İngiliz Dili ve Edebiyatı Bölümü

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The Oppositions in Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story
(2010) Durmuş, Erdinç
An abundance of contradictions characterizes most of Edward Albee’s plays. The playwright emphasizes the crucial function of contrasts in everyday life going beyond just expressing them. The playwright reveals that one has to live with such opposites as black and white, good and bad closely since it is not possible to avoid them. Moreover, one should go one step further and accept this unavoidable situation even embracing this contradictory situation. As an example, that we are spiritually dead, while living, is one of his most important themes. Life and death, in fact, are realities of humanity, close to each other, going hand in hand any moment in life. But this is persistently ignored by his characters as well as by mankind in general. The playwright tries hard to make the reader be aware and acknowledge that this is the case. Therefore, we will try to examine the contradictions in The Zoo Story, give examples, and reveal how influential they are in the play as well as in real life. Key Words: Edward Albee, Paradoxes, The Zoo Story
Oedipus at Colonus as a divine comedy
(2011) Durmuş, Erdinç
Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus was the last play written just before the playwright’s death in 406 B.C. This particular play of the most powerful Greek writer was not performed until five years after his death. He was born in the village of Colonus, and in the last month of his long life he turned back to the figure of Oedipus whom he had once portrayed as the ideal type of Athenian intelligence and daring. He wrote about the same hero’s old age, the recompense he received for his sufferings in Oedipus at Colonus, and in doing so he left this timeless masterpiece to the world of literature. Certainly a great number of critics wrote about this specific play of Sophocles as one of the most beautiful Greek tragedies throughout the centuries. And it is also doubtless that many scholars will discuss the same play again as a masterpiece tragedy of its writer. However, in a deeply made analysis of Oedipus at Colonus it is highly possible that the play fits into the category of divine comedies. Oedipus at Colonus deserves to be considered and studied as a work of divine comedy for it has almost all the characteristics of the so-called genre.
Democracy or Hypocrisy in John Le Carre’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
(2013) Durmuş, Erdinç
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is an espionage novel of John Le Carre which takes place in the 1950s and early 1960s. The world war is over but the cold war still continues severely at that time. The western world has perpetuated the vital importance of democracy over the years. In this respect The Spy unveils such untouched issues of the western world. Le Carre highlights the conflicts of the western world. The Spy is the story of the victimization of some people for the sake of society. Within this context, Le Carre deduces the hypocrisy of the west. This study aims to set sight on the experiences of the main character and to uncover the hypocrisy behind democracy.
John Milton’s Influence on Poets, Writers and Composers of His Period and Aftermath
(2014) Durmuş, Erdinç
John Milton is doubtless one of the most important and influential poets in English Language and Literature. He has always been a major influence in literature both during his lifetime and after his death. His reputation among the readers and the poets is a known fact since it has been proven that several writers and poets frequently wrote under the influence of this great epic poet. Milton was an artist who had written about various subjects, he was both a poet and a renowned prose writer. As he had something to say about every field of life his admirers and followers were not necessarily from just one category. Many people, including politicians, poets, writers, composers found something valuable in Milton and his works. The purpose of this article is to reevaluate Milton’s controversial works and lay down the influence of Milton on the mentioned figures of the period and aftermath.
