Department of English Language and Literature
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Browsing Department of English Language and Literature by Author "ARAS, Gökşen"
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Item A NEW HISTORICIST READING OF POWER MECHANISM IN DYSTOPIAN NOVELS: THE FIXED PERIOD BY ANTHONY TROLLOPE, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE BY ANTHONY BURGESS, AND NEVER LET ME GO BY KAZUO ISHIGURO(2022-01-19) BEKLER, Ecevit; ARAS, GökşenThe Fixed Period (1882), A Clockwork Orange (1962) and Never Let Me Go (2005) written by Anthony Trollope, Anthony Burgess, and Kazuo Ishiguro, respectively have been analysed using the critical theory New Historicism. With the application of this theory, the relationship between the text, the biography of the author, and the social, cultural, and political conditions of each period have been revealed through a careful study. The novels provide profound information about their periods as textual products of their culture and discourse. The Fixed Period, A Clockwork Orange, and Never Let Me Go are products of colonial, juvenile delinquency, and scientific discourses respectively. This study reveals that each novel reflects the contemporary and foremost social issues of their periods. As dystopian novels, they reflect the anxieties regarding social issues. Contemporary literary texts and non-literary texts have been used in order to find out the dominant ideology of each period. To understand the cultural and intellectual history of three different periods better, Stephen Greenblatt’s and Michel Foucault’s theories and arguments about power, ideology, and discourse have been taken as basis regarding the function of power mechanisms that circulate throughout the society. The dissertation has shown that power relations and control mechanisms change from period to period in line with social and cultural changes in societies. Human beings not only dominated the nature but also each other. The dissertation puts forward that mechanisation, technology, and science all were thought to increase the life standards of people and contribute to the welfare of society. However, such developments contributed to the creation of more control mechanisms.Item REPRESENTATION OF TRAUMA AND IDENTITY FORMATION IN MARGARET ATWOOD’S CAT’S EYE AND THE HANDMAID’S TALE(2022-01-26) Falah Mohammed, Sarah; ARAS, GökşenThe aim of this thesis is to analyse the representation of trauma and its effects on the identity formation of the female protagonists in Cat’s Eye and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. These novels have many similar and different characteristics in terms of representation of trauma, identity formation and the methods which are used to work through them. In the theory chapter, a brief introduction of psychoanalysis is presented. A detailed analysis of trauma theory, witnessing trauma, working through trauma and representation of trauma in narratives related to trauma are explained in this chapter as well. Formation of identity and female identity are also discussed in this chapter. The analytical chapters discuss Cat’s Eye and The Handmaid’s Tale in terms of the protagonists’ traumatic experiences and its reasons, witnessing their traumas in order to work through them and their suffering of an identity crisis concerning their experiences. The conclusion proves that the social and political factors cause traumatic neurosis in both of the female protagonists. The similarities and differences between the representation of trauma and witnessing it in the novels and the identity formation of the protagonists are presented in this chapter as well.Item THE INFLUENCE OF THE WAR AND THE CHANGES IN LIFE AND SOCIETY AS REFLECTED IN VIRGINIA WOOLF’S MRS. DALLOWAY AND TO THE LIGHTHOUSE(2021-08-09) Al- Tameemi, Aaesha Nihad khaleel; ARAS, GökşenThe thesis focuses on Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and To The Lighthouse. The thesis shows that in these novels Woolf presents a collectively suffering atmosphere, despite people's best efforts to preserve a positive attitude. In both of her novels, Woolf represents a post-World War I era, where survivors are struggling to return to normality and enhance quality of life. Woolf describes her struggles to adequately explain the self in her novels while also attempting to construct a symphony out of her tumultuous emotions.Woolf also presents the fictionalized pain by creating several characters in both of her novels. Mrs. Dalloway is one of Woolf’s novels, which focuses on war trauma and its devastating effects on the relatives, friends and loved ones of the unreturned. To The Lighthouse, which is often read as one of Woolf’s most autobiographical novels, represents the period of painful recovery from war trauma, and displays Woolf’s innovations in prose fiction.Item THE PLACE OF WOMEN IN THEIR RELATIONSHIPS IN AGATHA CHRISTIE’S TAKEN AT THE FLOOD AND DEATH ON THE NILE IN THE LIGHT OF SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR’S THE SECOND SEX(2020-06-09) AKSU, Pelin Duygu; ARAS, GökşenThe aim of this thesis is to explore the position of women in their relationships with their male partners in Agatha Christie’s Taken at the Flood and Death on the Nile referring to the “One” and the “Other” concepts through Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, and it specifically focuses on whether female characters in these two books are the “One” or the “Other” in their relationships, and the reason why they are dominated or not dominated by a man is discussed. In addition, female characters are compared with each other to find the differences between one another, which will help explain why one is subordinated while the other has an active role in her relationship. In addition, the differences the women characters have been analysed, and discussed referring to the Marxist Feminist perspective. Also, the history of feminism and crime fiction is added to analyse the novels regarding the changes and improvements in the genre, and feminist movement. In addition, the literary career of Christie provides how the genre was changing then since she was one of the pioneers who developed the genre during its golden age. It is thought that her autobiography may provide a guide to her literary style and her characterization of both women and men in her books. It is concluded that all the woman characters, except for one of them, Rosaleen Cloade, in the novels have an active role in their relationships. It is found that they are not only dominant, but also active participators in their partnership, and the reason why Rosaleen Cloade is doomed to be othered is the class she belongs to.Item THE POSITION OF THE INDIVIDUAL IN UTOPIAN SOCIETY: THOMAS MORE’S UTOPIA, FRANCIS BACON’S NEW ATLANTIS AND TOMMASO CAMPANELLA’S THE CITY OF THE SUN(2021-10-18) YILMAZ, Çağla; ARAS, GökşenThe purpose of this thesis is to analyse the position of the individual in utopian society in Thomas More’s Utopia, Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis and Tommaso Campanella’s The City of the Sun. The selected utopias share many common features, but the primary values that the described utopian society focuses on are different in each utopia. More concentrates on the prior problems of his own society in his Utopia, the work that brought the word “utopia” to literature, and solves them in the society he portrayed in his work. In this context, More predominantly aims to achieve the equality of rights and opportunities in his utopia. On the other hand, as another remarkable utopian work in English literature, New Atlantis is a scientific utopia. Bacon in his utopia, unlike More, does not focus on the reconstruction of political and social organisations. Instead, he describes a society based on scientific studies and technological inventions. As a contemporary of Bacon, Tommaso Campanella indicates the main principle of the society he described in The City of the Sun, one of the most influential works of Italian utopian literature. Namely, in the society of the City of the Sun, social benefits should always outweigh individual benefits since this is the only way of achieving a happy society. Consequently, each utopia writer prioritises different values and ideals in the societies they described and shapes the social order in their utopias around these values and ideals. Nevertheless, all of them, for protecting their prior values, push individualism and individual freedom, other equally important values, into background. Individuals in these societies lose their differences, diversities and individual freedom under the dominance of their social roles and duties. All the unique values of the individuals disappear and individuals become identical parts of society by losing their individual identities.