool for personal healing, the healing power of art is also emphasized. In this study, how stigma functions within the biomedical model and how the biopsychosocial model, which combines biological, psychological, and social factors, provides a more comprehensive understanding of mental health are considered. Ultimately, the broader impact of integrating humanities into the conversation about mental health, particularly in regard to creativity, patient care, and the portrayal of disabilities is emphasized in this study.
Postmemory and the search for identity in contemporary native American novels
This study will analyze Native American traditions, culture and the reconstruction of identity in the novels of four Native American authors ,which include autobiographical elements: Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony (1986), Louis Owens' The Sharpest Sight (1991), Linda Hogan's Power (1999), and Diane Glancy's Pushing the Bear: After the Trail of Tears (2009). The concepts of warriors, totem animals, the lost land and the traditions of the Native Americans will be discussed. The aim is to analyze the selected novels by using Marianne Hirsch's concept of postmemory in order to show how the next generations bridge the gap between themselves and their culture, history, land, and ancestors which are inseparable for Native Americans. In the light of Hirsch's approach, the reconstruction of Native American identity and creating new memories will be demonstrated.
Posthümanist bireyliğe doğru: Isaac Asimov'un ve Clifford d. Simak'in kısa bilim kurgu öykülerinde bireylik
The aim of this study is to analyze Isaac Asimov's and Clifford D. Simak's short science fiction stories that feature robot characters, with the objective of identifying to what extent they are allowed to display the six personhood criteria of sentience, emotionality, reason, the capacity to communicate, self-awareness and moral agency, as delineated by Mary Anne Warren and Susan Leigh Anderson. Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, which exemplify his humanistic outlook, do not permit many of his robot characters to attain the aforementioned six criteria. Thus, most Asimovian robots do not convey an impression of personhood. In contrast to Asimov's robot characters, Simak's robot characters create the impression of a human being wearing metalface because they fully manifest all six personhood criteria. Simak's depiction of behaviorally humanlike robots demonstrates that the author was able to anticipate a posthumanist and transhumanist perspective in his science fiction.
A nietzschean reading of cormac Mccarthy's Blood Meridian Or the Evening Redness in the west and The Road
Through his career, as an appreciated American Southern writer, Cormac McCarthy has written on issues such as necrophilia, incest and violence by creating gothic atmospheres and employing grotesque elements to disrupt the norms of the world and the society. Some critics also assure that some of McCarthy's works are the critique of contemporary agendas of the time in which the works were written. While Blood Meridian, Or the Evening Redness in the West (1985), which is indeed a western novel set in the mid-1800s, can be read as a critique on America's capitalist and expansionist policy against communist Vietnam, McCarthy's recent novel The Road (2006) is considered as a signifier of the crisis of climate change. This thesis offers a Nietzschean reading of the two novels mentioned above, mainly based upon Nietzsche's idea of eternal return, by emphasizing the implicit connection between them. According to Nietzsche, time moves in a circular shape in which everything repeats itself eternally. This philosophy opposes religious doctrines which construct all their norms on a linear time line. The concept of a linear time line serves religions' reward and punishment notions because owing to time's horizontal movement, man can be held responsible for his actions in the past and be rewarded or punished in the future. However, in Nietzsche's circular time, the past is also a point in the future, while the future has already occurred in the past. Taking Nietzsche's philosophy into consideration, in Blood Meridian, McCarthy does not only criticize the violence the U.S. committed, but also reveals that war and destruction are ever-present in human history and they will always prevail. The cauterized world of The Road is the consequence of the violent acts which man performed to rule the world in Blood Meridian. In both novels, the representation of the ambivalent nature of existence that depends on creation as well as destruction is based on Nietzsche's idea of eternal return. By emphasizing the ambivalent nature of the eternal return in history, McCarthy portrays humankind simultaneously entrapped and liberated within the cycle of life. Keywords: Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, The Road, Nietzsche, Eternal Return
Myth, folkways and identity in Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima and Tortuga
The 20th century is marked by social, cultural and political movements which paved the way for new literary studies. One of these movements is El Movimiento, or the Chicano Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 70s, which was a reaction against the Anglo-American status quo due to the fact that Chicanxs were treated as minorities living in the United States. Therefore, the Chicano Movement was a big step for 'Mexican- Americans' or 'Hispanics' to cry out their own Chicanidad, or Chicanx identity, which indicates not only Spanish roots but also particularly brings back the indigenous heritage that was disregarded by the status quo. Born out of the Chicano Movement, the cultural framework of the Aztlán Myth, which is the idea of an Aztec homeland, is the strategy to re-claim indigenous culture and traditions. These reactions which were practiced in the social and political arena of the Chicano Movement also found a place in the literary world. Rudolfo Alfonso Anaya, who is regarded the founder of the Chicanx literary canon, participated in the Chicano Movement. He has been holding a cultural nationalist stance in Chicanx cultural criticism and this stance is reflected in his fiction. Thus, in Chicanx consciousness, it is essential for him to revive the lost and repressed indigenous past, culture and tradition that flourished in the Southwest United States with particular reference to New Mexico, which is used as a symbolic representation of the ideal homeland for Chicanxs. Based on this context, the aim of this study is to analyze the representation of Chicanx identity formation in Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima and Tortuga within the theoretical framework of Mary Louise Pratt's contact zone and Fernando Ortiz's theory of transculturation. This study also shows how Anaya deals with Chicanx identity by applying the mythical past by means of the Aztlán myth, which exerts a healing and uniting power on Chicanx people. Chapter 1 will illustrate how the protagonists represent the dualities of Chicanxs through the application of Pratt's theory to the lives of the protagonists. Later chapters within the framework of transculturation will demonstrate how the protagonists harmonize their bi-cultural heritage through myth, New Mexico's natural features and the curandera figure, which are three connected concepts that stand for indigenous traditions. Keywords: Chicanx identity, Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima, Tortuga, Native culture
Women and medicine in Robin Oliveira's My Name is Mary Sutter and Ami Mckay's The Birth House
The period from the beginning of the American Civil War to the end of the First World War is of great importance for the history of medicine and women's place in society. Two young midwives living in this period reveal the male-dominated medical world from their unique perspectives. Mary Sutter, the protagonist of My Name Is Mary Sutter, shows the barriers in women's access to medical education and how to overcome these obstacles step by step as an assistant surgeon during the Civil War. Her desire to be a surgeon, which is against the traditional family and social structure, is either rejected or ridiculed. At the beginning of the 20th century, advancements in the field of gynecology reached even the most remote corners of Canada. In The Birth House, at Scots Bay, the rivalry between traditional methods and the modern approach to medicine is demonstrated through the elderly midwife Ms. B. and Dr. Thomas. The transition from natural methods to modern medicine, together with the doctor's discriminatory perspective against women, which is in line with the historical framework of that period, shapes the mindset of the protagonist, Dora. In the first chapter, the progress and regressions arising from change in both novels are examined within the scope of Raymond Williams' cultural theory of the Residual, Dominant and Emergent. In the second part, the repercussions of restriction of the working areas of midwives, new techniques in childbirth, sexuality and contraception are examined through the association between First Wave Feminism and the history of medicine. This thesis aims to examine women's involvement in medicine in accordance with First Wave Feminism, and to elaborate on this subject through Raymond Williams's cultural theory of the Residual, Dominant and Emergent.