Hart Crane’s The Bridge as an Example of Modernist Poetry
(2014) Durmuş, Erdinç
This particular poem of Hart Crane is a good example of American modernist poetry. Crane’s The Bridge has been the subject of a lot of debate since its publication. Crane comes from a wealthy family and is an American Romantic poet who observes the richness of life in his poetry. In this long epic poem, the poet is inspired by the Brooklyn Bridge. For him, the bridge stands for the creative power of man. The poet considers the poem as an epic synthesis of the country and its structural identity. There is a kind of a search in the poem and this search of the poet is the one for the real American past and the characteristics of present America that will determine her future. The poet tries to come up with a view of what he calls the American experience in the poem. He adopts the Brooklyn Bridge as the poem’s supporting symbol and talks about and celebrates various people and places. Keywords: Modernist, Brooklyn Bridge, Poetry, Criticism, America
THE INTERTEXTUAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE WORKS OF ALBERT CAMUS AND YUSUF ATILGAN
(2016) Güven, Hazar Faruk
Intertexuality, claimed to have been introduced by Bulgarian-French philosopher and literature critic Julia Kristeva, is a term which maintains that it is unlikely for any work not to be affected by the same kind of work written before. Since it is natural to have an interaction between authors, the authors can make reference to the worldview, philosophy and style of the different authors. With intertextuality, especially espoused by postmodern literary movement, the writers give the readers the opportunity to be conscious throughout the work and have different feelings within it by dynamizing their works. Written many articles and books on this term introduced in the mid of the 20. century, the attention has been drawn to the interaction from each other and different works of authors. Intertexuality encountered in the works of Yusuf Atılgan, one of the most important post-republic Turkish writers, is noteworthy. Yusuf Atılgan’s works contain similar features to Algerian-French writer Albert Camus’s works in terms of theme and topics. Existentialist themes like social alienation, religious alienation, isolation, non-communication and indifference in Camus’s works can be seen also in the works of Yusuf Atılgan. Absurdism, grounded after WWI and originated from Existentialism, gaining acceleration following the WWII has begun to maintain the idea that the life is absurd after the destruction and deaths which these two world wars caused the world witnessed. People migrating from rural areas to cities to find an occupation and not being able to adapt to the city life in a rapidly urbanizing world especially following the Industrial Revolution, have been subject to the literature. It is also regarded as a movement about all the human beings in general like intellectual characters question this absurdism and alienate from society in Camus and Atılgan’s works. It is claimed that Atılgan has been influenced by Camus’s philosophy of absurdism. For instance, Atılgan’s The Wanderer’s protagonist, C’s worldview and lifestyle like social alienation, isolation, non-communication and indiffrence show parallelism with Meursault’s lifestyle in Camus’s The Stranger. In our study, the works of these two writers have been compared in terms of intertextuality.
A Structuralist Analysis of Jean-Paul Sartre’s "The Flies"
(Mardin Artuklu Üniversitesi, 2016) Alkan, Halit
Structuralism that began to be active in the 1950’s is the approach to define the relationship between the part and the whole. This article provides the phases of linguistics that form the source of structuralism, theory and applications of structuralism and its terminology. This article mainly deals with a structuralist analysis of Jean-Paul Sartre’s "The Flies". The surface structure of The Flies mirrors Sartre’s conception of the structure of freedom. In order to recognize one’s freedom, one must let go of the past like in Act I, make a choice like in Act II Scene I, act on it like in Act II Scene II, and then take its responsibility like in Act III. The surface meaning of the play is that human must accept the past for what it was, for the real events that they did or didn’t do, what they wished and desired and hated. Only then can they choose how the past will decide their future. Only those people who choose, act on it, and accept its responsibility can be free. Bemoaning one’s existence and leaving it to the control of others removes freedom and responsibility. As for the deep structure of the play, its harmony operates on binary opposition between Orestes and Electra. As Orestes is a ‘being as a subject’ and free, he looks towards his future; however, as Electra is a ‘being as an object’ and not free, she sticks into the past. Its melody operates on the fixed cycle of the story of committing a sin and feeling guilt and remorse. The play ends but its melody continues because Electra will carry the darkness of the Furies with her in the form of guilt and remorse forever though they have physically left her alone. In terms of the deep meaning of the play, Orestes’s mission becomes an effort to show the Argives who are manipulated by external forces that they do not have to act like “guilty people” by showing them that they are already free - that they have always been free because they are human beings. Despite being physically confined, one has the freedom of mind which cannot be taken away to disobey external forces. No one has power over you until you give him or her that power.
