JOURNAL OF MODERNISM AND POSTMODERNISM STUDIES (JOMOPS)

CRITICISM OF PHALLOCENTRIC AUTHORITY IN TIMBERLAKE WERTENBAKER’S THE LOVE OF THE NIGHTINGALE

GÜL KURTULUŞ — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0300

Timberlake Wertenbaker’s The Love of the Nightingale (1988) is a modern adaptation of Ancient Greek myth, and it alludes to the gender differences by employing ideas about gender roles. The play deviates in form from the classical drama structure in favor of a more charged and driven scenic transition through a puppet show as a metatheatrical device. Based on sexuality of the genders, the play is a criticism of phallocentric authority. It highlights the role of desire in human decisions and actions. Furthermore, it is a social commentary on the power dynamics involved in consensual, physical, and emotional disruptions. This paper aims to relate Wertenbaker’s theatrical representation of Philomele who is raped, mutilated, and silenced to Lacan’s symbol of the phallus as presented in The Meaning (or Signification) of the Phallus, which appeared in Écrits in 1966. In his article, Lacan digresses Freudian concept of the Oedipus complex and suggests that phallus is a signifier that has a meaning in itself, independent of what it signifies. The phallus operates in three ways: the symbolic, the imaginary, and the real and it is a signifier of the desire of other. The symbolic lack of the phallus implies the possession through non- possession and a desire to own it. Lacan’s concept of the phallus is apt in approaching the intricate relationship of Philomele, Procne, and Tereus which is a conflation of desire and eloquence or inarticulacy of women. Therefore, this article intends to explore Wertenbaker’s emphasis on phallocentric authority and sexual desire, in relation to gender, through Lacanian theory.

POSTMODERNIST CROSSCURRENTS AND CONCENTRIC CIRCLES IN THE WIDENING GYRE OF WIDE SARGASSO SEA

GÖKHAN ALBAYRAK — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0300

This article explores the postmodernist elements woven into the tapestry of Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), a rewrite of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847). Rhys revisits Jane Eyre to narrate the unwritten story of the mad woman in the attic, Mr. Rochester’s first wife. Thus, Dominican-British writer gives voice to Antoinette, silenced and locked away in the attic by Mr. Rochester. Hence, she subverts the European colonial and patriarchal discourse. Widely considered as a modernist novel, Wide Sargasso Sea harbors several postmodernist features, too. Unlike a modernist novel, which clings to the notion of a coherent self, Wide Sargasso Sea portrays an unstable self, which resonates with the postmodernist idea of an individual identity as fluid and contingent. Moreover, Wide Sargasso Sea deploys numerous postmodernist techniques such as multiplicity of narrative voices, subjectivity of narration, contingency and fluidity of individual identity, intertextuality, deconstruction of grand narratives. This study therefore examines the postmodernist crosscurrents and concentric circles in the widening gyre of this novel.

ITALO CALVINO’NUN ÇOK YÖNLÜ BAKIŞ AÇISI

İLHAN KARASUBAŞI — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0300

Edebiyatın toplumsal gelişmelerle olan etkileşimi, sanatçıların eserlerine yansımaktadır. Sanatçı, toplumun bir parçası olarak gelişmelerden etkilenmekte; aynı zamanda toplumun öncüsü olarak yeniden yapılandırmada söz sahibi olmaktadır. Edebiyat, bilim başta olmak üzere hayatın içindeki tüm değerlerle şekillenmektedir. Buna göre, değişim kaçınılmazdır ve değişime olan bağlılık, ilerlemenin temel öncülüdür. Değişim için sorgulama esastır. Sorgulama ise dogmatizmin karşısında bilgi arayışını ifade etmektedir. Italo Calvino’nun eserlerinde sık sık görülen değişim, bu durumu en güzel şekilde açıklamaktadır. 20. yüzyılın öne çıkan İtalyan edebiyatçılarından olan Calvino’nun öne çıkan en önemli özelliklerinden birisi denge ve yeniliğin bir arada bulunması gerektiği düşüncesidir. Nitekim bu düşünce, yazarın eserlerine de yansımıştır. Edebiyatın toplumdaki rolünün önemli olduğunu savunan Calvino’ya göre önce sanatçının sorgulaması, gerçeğe ulaşma çabasını yansıtması ve değişimi kendi içinde gerçekleştirmesi gerekmektedir. Bu bağlamda iyi bir sanatçı olabilmenin temelinde de sanatçının dünya görüşü önemli bir yer tutmaktadır. Calvino, yaşadığı süre boyunca bilimin edebiyatla ilişkisinde akılcılığı, dengeyi ve yeniliği savunmuş; buna bağlı olarak da eserlerinde sürekli bir yenilik sergilemiştir. Ortaya koyduğu eserler, aslında kendi dünya görüşünün eserlerine yansıması olarak ifade edilebilir. Tek tip bir bakış açısının geçmişte örnekleri görülmüştür ve bu durum, Calvino açısından ilerlemenin önündeki en büyük engel olarak değerlendirilmiştir. Dolayısıyla edebiyat, bilimin ve felsefenin de ortak noktalarından biri olan gerçekçiliği temel almalıdır. Calvino bu durumu sık sık eserlerinde yansıtmıştır.