Trauma and potential healing in Lan Cao's Monkey Bridge and The Lotus and the Storm
Nearly half a century since its end, the Vietnam War still continues to hold a strong place in the memories of the nations involved and of people who were subjected to the atrocities. However, debates on the effects of the War have always revolved around a U.S.-centered perspective excluding the Vietnamese experience. Mainstream American cultural productions have an influential role in foregrounding the American veterans' experience and thus erasing the Vietnamese voice related to the War. As such, Vietnamese American literature appears as a response to the dominant American discourse on the Vietnam War and concentrates on the experiences of the Vietnamese who have been marginalized in the U.S. after immigration. Being a 1.5 generation Vietnamese, a term used to describe the people who were born in Vietnam and moved to the U.S. at an early age due to the War, Lan Cao places emphasis on the impact of the War on the Vietnamese war survivors in her novels, Monkey Bridge (1997) and The Lotus and the Storm (2014). Both novels demonstrate the consequences of traumatic past events in the present lives of the individuals through multiple symptoms depending on their distinct experiences, character traits, beliefs and present condition. Besides individual traumas, Cao's novels attach importance to the impact of the War as a collectively experienced phenomenon leading to collective trauma. Despite the violence causing individual and collective traumas, Cao does not portray the Vietnamese as helpless victims constantly in a pathological state, rather, they are depicted as trauma survivors who struggle to recover. Hence, this study aims to explore the representations of trauma at individual and collective levels and the efforts carried out at both levels for potential healing in the two novels. To better understand the trauma of the Vietnamese war survivors and their healing efforts, this study utilizes both traditional models of trauma theory that focus on the effects of trauma on the individual psyche and pluralistic approaches to trauma that highlight the importance of distinct experiences and contexts in which these experiences are situated and diverse paths taken by individuals for potential healing. Keywords: Lan Cao, Trauma, Healing, Vietnam War, Vietnamese American
Complex childhood trauma and coping mechanisms in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina
Trauma is the psychological response to an event or experience that breaks through the shield of the mind and overwhelms the functioning of the subject. Traumatization may occur through a single event such as rape but may also occur because of an ongoing chronic condition such as classism, racism and sexual abuse in society. With the advent of PTSD in 1980, the study areas of trauma expanded to rape, child abuse and various other traumatic experiences that especially involved women and non-western people. Thus, trauma has become a concept that transgresses disciplinary boundaries. Considering this, taboo topics such as rape and child sexual abuse started to be discussed in literature. Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye (1970) and Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina (1992) deal with the protagonists' complex traumas that are caused by child sexual abuse and other social, cultural and political factors. Both Morrison and Allison depict the shaming of their protagonists, Pecola and Bone, their mothers' negligence and their fathers' sexual abuse as the reasons for their traumas. Despite the similarity of their cases, their coping mechanisms and their responses to their traumas differ from each other. Accordingly, the possibility for healing and recovery is not alike. In The Bluest Eye, Pecola, who is a dark skinned African American girl, takes refuge in madness and realizes her ultimate wish of having blue eyes in her imaginary world, in turn, she refuses to become a part of the patriarchal order. She cannot heal; however, madness is not a sign of weakness or failure but an act of resistance and survival. In Bastard Out of Carolina, on the other hand, Bone tries to reconstruct her identity via regaining her control over her body by masturbating to her fantasies and listening to gospels, and revolts against the oppressive norms of patriarchal ideology by attaining a lesbian identity. Both characters present a possibility to reconcile with their traumatic experiences and act against the patriarchal society by using excessive ways of survival.
Feminist representations of the vulnerable self and vulnerable relationality in Idra Novey's Those Who Knew and Ways to Disappear
In her novels Those Who Knew (2018) and Ways to Disappear (2016), the American author Idra Novey depicts how vulnerable people of the twenty-first century have been subjected to multiple forms of political, social, cultural, economic, and gender-based oppression, and how all of these oppressions create a variety of struggles that render them invisible, fragile, and powerless because of deeply entrenched patriarchal practices and mindsets, all of which have had a vulnerable impact on each of the characters to varying degrees. Every single one of these traumatic occurrences, whether directly or indirectly, has affected the characters' entire lives as individuals and members of society. As that of the essential aspect in the formation of the weaknesses, helplessness, and fragility of the self and connection to the other, patriarchy is the primary cause of the abuses and wounds that lead to vulnerability. Idra Novey brings attention to patriarchal norms and practices while shedding light on vulnerable people in her novels Those Who Knew (2018), which addresses a group of people subjected to political oppression; and Ways to Disappear (2016), which portrays a group of individuals in search of a missing author. This thesis will examine how vulnerability arises in individual and relational selves as a result of violence, hegemonic masculinity, and an absence of ethical understanding, hence leaving them invisible, powerless, vulnerable, and dispossessed. This thesis will establish the context within which, from a feminist transformational perspective, the negative connotations of vulnerability will be deconstructed by examining the concepts of openness, passivity, dispossession, irresponsibility, otherness, and unethical practices on the self and relationships. Keywords: Vulnerability, Relationality, Idra Novey, Those Who Knew, Ways to Disappear
Masochism and art as a response to trauma: Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch
This study aims to examine masochism and art as a coping mechanism for trauma by using Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (2005) and The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (2013). In the scope of trauma studies, this thesis will analyze the characters, Oskar Schell and Theo Decker, who mourns for their beloved parents. This study bases on the unpleasure principle theory and regards art as dissociation. Both of them use masochism that drives from unpleasure principle as well as developing an emotional relationship between art and themselves so that they can understand and handle their traumatic experience and its effects. Key Words: trauma, masochism, art, dissociation
(Im)possibility of identity formation: Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and William Gibson's Neuromancer
With the evolving technology, our daily lives are changing extremely fast; the economy, knowledge, human connection and even emotions. As this technological era proceeds humans are straying away from humanity and turning into puppets of this said technology. William Gibson's Neuromancer and Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep both depict a dystopian world in which the technology is extremely advanced but instead of benefiting the society, this advancements turn into control tools for the government over the society. Both of these novels are a perfect criticism of how the present and future day technological advancements swallow the society, and how this is abused by the government in order to gain power over society. Initially Katherine Hayles's and Donna Haraway's cyborg and posthuman theories were used to analyze the (im)possibility of identity formation. This thesis claims that by portraying post-apocalyptic worlds, both novels address the collective fear of losing the ability of feeling in the face of rapid technological advancement and show that without emotions one cannot possess an identity. Since emotions define human beings, they play an important role in the identity formation process. In this respect, this thesis explores these novels by focusing on the protagonists' struggle with the technology used as a state power and control, and their strategies to form a liminal identity that can adapt to technological developments while preserving their human traits. They also offer ways to survive in a dystopian world by using technology in a beneficial rather than a harmful way. In other words, combining technological elements with human traits such as feeling, thinking and the ability to act ethically, both novels show that the humanity can only survive through adopting this liminal identity. Both novels through their ideas and their way of applying the elements of dystopia and posthuman; support the idea of a necessity combination of both posthuman and human identities in order for a chance of survival in the future.