MARXIST CRITICISM, THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL AND WALTER BENJAMIN
(2017) Durmuş, Erdinç
Marxist edebiyat eleştirisi Marxist politik düşünceler üzerine geliştirilmiştir. Marksist eleştiri, 1850'lerde Marx'ın, kültür ve toplum hakkında önemli açıklamalarda bulunmasına rağmen, 20. yüzyılda ortaya çıkmış bir olgudur. Marx’a göre, ideoloji, politika ve sanat gibi bir toplumun üst yapısını oluşturan öğeler o toplumun ekonomik yapısı tarafından belirlenir. Karl Marx "Komünist Manifesto" adlı eserinde komünizmin temel kavramlarını tartışır ve toplumların ve ekonomik sistemlerinin sınıfsız bir toplum yaratmak için sürekli bir evrim sürecinde olduğunu iddia eder. Marksist eleştiride önemli olan husus, edebiyatın, bu edebiyatın üretildiği toplumun ideolojik ve ekonomik gerçeklerinden ayrı tutulamayacağı ya da izole edilemeyeceği yönündedir. Diğer taraftan, pratikte bir neo-Marxist olan Frankfurt Okulu, aydınlanma geleneğinin bir eleştirisidir. Radikal değişim ve iki okul arasındaki eleştiri farkı entelektüel temeldedir. Aslında bir toplumsal araştırma kurumu olan Frankfurt Okulu yeni bir neo-Marxist teori geliştirmiştir. Frankfurt Okulu üyeleri on dokuzuncu yüzyılın son teorisyenlerinden yararlanmışlardır. Üyeleri temel olarak çoğulculardır. Walter Benjamin Frankfurt Okulunun önemli bir üyesidir. O da Marxismin etkisi altındaydı ve Marxist Okuluna bir eğilim göstermişti. Benjamin sosyal eleştiriyle dilbilim analizini tarihsel nostaljiyle birlikte işler. Benjamin, sosyal eleştiri ve dilsel analiz ile tarihi nostaljiyi harmanlar. Benjamin için temel estetik farklılaşma, yaratılış ve oluşum arasındaki temel farklılıktır. Benjamin’e göre eleştiri bir sanat eserinin gerçeğinin sunumudur. Eleştiri bir eserin başladığı şeyi neticeye ulaştırmaya, tamamlamaya ve sistematize etmeye çalışır.
Othello ve Mem u Zin Eserlerindeki Şer Karakterlerin Karşılaştırılması
(2017) Görmez, Aydın; Güven, Hazar Faruk
Dinler tarihine bakıldığında gerek Musevilik, Hıristiyanlık ve İslamiyet gibi tek tanrılı dinlerde gerekse Antik Yunan’da, Roma’da veya Hinduizm gibi çok tanrılı dinlerde “iyi”’nin karşıtı olarak bilinen ve kaçınılması gereken bütün kötülükleri içinde barındıran “şer” olgusu edebiyatta çok işlenen evrensel bir konudur. Şer veya anti-kahraman olarak tanımlanan karakterlerin edebiyatta önemli bir yeri vardır çünkü kötülük olmazsa iyinin kıymetinin bilinmeyeceğine inanılır. Yani, temel zıtlıklar sistemi gereği yapısalcıların da iddia ettiği gibi, bu iki zıt kutup ayrılmaz bir bütün gibidir. Dünya edebiyatı Bayan Macbeth, Mephistopheles, Raskolnikov gibi ölümsüz kötü karakterlere tanık olur. 17. yüzyıl Amerika’sının Püriten edebiyatında çok sık görüldüğü gibi şerle ilişkili karakterlerin eser sonunda mutlak cezalandırılması gibi yazılmamış kuralların varlığı ayrıca dikkat çekicidir. Bu çalışmada William Shakespeare’in Othello ve Ahmed-i Hanî’nin Mem û Zîn eserlerinde iki şer karakter olan Lago ve Beko’nun benzer ve farklı özellikleri karşılaştırmalı olarak ele alınması amaçlanmaktadır.