SANAT VE MİMARİDE İTHAL MODERNİZMİN SONUÇLARI: SAİNT PETERSBURG

ÜMİT ŞENGEL, YÜCEL ÖZTÜRK — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0300

Öz

Tarihte bir toplumda meydana gelen sosyal gelişmelerin çok boyutlu bir arka plana sahip olduğu bilinmektedir. Bu gelişmeler çok yönlü, tarihsel geçmişi olan, ciddi bir toplumsal hafızayı içeren ve ortaya çıktığı toplumun kodlarından beslenen gelişmelerdir. Bu bakımdan tüm yönleriyle bir topluma özgü olma özelliği gösterirler. Gelişmenin ortaya çıktığı toplumun dışındaki toplumların bu gelişmeleri birebir veya benzer standartlarla kendi toplumlarında uygulamaları beklenenin aksine sonuçların ortaya çıkmasına neden olabilir. Bu bilgiler ışığında; çalışmada batıyla özdeşlemiş bir toplumsal gelişme olan sanatta modernizmin Rusya’da ortaya çıkış hikâyesi ve bunun sonuçlarının irdelenmesi amaçlanmaktadır. Kurum ve yapısının tümüyle batıyı örnek alan ve büyük oranda kentlerin (Moskova-Petersburg) sembolik mücadelesini yansıtan Rusya modernizminin başarısız bir girişim süreci olarak kaldığı ifade edilebilir. Çünkü modernizm sürecinin sonunda tekrar geleneksel yapının ve Moskova’nın baskın olmaya başladığı bir süreç yaşanmıştır. Rusya’da modernizm (kent) inşa edilirken, bu kavramın tüm dinamikleriyle bir toplumda hayat bulan yapısı göz ardı edilmiştir. Bu çalışmanın sonuçları, Rus halkının zaman içerisinde Batı’dan ithal edilen modernizme karşı kollektif bir hareket geliştirdiğini ve hareketin ortaya çıkmasında edebiyatçıların ve romanın önemli bir rol oynadığını da ortaya koymaktadır.

‘POSITIONALITY’ & THE POLITICS OF WOMEN’S IDENTITY IN AZAR NAFISI’S READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN

GERMINE SHEHATA — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0300

Known as a conscious and in-depth reading of one’s experience, the autobiographical selves are full-fledged through the medium of writing. This writing style aims at reflecting on the ‘I now’ and the ‘I then’ notion in an act of recollection and self-atonement. Hence, it cannot be deemed as precise replicas of the selves who struggled along. In other words, the prevailed selves can never be duplicated, especially since the autobiographical selves are genuinely actualized through the writing initiative. In reference to women’s identity politics, both Postmodern and Poststructuralist feminisms have implemented almost similar discourses: ‘Intersectionality’ and ‘Positionality’ as new approaches to analyzing women’s dilemma. The core principle of ‘Intersectionality’ is based on the coexisting and the overlapping of race, class, gender as different modes of oppression that negatively affect women’s subjectivity. However, Poststructuralists emphasize that those discourses are not the only markers of identity, but they are dynamic discourses that acknowledge women’s identity along with other emblems. The fact that one’s own identity is no longer allotted to being fixed or stable, but it is to be interpreted in relation to its social context (temporal and spatial). Both rejected the monolithic autonomous self, while enhancing the diversity of the subject position in relation to the diversified social situations. Given that, this study is to demonstrate the Poststructuralists’ notion of ‘identity in flux’ in the analysis of Azar Nafisi’s memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003). Throughout, the article draws upon how Nafisi and her students’ identities have been perpetually shaped and reshaped anew within a set of complex and conflicting experiences and situations, deconstructing the discourse of ‘fixity’, ‘static positionality’, and set binaries. This new trajectory adopted by Third Wave Feminists infringes not only the static pedagogical definitions of identity but also the emphasis on ‘gender’ as its sole proprietor.

SYLVIA PLATH VE NİLGÜN MARMARA’NIN GİZDÖKÜMCÜ ŞİİRLERİNDEKİ ÖLÜM TEMASI ÜZERİNE KARŞILAŞTIRMALI BİR İNCELEME: “LADY LAZARUS” VE “SAVRULAN BEDEN”

TUĞBA KARABULUT — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0300

Amerikan şair ve yazar Sylvia Plath, Amerikan edebiyatında 1950’lerde ortaya çıkan Gizdökümcü Şiir türünün öncülerinden biridir. Plath’ın genellikle psikanalist, feminist ve otobiyografik açılardan incelenmiş ve yaşamındaki trajik olaylarla ilişkilendirilmiş olan “Lady Lazarus” adlı şiiri, bu türün en iyi örneklerinden biri olarak kabul edilir. Şiir, ölüm ve intihar temalarını merkeze alarak, anlatıcının erkeklerin dünyasında güçlü bir kadın olma arayışını ve sanatsal bir eylem olarak tanımladığı ölümden sonra yeniden dirilişini anlatır. Plath’ın sadece öznel değil evrensel bir gerçekliği de arayan bu şiiri, “Lazarus,” “Anka Kuşu” ve “Nazi Soykırımı” gibi mitolojik, dini ve toplumsal çeşitli simgeler de barındırmaktadır. Plath, şiire adını veren ve öldükten sonra İsa tarafından diriltilen eril bir karakter olan Lazarus’u kadın bir karaktere dönüştürerek, ataerkil ve dinsel mitleri de yıkar. Türk edebiyatında ise Garip akımının şiir anlayışına tepki olarak, 1950’lerde ortaya çıkan İkinci Yeni hareketinden etkilenmiş bir şair olan Nilgün Marmara, “gizdökümcü” veya “itirafçı” şiir olarak bilinen türün öncülerindendir. Marmara’nın “Savrulan Beden” adlı şiiri gizdökümcü şiirin en iyi örneklerinden biri olma özelliğini taşır. Şiirde Marmara’nın anlatıcısı, zihninde kurguladığı intihar fikrini eyleme dönüştürme anını betimler ve ölümü, anlatıcısını yok ederek özgürleştiren bir eylem olarak tasvir eder. Evrimsel bir süreçten geçen anlatıcı, bedenini beyniyle yok etmeye karar verir. Bedenini varlıktan hiçliğe doğru savurarak bedensel temsilini ölümün yanında konumlandırır. Marmara için ölümü cazip yapan varlık değil hiçliktir. Plath’ın anlatıcısı için ise ölümü travmatik yapan, ölmek değil, ölememektir. Ölmeyi bir türlü başaramayan anlatıcı, yeniden dirilmeye karar verir. Varoluşçu açıdan baktığımızda, her iki şiirin de gizdökümcü anlatıcılarının, varlıklarıyla uzlaşamayarak kendilerine ve topluma yabancılaşmış kadın karakterler olduklarını görürüz. Bireysel yalnızlıkları ön plandadır ve özgürlüklerine kavuşma yolculuğunda ölümü farklı biçimlerde seçerler. Bu çalışmada, Plath’in “Lady Lazarus” ve Marmara’nın “Savrulan Beden” adlı gizdökümcü şiirlerindeki ölüm teması ve bu şiirler arasındaki zamansal ve uzamsal benzerlik ve zıtlıklar incelenecektir. Ayrıca, şairlerin seçilmiş diğer bazı şiirlerine de metinlerarası göndermeler yapılarak, gizdökümcü şairlik bağlamında ve varoluşsal teoriler ışığında bir karşılaştırma yapılacaktır.