'Postcolonial' con-texts: Re-inventing asianness
ABSTRACT 'PostcoloniaP Con-Texts: Re-inventing Asianness Berkem Gürenci M. A. In American Culture and Literature Advisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Laurence Raw June, 2002 As the term of 'postcolonial literature' has been applied to a large group of texts, 'Postcolonialism' has in many ways become an umbrella term that led to a generalisation of experience. This thesis, through the analyses of Hanif Kureishi's The Buddha of Suburbia and Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine proceeds on the assumption that no two pieces of work even from the same context, can be said to reflect common experience. Even though Hanif Kureishi and Bharati Mukherjee have both been considered "postcolonial" authors reflecting 'common experiences' and hybridities in their literature, their representation of multiculturalism in Great Britain and the United States attests to the importance of individual experience in the construction of identity in their novels. Keywords: Postcolonialism, Multiculturalism, Hybridity, Hanif Kureishi, Bharati Mukherjee m
Narrating mother-daughter relationships: A kleinian analysis of Joyce Carol Oates's later novels
The mother-daughter relationship has been a recurrent theme in Joyce Carol Oates's fiction, whose career spans a period of over fifty years. Three of her recent novels—I'll Take You There (2002),Missing Mom (2005), and Mudwoman (2012)—attest to the writer's sustained interest in placing the stories of the protagonists within the context of their complicated psychological connections with their mothers. Oates's novels gain added interest when read in the light of the Austrian British psychoanalyst Melanie Klein's object-relations theory, which posits that an infant's early relationship with his/her mother will bear an immense influence on his/her psychological life as an adult. According to Klein, an infant goes through two main developmental phases in the first year of life: "the paranoid-schizoid position" and "the depressive position." In the former, the infant perceives the mother in a fragmentary way, as a composite of the part-objects of "the good breast" (when his/her needs are satisfied) and the "bad breast" (when s/he feels frustrated). As s/he continues to work through the polar emotions of satisfaction and aggression, love and hatred through this stage, the infant gradually enters the second phase where s/he begins to perceive the mother as a whole object and develops more sophisticated emotions such as guilt: entertaining the notion that his/her own aggression might have caused the loss of "the good breast," s/he attempts "reparation," an emotional state that can also be observed in adults who mourn for their loved ones. While all of Oates's three recent novels are plotted around the common core of the daughters' struggles to come to terms with the loss of their mothers, this thesis argues, Oates introduces compelling variations to her representation of the mother-daughter relationship in each novel, variations that can best be understood through the insights provided by the Kleinian theory. The thesis discusses how these variations are reflected in the narrative technique of each novel as well.
Bellow's assimilated protagonists:The representation of Jewish American nessand identity in Saul Bellow's the Victim, Seize the Day, and Herzog
Jewish-Americanness is an overwhelming and recurrent themein Saul Bellow's fiction. Three of his novels—The Victim(1947), Seize the Day (1956), and Herzog (1964)— affirm the author's sustained interest in placing the stories of the protagonistswithin the context of their social and culturalin-betweenness.AsaLeventhal in The Victim, Tommy Wilhelm in Seize the Day, and Herzog in Herzog lack father figures,and they internalize American culture as they accept it as the moral authority.Yet they entrap themselves into their neurosis, which is brought about by their Jewish collective unconscious. Eventually they come to terms with their Jewish-American identity. In exploring the representation of the assimilation process of the three Bellovian protagonists, this thesis applies Sigmund Freud's super-ego formation process and Carl G. Jung's concept of the collective unconscious and rebirth. By doing so, this thesis initially demonstrates how Bellow's three protagonists, namely AsaLeventhal in The Victim, Tommy Wilhelm in Seize the Day, and Herzog in Herzog deny their father's authority and internalize American culture. Thereafter, the aim is to present how these three protagonists are under the control of their Jewish collective unconscious. Ultimately, they achieve self-awareness. As they assimilate themselves into American culture and also embrace their Jewish heritage, they are finally reborn and they come to terms with their Jewish-American identity. The Freudian concept of the super-ego provides the assimilation process of Bellow's protagonists in The Victim, Seize the Day and Herzog into the American culture by denying their father figure and internalizing the moral principles of American culture. Thus, the assimilated protagonists internalize the moral dictates of American culture that they accept as an authority, which have an impact on the development of their characteristics. Meanwhile, the Jungian concept of the collective unconscious provides compelling forces into the psychological trials the assimilated protagonists of Bellow undergo upon the loss of their Jewish ancestors in the Holocaust. Finally, the Jungian concept of rebirth provides the framework in which the representation ofBellow's assimilated protagonists become meaningful. As they observe death and are, then, able to accept life as it is, thereby are reborn. They embrace both the values of American culture and their Jewish heritage in such a way that they celebrate their hybrid identities. Keywords: Saul Bellow, The Victim, Seize the Day, Herzog, Jewish-American Identity
Generic Hybridity in Adrienne Kennedy's drama: The Alexander plays
This study will analyze African-American playwright Adrienne Kennedy's The Alexander Plays (1992), paying close attention to how she experimentally blends literary and dramatic genres. Comprising the one-act plays She Talks to Beethoven, Ohio State Murders, The Film Club, and Dramatic Circle, the tetralogy explores the costs of racist discrimination and violence to African Americans in general, and to African-American women and children in particular. The intellectual and political backdrop of the plays coincides with the years of the Civil Rights Movement, a period which also marked Kennedy's coming of age as an innovative playwright. All the plays feature the autobiographical character Suzanne Alexander as the protagonist. The process whereby Suzanne becomes a politically conscious and artistically sophisticated dramatist is reenacted through Kennedy's juxtaposition of several literary genres and genre conventions of autobiography, creative nonfiction, neo-slave narrative, and gothic fiction on the one hand, as well as the theatrical conventions of expressionism, surrealism, and radio drama on the other.
A dialogic quest for identity: Coming to terms with the present through the past in Leslie Marmon Silko's Almanac Of The Dead and Gardens In The Dunes.
This study investigates Native Americans' quest for identity in two of Leslie Marmon Silko's novels, Almanac of the Dead (1991) and Gardens in the Dunes (1999). The cultural coexistence of white Americans and Native Americans leads to an awareness that the world is not the same in which Native Americans used to live. The changing world which is depicted as a consequence of the appearance of white Americans in both novels constructs one of the central themes of Almanac and Gardens. With the appearance of white Americans, Native Americans try to adjust to the changing world, in other words, the co-existence of the two cultures brings the question of identity. This thesis provides a comparative examination of the two novels in which the protagonists try to come to terms with their present through the past, since the past plays a significant role in the life of Native Americans who endeavor to adjust to the changing world. The analysis will be conducted in the light of M. M. Bakhtin's theory of dialogism, which is based on the discourse in novels. Bakhtin's theory defines the system of languages to point out the ideological centre in a novel, and the aim of this study is to underline the difference between the two cultures through their utterances.