MARXIST CRITICISM, THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL AND WALTER BENJAMIN
(2017) Bulent Alan; Erdinç Durmuş
Marxist literary criticism has been developed on the basis of Marxist political ideas. Even though Marx makes important statements about culture and society in the 1850s Marxist criticism is a phenomenon that came into being in the twentieth century. According to Marx, the ideology, politics, and art which make up the superstructure of a society are all determined by the economic structure of that society. Karl Marx discusses the basic concepts of communism in his work ‚The Communist Manifesto‛ and asserts that societies and their economic systems are constantly in a process of evolution to crea te a classless society. The point in Marxist criticism is that literature cannot be separated or isolated from the ideological and the economic realities of the society in which this li terature is produced. On the other hand, the Frankfurt School, which is practically a neo Marxist one, is a critique of the enlightenment tradition. The radical change and the dif ference of critique between the two schools lie on the intellectual basis. As an Institute for Social Research originally, the Frankfurt School developed a neo-Marxist social the ory. The members of the Frankfurt School borrowed from the theorists of the late- nine teenth century. Its members were basically pluralists. Walter Benjamin is an important member of the Frankfurt School. He was also under the influence of Marxism and showed an inclination to Marxist School, too. Benjamin mixes social criticism and lingu istic analysis with historical nostalgia. The fundamental aesthetic differentiation for him is the one between creation and formation. According to Benjamin, criticism is the pre sentation of truth of a work of art. Criticism tries to culminate, complete and systemati ze what the work of art began
THE DOWNFALL OF THE SOUTHERN ARISTOCRACY IN WILLIAM FAULKNER’S THE SOUND AND THE FURY
(2018) TOSON, MEHMET FARUK
The main purpose of this thesis is to analyze the downfall of the Southern aristocracy in the novel, The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. The main characters in the novel are descendants of a patriarchal southern family, the Compsons, who were once aristocratic and rich in the South. These people do not live the life of luxury they were living in the past baroquely, however, they confront and witness their own downfall instead. The reasons for the downfall of the southern aristocracy lie mostly in their great dependence on the past. Because aristocrats lost their old values which cement the society and family together, they were not able to cope with the realities that modernity brought. The decline is also deteriorated by the conflicts between The Old South and New South. As a result, the Compson children fail to live in accordance with the Southern moral code. The Sound and the Fury gives a detailed story of decline of the Compson family in the eyes of three Compson children, idiot Benjy, materialistic Jason and neurotic Quentin. Their decadence, disintegration and deterioration show the end of a long-lasting notion, the Southern aristocracy.
Irish Youth and Inertia in James Joyce’xxs Dubliners
(2018) Durmuş, Erdinç
IRISH YOUTH AND INERTIA IN JAMES JOYCE’S DUBLINERS Abstract James Joyce who was born in 1882 in Dublin, the capital city of Ireland that had been colonized by England from the middle of the 17th century to the first quarter of the 20th century, published his first novel Dubliners in 1914. The novel is likely to be considered as a bildungsroman of Ireland’s society since it focuses on the growth of the whole community rather than the focus on the psychological and moral growth of only one protagonist. Composed of four stages each of which narrates a different stage of the society (namely; childhood, adolescence, maturity and public life)the novel is consisted of fifteen stories. The setting of all the stories is the city of Dublin where (as Joyce narrates) paralyses, stagnancy and inertia seem to have haunted the lives of the public. Inertia, in Merriam Webster, is defined as the lack of movement or activity especially when movement or activity is wanted or needed. In the field of physics, it is defined as “a property of matter by which something that is not moving remains still and something that is moving goes at the same speed and in the same direction until another thing or force affects it.” Inertia is also known to be the feeling of the lack of the energy that helps mobilization, which makes the change in situations where motion, action and change are necessary. Considering the fact that every single molecule across the universe is on the move, what is being implied here is not that the substance stands still; rather, it is the fact that its perpetuum mobile or momentum is preserved in a constant pace. People are usually aware of the problems stemming from the negative cases in which they are entrapped. However, despite the fact that they – more or less – have the knowledge concerning how to resolve these problems, they are not enthusiastic to take any action. They find themselves in a constantly negative situation that prevents them from taking the first step, or in a state of mind that helps the momentum keep on going in a constant pace. Inertia, in other words, may as well be defined as the state of not being able to take the necessary action at the right time and in the right space. Against such a backdrop and drawing on the two stories all characters of which are adolescents, this article aims to reveal how destructive the state of inertia could be for those individuals and societies who do not handle their necessities in the right place at the right time.