AN ECOCRITICAL PERSPECTIVE ON SIMULATED THEME PARK IN ENGLAND, ENGLAND

KEVSER ATEŞ — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0300

England, England (1998), Julian Barnes’s novel highly acclaimed as a postmodern criticism of history, also sheds light on how humans’ separation from nature ultimately results in their separation from reality and their own identity, consequently confining them into a hyperreal world with artificial needs. In the novel, a businessman called Sir Jack Pitman, who has an inexhaustible thirst for profit, desires to construct a huge flamboyant theme park on the Isle of Wight, which would include most popular historical landmarks and figures of England such as White Cliffs of Dover, Big Ben, Jane Austen and Queen Victoria. Without taking into consideration the sustainability of natural life on the isle, Pitman, the embodiment of capitalist greed and recklessness for nature, carelessly changes the island’s nature and culture to build his money-making theme park despite the protest of some of his environmentally concerned colleagues. They rebuild an England with its most beautiful, significant tourist attractions, and also recreate its history as the hired actors playing famous people from history such as Robin Hood and Samuel Johnson perform some historical scenes during the day. Just as history, nature is also reconstructed and cultivated after destruction in order to attract the attention of tourists for material gain. Though this simulated theme park is advertised to be more convenient, cleaner, friendlier, and more efficient than the real country, capitalist perception of nature as a disposable market commodity without any moral and ethical concerns is shown throughout the novel. The writer skillfully criticizes how this inauthentic, simulated, hyper-real and human-construct theme park called England, England becomes more alluring than the real one as, after a while, people prefer to visit this replica instead of the real country. This study aims to present an ecocritical perspective on Barnes’s England, England by focusing on how simulation of environment and history under the control of profit-driven capitalist companies may lead to the degradation of humans and nature.

MATERIALITY OF MODERNISM IN VIRGINIA WOOLF’S ESSAYS

NURTEN BAYRAKTAR — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0300

It is acknowledged that Virginia Woolf’s influential modernist novels primarily focus on self and spirituality. Although her emphasis on the materiality of life and literature, which is closely intertwined with spirituality, was a fundamental aspect of Virginia Woolf’s works, it was partially overlooked by critics. However, recent studies on the subject of materiality in literature have provided new insights into how objects are portrayed in Woolf’s fiction, which suggests that Woolf’s emphasis on the material world deserves more consideration. This paper asserts that Virginia Woolf’s emphasis on the material world as an integral aspect of life and literature is evident in several of her essays, particularly in “Modern Fiction” (1921), “Mr Bennet and Mrs Brown” (1924) “Robinson Crusoe” (1925) and “The New Biography” (1927). By examining Woolf’s defense of the Georgian writers’ techniques, which focus on the portrayal of human life connected with materiality, as opposed to the Edwardians’ emphasis on social and material details as bare facts with no connection to spirituality, this research highlights the significance of materiality in literature for Woolf.

ELEGIAC REFLECTIONS AND HOMAGE IN VERSE: A DISCURSIVE ANALYSIS OF KATHLEEN JAMIE'S "LOCHNAGAR" AND SIMON ARMITAGE'S "FLORAL TRIBUTE" AS TESTAMENTS TO QUEEN ELIZABETH II

AYSEGÜL DEMIR — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0300

This article offers a comparative analysis of two elegiac verses penned in homage to Queen Elizabeth II – Kathleen Jamie's "Lochnagar" and Simon Armitage's "Floral Tribute." The intent is to elucidate the function of nature symbolism in these literary creations as they pertain to the life and legacy of the Queen, and their role in shaping public remembrance of historical figures. Furthermore, the study attempts to discern the nuanced variations between English and Scottish elegiac traditions as represented by the poets' respective titles of Poet Laureate and Makar, and their manifestations in the verses. The exploration of these motifs provides valuable insights into the abiding influence of elegiac verse in commemorating historical personalities and the poets' cultural milieu in shaping these poignant tributes.