A portrayal of the south in F. Scott Fitzgerald's short stories: From nostalgic idealism to critical skepticism
Each decade has a major author who captures the culture and spirit of the era and sets the literary context from which other prominent works emerge. For the 1920's it was Francis Scott Fitzgerald, the "social historian" of the "Jazz Age," a term Fitzgerald himself coined to describe the glitz and glamour of the Roaring 20s. Fitzgerald epitomized his generation with personal experiences; his characters became symbols of his generation and facet of American culture. Nevertheless, to remember Fitzgerald only as a spokesman of the Jazz Age would be to do injustice to many of his insightful other stories that reflect his keen interest in the Old South and its dying traditions. Despite being a Northern and a new generation writer, for Fitzgerald the south had a special meaning and place in his memory. His fascination with the South is due to nostalgia; gracious assets that are gone with the wind as he regarded the South as romantic and aristocratic. And thus, the loss of the romantic South in the face of new world ideals furthered the decay of American societal values and since he believed there was no hope for its betterment, the South could no longer become the redeeming force Fitzgerald once envisioned. So, his treatment of the Southern region in his short stories also changed and the once romantic and optimistic writer of the turn of the century turned into the very bitter and cynical social historian of the Jazz Age. From the very first to the last, his short stories that are based on his real life experiences, feelings, and the prominent people in his life manifest his assessments and sentiments, and in this dissertation, I aim to scrutinize his reflection of the South and what South represents, from its landscape to its belles and cavaliers, from its eloquent beauty to its gradual deterioration and devastation. Keywords: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda Sayre, Autobiografiction, South, North,Short Story, Jazz Age
Linguistically constructed worlds: A comparative analysis
Our lives are composed of big or small stories. People, who are born to these stories, unconsciously accept both the prevailing the "big stories" they are subjected to and the "small stories" they themselves tell as reality. This collectively accepted reality, which is constructed via language, is actually a composite of "big stories" told by the powerful elites. Since power shifts from one group to another through time, what is accepted as reality also changes historically, making the reality of one period falseness at another time. The fact that the ones who hold the power in their hands have changed throughout history results in the emergence and acceptance of different realities in different times. This dissertation aims at analyzing the processes and results of the engulfment of the small stories of the protagonists by the socially constructed big stories in the Canadian author, Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin and the Turkish novelist, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar's Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü (The Time Regulation Institute) against the narratives of these characters who finally manage to tell their stories, hence their own versions of reality. That both these novels underline the constructedness of reality and demonstrate the constant competition among different versions of these realities lies at the core of this dissertation. These novels indicate how those individuals who cannot cope with this competition disappear along with their stories. In this dissertation, the foregrounding of small stories in these two novels has been interpreted as an effort of raising awareness about many other small stories and hence realities.
Gertrude Stein's cognitive poetics: The deconstruction of self and time
Gertrude Stein, one of the prominent authors in American modernist literature, positions herself among the most important figures in the modernist canon in the transition period from the nineteenth century to the twentieth century. She establishes her literary approach by arguing that the twentieth century literature should develop in a different direction. This approach mainly includes the rupture from the patriarchal conventions and the traditional literary methods of the nineteenth century. In this dissertation, the author?s two autobiographies, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas and Everybody?s Autobiography, and her magnum opus, The Making of Americans, are addressed within this framework and examined in terms of object relations theory.The prominent issue in Gertrude Stein?s effort to form an innovative writing is her attempt at relating and defining herself in relation to writing. The position of writing in the the author?s life is examined by focusing on her effort in terms of D.W. Winnicott?s concepts of ?transitional objects? and ?potential spaces?. After questioning the importance of the literary searches in the formation of true self, how this affects the experimental structure of Gertrude Stein?s novel is discussed.In the dissertation, the past histories taking place in the author?s life and affecting her identity as an author it is focused on while examining the autobiographies,. After discussing how the sense of temporality and selfhood is formed and goes under continuous transformation in terms of the relation with other selves within the framework of object relations theory, the reflections of these issues in The Making of Americans are examined.
Wallace Stevens: Geleneksel modernist
Wallace Stevens wrote poetry and theorized almost entirely within a major modernist paradigm built around the question: how does one remake a poetry, and a culture, on the grounds of an exhausted tradition? In the name of renovation, modernist writers frequently become purveyors of the archaic, the obsolete, the ruin, the insufferably quaint. The archaic is part of the motivation for modernist writing. According to T.S. Eliot and Harold Bloom, the fresh individual talent joins the canon only through the complicated drama of violating the past, the tradition, most effectively and properly. Only the misfit is befitting. As the timeless desire to innovate, to break with tradition, modernism is one of the most traditional cultural impulses in art and social life. Such is the ironic, destructive and oddly conservative dialectic of tradition and modernism.Wallace Stevens was a destructive character, and as a destructive character he is one of the most traditional poets. Stevens was a poet who cleared ground for himself and his aesthetic projects?he was a radical, anarchistic poet?and also a poet who made culture and its continuance possible?he was a staunch conservative, a conserver. The funny thing is, his very radicalism is part and parcel of his conservatism.
The stages/spaces of apocalypse: The representations of "the end" in the contemporary American drama
Apocalypse is both an ancient belief that is still prominent and widespread in the contemporary societies and a multidisciplinary issue examined both in the natural and social sciences. In the field of religion, apocalypse has been elucidated mostly in terms of its eschatological dimension which is accompanied by a later interest in its cosmological dimension. This study, as a progression of this late interest in the cosmological dimension, examines the spatial schema of apocalypse in the Judeo-Christian tradition. After a scrutiny on the canonical apocalyptic books such as Ezekiel, Daniel, Isaiah and Revelation, this study proposes a five-fold structure for the spatial dimension of apocalypse which respectively includes the three-tiered conceptualization of a universe (heaven-earth-underworld), the boundary crossings between these tiers, cosmic conflict between good and evil, cosmic destruction and finally cosmic renewal. This study compares and contrasts this five-fold spatial pattern of apocalypse in the biblical tradition to its representations in the American drama.As the representatives of the apocalyptic visions in the contemporary American drama, seven plays are chosen. The selected plays are Gertrude Stein?s Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights, Thornton Wilder?s The Skin of Our Teeth, Sam Shepard?s Back Bog Beast Bait, Tennessee Williams? The Chalky White Substance, Tony Kushner?s Angels in America, José Rivera?s Marisol and Deborah Zoe Laufer?s End Days. As a result of such a comparison between the traditional apocalypse in the Holy Scriptures and its reinterpretations in the contemporary American drama, the similarities between the two forms evince the enduring influence of the Judeo-Christian tradition in the literary imagination while the differences connote the secularization of the apocalypse.
The use of humor, dream visions and personal recollections as survival strategies in Sherman Alexie's "Reservation blues" and "The lone ranger and tonto fistfight in heaven"
Different in worldviews, Europeans and American Indians have opposed each other since their early contacts. Their dealings with each other, which were based on trade at first, have transformed into a relationship in which American Indians are brutalized and exploited. American Indians have been exposed to both internal and external colonization and assimilation methods of Europeans. In response, they have reacted to avoid assimilation and colonization; they have mostly struggled to keep their tribal identity and values, and they have developed survival strategies embracing their tribal heritage. In this respect, Sherman Alexie?s two works Reservation Blues and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven present American Indian characters who have suffered from the oppression of whites, and their survival strategies that have become a part of their lives. The aim of this study is to reveal and demonstrate, by focusing on Alexie?s works, how American Indians use dream visions and imaginations, which are also essential parts of American Indian worldview, to compensate for their suppressed and unfulfilled wishes; in addition, how they use humor to make reservation life bearable.With the purpose of representing American Indians? struggle to subvert white-dominance with varying strategies, firstly, I analyze the significance of dreams, visions, imaginations and humor for American Indians as the means of surviving. Subsequently, I explore the reflections and evidences of these mentioned survival strategies in the works Reservation Blues and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.