A Structuralist Analysis of Women’s Position in George Eliot’s "Middlemarch"
(IVPE, 2019) Alkan, Halit
Structuralism that began to be active in the 1950’s is the approach to define the relationship between the part and the whole. This study aims to analyse George Eliot’s "Middlemarch" (1872) in terms of the structuralist approach. This novel is analysed synchronically. In the surface structure of the novel, there is a plot based on the relationships between Dorothea Brooke, Edward Casaubon, Rosamond Vincy and Tertius Lydgate. In terms of syntagmatic relation, while Dorothea marries Casaubon, Rosamond marries Lydgate. Both Dorothea and Rosamond marry their spouses to actualize only their dream goals. In terms of paradigmatic relation, there is also homology of relationships between the two couples because there is an unhappy marriage between Dorothea and Casaubon as well as an unhappy marriage between Rosamond and Lydgate. In terms of syntagmatic relation, Dorothea’s husband dies; Rosamond’s husband dies; Dorothea makes a second marriage; Rosamond makes a second marriage. The novel ends but its melody continues because Dorothea and Rosamond are given no role other than being a wife and mother in the male-dominant society. Education, debt and unhappiness in the surface structure of the novel are closed signs. These signs become explicit signs in the deep structure of the novel in the following sense: While the signifier is education, the signified is enlightenment and self-knowledge; while the signifier is debt, the signified is failure and poverty; while the signifier is unhappiness, the signified is illusion and empathy. As for the deep structure of the novel, its harmony operates on binary opposition between Dorothea and Rosamond as follows: ignorance/knowledge, poverty/wealth, imaginary/reality, selfish/unselfish, love/money. The deep meaning obtained from the deep structure is as follows: There is no innate difference between men and women in terms of mental capacity, but there are prejudices imposed by the male-dominated society on women. This is because the patriarchal society does not allow women to have the same educational opportunities as men. Women who are not allowed an adequate education are left with no choice but to marry and have only the role of a wife and mother in society.
A Structuralist Analysis of Anton Chekhov’s "The Lady with the Dog"
(ISPEC Publishing House, 2019) Alkan, Halit
Structuralism that began to be active in the 1950’s is the approach to define the relationship between the part and the whole. This study aims to analyse Anton Chekhov’s "The Lady with the Dog" (1899) in terms of the structuralist approach. This short story is analysed synchronically. In the surface structure, there is a tale based on a love affair between Dmitri Dmitritch Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna who are married to other people. In terms of syntagmatic relation, Gurov marries his wife while he is a student in his second year, and Anna Sergeyevna marries her husband while she is at the age of 20. In terms of paradigmatic relation, there is also homology of relationship between the two couples because Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna both have unhappy marriages. As for the surface structure, in Section I and Section II, the setting is Yalta and the season is summer which represents warmth, freedom, pleasure, optimism while in Section III and Section IV, the setting is Moscow and the season is winter which represents coldness, oppression, pain, pessimism. As for the surface meaning, love is both pleasure and pain. Arranged marriage and love in the surface structure are closed signs. These signs become explicit signs in the deep structure in the following sense: While the signifier is marriage, the signified isdisappointment; while the signifier is love, the signified is power. As for the deep structure, itsharmony operates on binary opposition between ‘being as a subject’ and ‘being as an object’. In Section I and Section II, Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna are ‘beings as an object’ and not free because they take the judgment of others into consideration. In Section III and Section IV, Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna who fall in love with each other become ‘beings as a subject’ and free because they ignore how others judge them, make their choice, take action and take the responsibility of their decision. Its melody operates on the fixed cycle of getting married on social traditions. The short story ends but its melody continues because Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna will continue to love and meet each other in secret due to their marriage to other people. As for the deep meaning, hell is much of provincial values and unquestioning acceptance of conforming to meaningless social traditions.