BODY AND FASHION IN THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA

NİSA HARİKA GÜZEL KÖŞKER — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0300

Questions central to the body encapsulate the idea of power that has been the fundamental ideological apparatus shaping the dominant, easily consumed cultural practices and their representations. Considering the associations attached to the body in the course of history, it can be construed as the locus of power as well as the basis for the circulation of good and evil. In the Foucauldian sense, it is the bed of germs or viruses while it is also the seat of pleasure in both material and visual terms. Positive and negative connotations ascribed to the body have long been related to dominant ideologies, as it is prone to interpellation, alteration, and/or appropriation. As such, this article discusses the ways in which the body is challenged and appropriated by power mechanisms in David Frankel’s The Devil Wears Prada (2006), based on Lauren Weisberger’s novel of the same title. The movie revolves around the issues of the body, its appropriation through certain determinants such as fashion and consumerism. It poses critical questions as to how fashion as a mechanism of power alters, shapes, and transforms the human body, experimenting with the perceptions of beauty and femininity. Placing a critical light on such issues, the movie moves beyond classic romantic comedy in its attempt to problematize the fashion industry as an instrument of power that structures bodies and identities. Building on the view that the body is a political entity, this article analyzes the transformation of the protagonist, Andy, in her relation to the fashion industry, exploring the ways in which fashion appropriates Andy in her quest from her initial rejection of fashion to her later struggle to find herself a place in the merciless and precarious milieu of Runway fashion magazine.

FROM “THE ONLY FRUIT” TO THE MANY: STORYTELLING AS A PERFORMATIVE MASK IN JEANETTE WINTERSON’S ORANGES ARE NOT THE ONLY FRUIT

SENAR ARCAK — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0300

In Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit Jeanette Winterson dwells upon the vitality of female voice and perspective in the refashioning of femininity. The notion of femininity is anchored within individual female experience through the discourse of storytelling. The subversive act of storytelling in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit offers re-formation of the traditional myths and fairy tales that depict women as fixed entities, and challenges the binary oppositions and heteronormative discourses of femininity. Furthermore, the act of storytelling forms a space for the creation of an alternative narrative voice for mythmaking and self-exploration. This becomes an act of questioning and testing the borders of femininity and the notions of truth and reality, through which femininity is explored and performed. Storytelling in Oranges Are not the Only Fruit is a performance with which Jeanette makes sense of her external world and challenges it to reconstruct her own sense of identity. The subversive act of storytelling in Winterson’s novel will be analysed through queer theory and the notion of performativity in this article.

THE ID, EGO AND SUPEREGO IN SHAKESPEARE’S A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

HALİT ALKAN — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0300

Dealing with human nature, literature is considered to be intertwined with the science of psychology. Psychoanalysis is a method of descending to the unconscious sources of desires, instincts and thoughts and bringing conflicts to the consciousness. Sigmund Freud previously divides the human personality into two systems as unconscious and conscious; however, he then reaches the distinction between ‘id’, ‘ego’ and ‘superego’. While the id works in accordance with instincts, the superego pays regard to morality, but the ego tries to equalize these requests with the reality of the outside world under appropriate conditions. This study aims to analyze the psychological attitudes underlying the behaviors of the characters in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream through the Freudian concepts of id, ego and superego. Shakespeare changes spaces from society (reality) to nature (dream) in order to arrive at comedy. The Athenians Theseus and Hippolyta are doubled with their fairy counterparts Oberon and Titania, and this doubling offers that the forest in the play is the dreamscape of Athens in which suppressed personalities can emerge. There is reality in daytime and Theseus and Egeus are controlled by the superego in the society. Here, the male-dominant world causes unhappiness to Lysander and Hermia through oppression. There is dream in night-time and the characters are surrounded by the id in the forest. Here, the male-dominant world causes happiness through wish-fulfilment. There is a struggle within all the lovers between the patriarchal superego and the primitive id. The use of psychoanalytic theory in drama is put forward to help readers appreciate this literary text from a different aspect.