American newsmedia and American politics in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11
It is necessary to admit that media helps manufacturing and shaping public opinion, even public perception. Every new media enlightens and redefines our view of time and space. The information revolution that we are going through at the moment has many direct or indirect effects on our thinking and daily lives.Noam Chomsky carried those ideas into the field of politics. According to Chomsky, the role of the media in contemporary politics makes us question our sense of a democratic society. When democracy exists in a society, that society has the means to take part in the decision-making process of their own matters. But now in Iraq, the public is barred from managing of their own affairs. This again is called democracy thanks to the media. Through disinformation and misinformation the media has determined the general sense of democracy and many other things.Fahrenheit 9/11 is a documentary film from director Michael Moore. Moore radically criticizes the American political-economic system and advances that critique into the mainstream media. The film elaborates on the political condition in the United States. It mainly targets to criticize the direction of the news media and the impact of the attacks of September 11, 2001 on the strengthening of instruments of social repression and control. Fahrenheit 9/11 is another awful truth about how much can be sacrificed for financial gains, how far a bunch of people that leads the super power USA can go to alter the maps and to change the lives of millions of people.The film opens with recalling the horrors of 9/11 in a unique way: showing us a black screen while the sounds of the planes crashing into the buildings are heard on the soundtrack. While the memories of that horror are still fresh in our heads, Moore then proceeds to expose the Bush family's long-standing connections with the Saudi royal family, a fact that few people seemed aware of before this film was released. Moore then goes on to criticize the way in which the Bush administration has exploited the ?War on Terror? for maximum political effectiveness. The peak of this exploitation is the Patriot Act which brought the removal of certain civil rights of ordinary American citizens.The film?s final summarizes its main perspective: ?The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia, but to keep the very structure of society intact.? That is to say that the threat against the American people is the American political and economic system.
The need for victimization and the search for purification in Philip Roth's American trilogy
Myths and archetypes, which are claimed to exist in man?s collective unconscious, are shown as a proof to explain the common behaviour patterns of the individuals and society. These mythical and archetypal images have been reflected in literature especially through tragedies since Old Testament till modern fiction. Though the reasons may differ through history, tragedies reflect the fall of mankind and the pain he suffers as a result of it through several archetypes. The usage of the same archetypes in the tragedies depicting the fall of man due to particular social and historical events of the rea he lives in puts forward the fact that archetypal images are universal, transcending time and place. Two of the archetypal and mythical figures that are generally depicted in tragedies and also evaluated in this thesis are ?scapegoat motif? and ?the need for sacrifice and victimization?. This thesis aims at analyzing the reasons for the need for victimization in different eras of mainly American history and its tragic outcomes that are reflected onto the lives of people in Philip Roth?s ?American Trilogy.? The main emphasis goes to the experiences of tragic heroes who fall victim to the societal rules in Philip Roth?s three recent novels, American Pastoral, I Married a Communist and The Human Stain.
Defining the black mother in Maya Angelou's autobiographical works i know why the caged bird sings and the heart of a woman?
Black Women Autobiographies were expanded in the early 1960?s as a subgenre of Black Autobiography. The Civil Rights Movement and Woman?s Movement emerged in 1960?s also accelerated the black woman?s activism. The black women having the opportunity to dispose of their prejudiced image could express themselves by the help of autobiography.Maya Angelou is a significant writer who has given works in Black American Women Autobiography. Angelou mirrors the lives of black women taking into consideration of her own life. Black mother plays an integrating role in her serious of autobiography. This study attempts to examine the black motherhood concept and explicate the black mother figures in her autobiographies I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and The Heart of a Woman. The historical evolution of black mothers from slavery to freedom, and the definitions of black motherhood by African American writers will be also examined in order to understand Angelou?s attitude toward motherhood. Angelou presents the dominant mother figures around and then she shares her personal experiences of motherhood after the birth of her son.In this study, women-men relationships, the changing balances in marriage, alternative mother figures, and mother-child relationship will be covered to help to define the black motherhood. The voices, the slave songs and stories Angelou used in her autobiographies also reflect her African American point of view. The fact that she includes some political events from history and famous people from real life contribute her autobiographies to be very much like real life.
Loss of cultural identity in Anne Tyler's digging to America
America is a country which shelters people of different origins. People from different countries, including Iranians too, immigrated to America for various reasons. Only the political developments between America and Iran, such as the Iranian Revolution, the Iranian hostage crisis and finally September 11th attacks strained the relations between these countries. As a result of the developments, especially after the September 11th attacks, America incriminated Iran, an Islamic country. Owing to America?s inclusion of Iran in the ?axis of evil?, Iranians have been treated with prejudice. Research shows that, Iranians, who are in a difficult position on account of this negative attitude, experience hardships in their social lives, feel estranged from their identity and alienated from their own culture.The objective of this thesis is to study how Iranians distanced themselves from their own cultural identity, on account of the emerging negative Iranian image, and tried to adopt American identity in Anne Tyler?s novel, Digging to America. This novel of Anne Tyler?s is important in that it addresses the identity crisis resulting from the impact of Western prejudice.
Claiming the Right to the City: Representations of Los Angeles in the Works of Boyle, Tobar, and Yamashita
The increasing role of the "city" in today's neoliberal policies of global accumulation, capital and wealth has received considerable attention among many urban scholars. This is because the commodification, gentrification and privatization of urban spaces pose not only great challenges and difficulties but also opportunities for the urban dweller. At the right time and place urban consciousness can raise awareness and give rise to the creation of new types of spaces -- spaces that can function as sites of contestation and resistance. This dissertation offers an in-depth study of three Los Angeles novels, T. C. Boyle's The Tortilla Curtain (1995), Hector Tobar's The Tattooed Soldier (1998), and Karen Tei Yamashita's Tropic of Orange (1997) in order to display the processes of capitalist production of space and urban everyday life that have given rise to various forms of spatial resistance, particularly, the subversive act of claiming the right to the city. First formulated by Henri Lefebvre, the right to the city is far more than the individual right to access urban resources regardless of one's ethnicity, gender and class. It is the reimagining of the city as a powerful site of contestation that holds vast potential for revolutionary action and change. In this formulation, art and literature, cooperating with everyday resistance and creative experimentation in the city, can interrupt the hegemonic spatial organization of late capitalism and open up possibilities for a revolutionary future. The spatial framework of T.C. Boyle's The Tortilla Curtain, Hector Tobar's The Tattooed Soldier, and Karen Tei Yamashita's Tropic of Orange is centered upon urban politics to deal with the compelling issues of immigration, homelessness, and social justice in the city of Los Angeles. The novels render Los Angeles as a strategic site of global capitalism as well as a contested space of resistance against power structures. By advancing the idea of the right to the city as a common ground for resistance against oppressive forces, all three writers imagine the city as having the redemptive power to change lives and bring social change. Tracing the urban tension that accumulates below the city as a reverberation of neoliberal urbanization processes, these texts coalesce around an urban consciousness that searches for a creative and revolutionary urban life against the segregating and alienating logics of capitalist city. Departing from Lefebvre's idea that art and literature bring new dimensions to urban studies in imagining alternative forms of urbanism and everyday life, the dissertation analyzes the spatiality of these three literary works in order to forge closer ties between urban studies and literary criticism and contribute to the ongoing scholarship of the right to the city. Keywords: City, Space, The Right to the City, Production of Space, Los Angeles, Urban consciousness, Resistance, American Literature, Henri Lefebvre, T.C. Boyle, Hector Tobar, Karen Tei Yamashita
Mary Lee Settle's Blood Tie as a cultural encounter
ABSTRACTMaster of Arts DegreeMary Lee Settle?s Blood Tie as a Cultural EncounterA. Hilal ŞENGENÇDokuz Eylül UniversityGraduate Institute Of Social SciencesAmerican Culture and Literature DepartmentLiterature has been one of the important sites in which the ideology and impactof colonialism can evidently be observed. Studies have shown that the spirit ofcolonialism as a recurrent feature of human history has been reanimated today withglobalization. The aim of this thesis is to analyze how the ideology and impact ofcolonialism in its contemporary forms and resistances that are developed to dismantlethis ideology are reflected in contemporary literature, particularly in Mary Lee Settle?snovel Blood Tie.After an analysis of Blood Tie, in which Mary Lee Settle has sought out theimpact of new forms of colonialism and the ways of dismantling the colonial condition inTurkey, it is evidently seen that the neo-colonial hegemony of Western culture is initiallycriticized by women writers from Western culture again, in lieu of the representatives ofdominated cultures. What Settle emphasizes in this novel is the vital necessity forclaiming one?s own culture in order to overcome the colonial condition. In conclusion,such works as Blood Tie should inspire Turkish writers and critics for materializing thetask of representing their own culture through the eyes of insiders.KEY WORDS: 1- Colonialism, 2- Post-colonialism, 3-Globalization, 4- Culture,5- Gender
Double repression of black women in the Bluest Eye and Color Purple
ABSTRACTMaster of Arts DegreeDouble Repression of Black Women in the Bluest Eye and Color PurpleElif ARSLANDokuz Eylul UniversityGraduate Institute Of Social SciencesAmerican Culture and Literature DepartmentThe purpose of this thesis is to illustrate the prevailing racist and sexistpractices in the United States, and particularly to examine the adverse effects ofracism and sexism in black communities and specifically black women. Thethesis uses Alice Walker?s The Color Purple and Toni Morrison?s The BluestEye to examine to what extent racism and sexism have influenced black people?slives.Upon examining the two novels, it becomes evident that in the face ofracist and sexist politics in the United States, black woman is the one thatsuffers most due to her skin-color and gender that somehow put her into asubservient position. However, as Alice Walker in her novel points out, thedesignated position of black women should not be regarded as theirunchangeable fates. The solution lies in creating a web of cooperation andsupport within the community. To summarize, tolerance and unity beliefs inblack community can eventually enable the rise of the suppressed individuals.KEY WORDS: 1- Racism, 2- Sexism, 3-Black Community, 4- Gender, 5-Skin Color
Defining the Beats: Jack Kerouac's On the Road
The Beat Generation is the concept, which describes a literary and cultural movement that arose during the 1950s and continued during the 60s. The word Beat belongs to the jazz slang and people who prefer to live outside the mainstream values of America. The Beats were disillusioned and they believed in spontaneity. The masterpiece of the Beat Movement was Jack Kerouac's On the Road. The purpose of this study, is to show that On the Road is not only a novel which reflects the Beat lifestyle as in drug use, listening to jazz music and traveling aimlessly from one coast to another coast The travels actually reflect that the Beats go through a process of transformation. In order to show how this transformation occurs, I have used three different point of views. These are, Michel Butor's categorization of travel, Susan Roberson's concept of a mobile home and lastly, Julia Kristeva's point of view on the "foreigner." In conclusion, with the help of the perspectives that I have mentioned above, after analyzing On the Road, I have reached the conclusion that "travel" occurs in two ways. The first one is on the outside, physically done on the road, and the other one is the inward travel that a character does to the "self." In both types of travels, the character changes and returns home in a different state from how he had started out the journey. VI
Doğanın yetiştirdiği: Delia Owens'ın Where the Crawdads Sing adlı romanının ekofeminist okuması
From the first humans to the present day, women and nature have a deep bond because of their similar characteristics. Although their similarities of giving life and nurturing caused women and nature to be seen as sacred entities often referred to as "Great Mother" and "Mother Goddess" respectively in Paleolithic and Neolithic societies, this bond has also led to their exploitation especially with the rise of patriarchy. Ecofeminism as a movement, which emerged from the merging and development of feminism and ecology, attempts to raise consciousness against this exploitation. The ecofeminism movement aims to raise awareness of the oppression of a patriarchal society and lead an egalitarian, oppression-free, sustainable life with high prosperity. Ecofeminist thought is a radical critique of patriarchal capitalism because ecofeminists challenge Western binary oppositions, which lie at the root of all hierarchies and exploitative ideologies. This thesis will demonstrate how Delia Owens's novel Where the Crawdads Sing challenges these dichotomies especially by offering an alternative unity in the Paleolithic image of the Great Mother, whose wholeness was divided in the Neolithic image of the Earth Mother. Whereas the Great Mother encompasses oppositions between light and dark, life and death, good and bad in a continuing cyclicity, the Earth Mother, whose sole purpose is to serve humans, was created in the image of men. While making this analysis, the views of various ecofeminists such as Carolyn Merchant, Vandana Shiva, and Val Plumwood have been referred to; especially Catherine M. Roach's references to the binary opposition of good mother and bad mother has helped analyze nature's nurturing and destructive features. In examining and analyzing the undivided image of the Great Mother as it is manifested in Where the Crawdads Sing in the continuity of the marsh and swamp, life and death, light and dark, day and night, this thesis aims to provide an ecofeminist alternative to the existing patriarchal norms based on binary oppositions that exile disobedient women such as the protagonist Kya and wild nature to margins and non-existence.
Çağdaş Amerikan tiyatrosunda transgender performatifliği ve öznelliği
Transgender studies, integrating discussions on essentialism and social constructionism in gender studies, provide a unique principal point that empowers the interpretation of alternative sexualities and the performance of non-traditional gender roles. The studies on differences between the biological sex and gender identities of transgender individuals decentralize conventional heteronormative understandings about bodies and identities. In addition to some significant debates on transgender authenticity, rage, visibility, agency, voice, transgression, and violence, transgender studies focus on the role of performativity and subjectivity attempting to understand transgender identities. Besides the theoretical perspective provided by transgender studies, transgender identities are also depicted and explored in the different genres such as fiction, non-fiction, films, musicals, and TV series. Also, in the theater genre, transgender identity is becoming more and more visible in which performativity and subjectivity are further questioned and scrutinized. These performances play a fundamental role in contributing narratives for identifying transgender individuals and positioning transgender individuals' subjectivity. This study concentrates on transgender performativity and subjectivity in three plays titled Hidden: A Gender (1989) by Kate Bornstein, I am My Own Wife (2003) by Doug Wright, and Tara's Crossing (2004) by Jeffrey Solomon. These plays not only represent the gender performances and subjectivity of transgender individuals but also challenge heteropatriarchy in contemporary world. Keywords: Gender, Transgender, Performativity, Subjectivity, Kate Bornstein, Hidden: A Gender, Jeffrey Solomon, Tara's Crossing, Doug Wright, I am My Own Wife.
Umudun tohumlarını ekmek: Solarpunk geleceklerin detaylı incelemesi
Since its inception, science fiction has been dominated by white male writers. Therefore, components of the patriarchal thought system such as dualist, discriminatory, and hierarchical elements have been dominant and preventing it from reaching its full potential. The genre not only developed difficult-to-break schemes, but also it gradually took on a dystopian form and began to destroy hopes for the future. So, many countercultural movements both in real life and in literature, such as ecofeminism and the New Wave movement have begun to respond to this situation. Although the impact of their resistance could not last long, it is resurrected in the twenty-first century eventually under the name of Solarpunk. It is a derivative of Cyberpunk and is affected by other punk subgenres. This new subgenre uses speculative narratives to find solutions to today's problems, focusing on the interdependence of environmental destruction and social inequalities. As a result, it has an ecofeminist thought in its philosophy that is not highlighted enough in academic studies and this aspect becomes increasingly dominant in each new anthology. Throughout this analysis, the importance of Solarpunk for the well-being of the world and all living things in it will be emphasized because the subgenre recognizes that what can not be imagined can not be managed. Therefore, it directs its readers to critical thinking, instills hope, and motivates them to take action by presenting positive future visions through sensitive discourse. Selected stories from four anthologies, including the first and last anthologies, will be analyzed to understand the growing influence of ecofeminism in Solarpunk, which uses narratives as a method of activism. Its narratives' similarities with critical utopias that emerged with the New Wave movement are shown, and it will be proved that it is the most important subgenre within the punk subgenres, allowing the true potential of science fiction to emerge. Keywords: Solarpunk, Ecofeminism, Science Fiction, Critical Utopia, Cyberpunk, Steampunk, Dieselpunk
Pastoral Amerika'yı ve eski güzel günlerin basit yollarını yeniden gözden geçirme: Richard Brautigan'ın kültürel kaçışı ve kimlik ile deneyi
Pastoral has been related to the ancient lands flooded with shepherds, bovines, and placid verdant veins of nature. Over the years, in this pastoral portrait, the shepherd figure has changed into an ordinary person seeking an escape from the urban cacophony that wounds the soul. The panacea for this wounded soul is nature, which can present an epicurean Theocritean pastoral, a glamorized Arcadia of Virgil, or the American pastoral dream that forges as a treatment for weary hearts that desires to be regenerated in the cornucopia of America. In this light, pastoral escapism is a reverie for a nascent form of life away from the gray constructed walls of urban that do not have a window opening to the warmth of nature. Henry David Thoreau and Earnest Hemingway escape from these gray walls and heal their wounded souls in the warm colors of the heart of nature. However, one might be stuck in these gray urban walls and might not escape in any scenario. This thesis scrutinizes Richard Brautigan's bleak journey for pastoral in A Confederate General from Big Sur, Trout Fishing in America, and In Watermelon Sugar. He endeavors to reach pastoral as the frontiersmen, tries to purify the Julia Kristevan "abject," and attempts to establish an Arcadia, but the dualism of urban and rural paralyzed, and urban re-emerges as Sigmund Freudian "uncanny." The postmodern world does not let Brautigan breathe in the pastoral realm; instead, it makes him suffocate in the sooty ambit of urban.
Jonathan Safran Foer'ın Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close ve Sinan Antoon'un The Corpse Washer romanlarında ölüme tanıklık etmenin travması
In representations of trauma the past event is apparent in narratives beyond the witness's recognition. Consequently, trauma narratives demand contextual analyses. Witnessing death arising from historical violent events can best be analyzed with literary trauma theory. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to focus on the trauma of witnessing death and its aftermath in Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005) and Sinan Antoon's The Corpse Washer (2013). In Foer's novel, narrators witness the two traumatic historical events, the first is the Dresden firebombing in 1945 and the second is the September 11, 2001 attacks and they go through the trauma of bereavement. In The Corpse Washer, representation of trauma is conveyed through the analogy of death caused by the US invasion of Iraq and its narrator is a corpse washer. In both novels, "death encounter" emerging from witnessing death in these violent events is the common experience for the witness narrators. Accordingly, narrators fail to respond to the trauma since they are affected by the presence of death which means bereavement in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and washing dead bodies in The Corpse Washer. This study indicates that first-person narrators in both novels develop a narrative without recognizing the trauma of "death encounter" since it silences them. Keywords: Death, Trauma, Witnessing, First-person Narrative, Historical Violence
Amerikan Board (ABCFM) misyonerlerinin Harput'taki eğitim faaliyetleri
The deterioration of the education system in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century and the fact that it could not meet the needs of the community paved the way for foreign missionary activities in the Ottoman lands. Intense missionary activities in the Ottoman Empire affected education and shaped the country's culture, political, and social structure. In this thesis, the Educational Activities of the American Board (ABCFM) operating in the Ottoman Empire in Harpoot are examined and explained in the historical process. The study consists of three main parts. At the beginning of the study, there is information about the American Board missionary organization. In addition, the effects of foreign governments on the Ottoman Empire and some events that paved the way for missionary activities and the definition, origin, etymology, and historical course of the words mission and missionary are discussed. In the first part of the study, the establishment of the American Board, the settlement procedure it followed in a region, the importance of educational activities for the Board, and the types of schools it established were examined. In the second part of the study, the beginning of the Ottoman-US relations and the period until the arrival of the missionaries of the American Board to the Ottoman lands are examined. In the third chapter, the arrival of the American Board missionaries in Harpoot, the establishment and development of the mission, and the schools established in the mission were examined in detail. At the same time, in this section, the reactions of the Muslim and non-Muslim people against the activities of the American Board missionaries and the measures taken by the Ottoman State against the activities of the Board are explained. Again, this section examined the rebellions, unrest, and other social events caused by missionary activities. The situation of the American Board missionaries during the First World War and the events that led to the closure of the Harpoot mission are also examined in detail in this section. The study used the archive of the American Board, missionary letters, annual mission reports, academic theses written in missionary activities, and other relevant resources. Keywords: USA, Ottoman State, Harpoot, American Board (ABCFM), Missionary Activities
Totaliteryan feminist distopyalar olarak Atwood'un The Handmaid's Tale ve The Testaments
Historically, totalitarian regimes use the freedoms that democracy offers and exploit these civic rights to manipulate their citizens with an oppressive ideology. Totalitarian regimes are patriarchal in their essences, for among their targets to oppress women take the lead. After having "total control," these patriarchally-based regimes expect to create an idealized version of women whose would only be responsible for domestic work. Literature often addresses issues pertaining to lives destroyed under such regimes. Some authors have raised their voices not only to give voice to individuals who were abused by the totalitarian domination of patriarchy but also to warn their readers about the possibility of a change towards totalitarianism because of the indifference of citizens. Likewise, in order to alert her readers Margaret Atwood created a dystopian state called Gilead which is ruled by a totalitarian authority. The order in Gilead regime is regulated by the Commanders and the Aunts, their female inferiors, who are in charge of keeping the order among women. The authority limits freedoms in every facet of life, both public and private. The isolated and lonely individuals, or the mass, are forced to believe in the fiction formed in accordance with the totalitarian ideology: reality is distorted, murders are called sacrifices for the sake of one's country and a new "normal" is created in which individuals are so atomized that all sense of belonging is destroyed. This dissertation aims at providing an insight into the analysis of women as the primary target of totalitarian domination while examining the formation of the Gilead government.
William Faulkner'ın romanlarında erkeklik temsili
The aim of this thesis is to scrutinize the representation of the postbellum masculinity in the South through a dialectical lens in three novels by William Faulkner: Sanctuary, The Sound and the Fury, and Absalom, Absalom!. This study draws upon the theory of masculinity conceptualized by critics like Raewyn Connell, Todd W. Reeser and Michael Kimmel whose ideas have been instrumental in analyzing masculinity as a social construct and interrogates certain exclusively Southern notions such as "The Cavalier" and "The Lost Cause" within the context of performative masculinity. As a Southern author, Faulkner underlines the performative nature of manhood by rendering his psychologically castrated male characters as delusional and oblivious. The study of Sanctuary focuses on the Quixotic quest for lost manhood after the Civil War. The process of departriarchalization is foregrounded in the analysis of The Sound and the Fury. The discussion of the last novel, Absalom, Absalom! is centered around how the "cavalier" is mythologized through the act of storytelling. By focusing on these three novels, the study demonstrates that Faulkner interrogates the validity and the sustainability of the so-called Cavalier figure the Southern masculine identity was constructed upon by placing them in subversive counternarratives that dismantle the Southern men's privileged statuss.
F. Scott Fitzgerald'ın Uçarı Kızlar ve Filozoflar ve Jazz Çağı Öyküleri'nin yeniden tarihi okuması
Francis Scott Fitzgerald, who had a profound effect on American Literature of the 1920s, wished for making his readers feel the time he lived in every aspect for better or worse. Therefore, besides fiction, his works include the reflection of real events. New Historical approach, which overtly points up historical and cultural context on the texts differently from the conventional conception of history, helps to read his works in the same manner. That movement, which was come out by Stephen Greenblatt in 1980s, pursues a goal of scrutinizing the text by looking at the culture of the term. In this thesis, in the light of New Historicism I aim to unveil how hegemonic ideology and culture of Fitzgerald's time shape his and his characters' identities and dreams. Accordingly, in Fitzgerald's books Flappers and Philosophers and Tales from the Jazz Age, it will be scrutinized how the identities of the characters are on the way of shaping and eventually shaped without coercing in the direction of current hegemonic power.
Güzellik üzerine: Oscar Wilde'ın The Picture of Dorion Gray ve Nella Larsen'ın Passing adlı eserlerinde beden ve ruh ilişkisi
The "beautiful" and the "sublime" are two notions that intermingle with each other in Aesthetics. The beautiful often viewed in "the objects with exact forms" stands with the sublime recognized in "formless objects with an image of limitlessness" in literature, the arts and many other subject areas. They explore the senses of attraction and awe aroused in people's mind. Taken these forms of judgements into consideration, this study analyses Nella Larsen's Passing (1929) from American Literature and Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) from English Literature in terms of race, the unity of body and soul in reference to two philosophers Immanuel Kant and Edmund Burke. The white beauties of both novels, Larsen's Clare Kendry and Wilde's Dorian Gray, highlight the fear of ugliness and the appreciation of beauty in their tragic stories. The study centres on the process and ways in which their enchanting beauty results into a division of their body and soul throughout their search for the sublime. Beauty which brings along wholeness and pleasure, now threatens the protagonists' corporeal and spiritual aspects. The study concludes that kalokagathia (referring to the unity of corporeal beauty and spiritual refinement) is not achieved neither in Passing (1929) and nor in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) for Clare Kendry and Dorian Gray's betrayal of authenticity (Eco, 2010: 45). It is also underlined that Nella Larsen and Oscar Wilde through these bodies' traumatic murders harmonize beauty and stability. Keywords: Beauty, Sublime, Nella Larsen, Clare Kendry, Oscar Wilde, Dorian Gray, Duality.
A.B.D.'nin Ortadoğu politikasının sonucu olarak İslamofobi ve bunun Amy Waldman'ın 11 eylül sonrası romanı The Submission'daki temsili
The Middle East is one of the oldest settlements in the history of humanity. It has been the focal point of history for centuries due to its location, history, resources, rich culture, and status of being the land where religions were born. With the formation of a bipolar world order after the Second World War, the Middle East has been the scene of power struggles and the fact that it has rich energy resources has increased interest in the Middle East. The United States of America, which emerged as the hegemon power after the end of the Cold War, developed its Middle East policy in this direction. Apart from aiming to protect its interests, it has chosen Israel as its permanent ally and prioritized its security in the region with its establishment in 1948. Israel's establishment and the conflicts that had started even before it was founded are the sources of the problems that still exist in the Middle East. America's pro-Israel attitude not only hinders the solution of the problems, but also increases anti-Americanism. As a result of the policy that the US pursued, the terrorists who were created with their own resources attacked the USA on September 11, 2001 and paved the way for developments that would strike the whole world. Following the policy with the perception of the evil 'other' during the Cold War, the US filled this 'other' gap created by the disintegration of the Soviet Union with the fight against terrorism and Islam after the September 11 attacks. Another problem that arose was Islamophobia, which increased considerably. In addition to the historical background of the US Middle East policy, its results, 9/11 attacks, the origins of Islamophobia and its current status, Amy Waldman's novel The Submission, which is one of the striking post-9/11 novels that depict Islamophobia, was also examined in this study.
Kültürler arasında: Monica Sone'nin Nisei Daughter adlı otobiyografisinde Japon Amerikan deneyimi
Autobiography as a literary genre has gained importance, especially in the second half of the 20th century even though people have written their own life stories since ancient times. The works written in the field of autobiography in Japanese American literature emerged after the end of World War II since writing and sharing of bad memories and experiences is quite effective in terms of coping with trauma. This research is a study of the autobiographical novel Nisei Daughter written by the second generation of Japanese-American citizen (that is Nisei) Monica Sone, who voiced cultural dilemma of the Nisei and her journey to become an American citizen. This study aims to determine the factors that cause the author's cultural dilemma and analyze how she finally amalgamates Japanese culture into American culture by focusing on the experiences of the author as a Japanese American. The results of the study indicate that the Nisei, who were in quest for self, experienced cultural dilemma caused by both internal factors originating from the strength of Japanese culture at home and their legal positions in America, so that they are in two cultures -America and Japan-, and external factors, namely racial discrimination of white society, which rejects them as part of white American mainstream even though the Nisei are legal American citizens.
Tom Amca'nın Kulübesi ve Sevilen adlı romanlardaki köleliğin inşası ve yaşanması
White hegemony over blacks is always stressful, if not violent. This is obvious in many media platforms, from movies to written works of art. This is apparent in the news or in social media sites. To hear or to learn about the successful cooperation between blacks and whites is nearly impossible. What is broadcasted has been a violent confrontation of blacks and whites, or police brutality against black suspects or movies with characters of white clever adult male / females and accompanying black adult or teenager male / female characters with teenager or child level of intelligence (for example Bob the Builder). The main event that gave birth to this undeniable fact is American Slavery between 1619 and 1865 with the breaking point being Bacon's Rebellion in 1676. After this, the working class was divided into unbridgeable two parts, free whites and slave blacks. White workers had their time to work and after that were set free; however, the African slaves were put to work to death with very little prospect of being free. Not every free person both in the North and South had this mentality. These people were called abolitionists and one such person is Harriet Beecher Stowe from nineteenth century. She wrote a sentimental novel called Uncle Tom's Cabin (1851) about the sufferings of the African slaves and a possible end to slavery; it should end either peacefully or with war. Long after the Civil War, the sufferings of blacks continued because the ideas that created the slavery did not change. This caused many works of art by Toni Morrison in twentieth century, Beloved (1983) being the most influential of them. This thesis is about the construction of slavery and how it is experienced based on these two works of art looking from different points. After presenting these points, these works will be thoroughly analyzed.