A Liberal Feminist Approach to Bobbie Ann Mason’s “Shiloh”
(2020) Alkan, Halit
Women’s problems are undoubtedly as old as human history. By giving legal rights and political and economic power to men only, the male-dominant society deprives women of the public sphere and makes them dependent on men. Marriage becomes the sole purpose of women because they are convinced that only by this way they can take place in society. Reproduction and the care of the home and family are the main duties of women in the patriarchal structure. Once women begin to demand legal rights and freedom, the basis of feminism emerges. Liberal feminism can be said to be based on equal opportunities in education, women’s access to public sphere and economic equality. Liberal feminist approach defines the equality and freedom of women with men in legal, family and social life. When liberal feminist approach is applied to Bobbie Ann Mason’s “Shiloh”, it allows researchers to analyse the gender roles in the context of the patriarchal ideology of separate spheres. Norma Jean is an obedient housewife who accepts her duty of reproduction and care of the home and family in private sphere whereas her husband Leroy Moffitt is the breadwinner as a truck driver in the public sphere. However, Norma Jean takes a body-building class, enrols in a composition class at night school, writes a paper about music and becomes the breadwinner. According to liberal feminist approach, Norma Jean’s taking place in the public sphere is a manifestation of her claim of independence resulting in the breakdown of her marriage.
A Discourse of ‘Othering’ in E. M. Forster’s "A Passage to India"
(Berikan Yayınevi, 2020) Alkan, Halit
Due to industrialization and mechanization in Europe, there was the need to sell overproduction, find new markets and buy larger amounts of raw materials at cheapest price. For these reasons, in terms of colonialism, most developed European countries occupied territories especially in areas with no political and economic structures from the 16th century to the 20th century. In addition to economic and political reasons for Western colonialism, there was the so-called ‘civilizing mission’ because Western people believed in superiority of their civilization. The Western ideology has produced arbitrary geographic separation through drawing boundaries between itself and ‘other’, and referred to ‘other’s land as the ‘Orient’ and ‘the land of barbarians’. In this sense, a discourse of the ‘othering’ has been produced especially in the colonial period and in literature. In this context, E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India (1924) allows readers to analyse how colonialism impacts on gender, class, culture and race. It concerns the relations between the English and the native population of India during the colonial period in which Britain ruled India. In the novel, A Passage to India, one of the major characters named Dr Aziz, like many of the other Indians, struggles with the problem of the English in India. On the one hand, he appreciates some of the modernizing influences that the West has brought to India; on the other hand, he feels that the presence of the English degrades and oppresses his people. The British Empire is portrayed as a fundamentally racist institution that excludes and subjugates others. There are racial lines, with the white Europeans on one side, and everyone else on the other. Indians are referred to as the ‘Oriental’ and ‘Other’ who are stereotypically considered to be undeveloped, ignorant and wild as opposed to the intellectual, civilized, and progressive Westerner. Indians are considered unable to rule themselves, essentially needing the British Empire to help them toward civilization.
A REVIEW OF A POSTMODERN NOVEL THE ROMANTIC EGOIST
(2020) Bulent Alan; Hazar Faruk Güven
The main purpose of this study is to examine the French writer Frédéric Beigbeder's Romantic Egoist in the context of postmodern literature. The postmodern concept represents the end of modernization, as can be understood from the prefix "post". There are different interpretations of this concept, first introduced in America, whether it is opposed to modernism or successive of it. Ultimately, while the postmodern concept is being debated, it cannot be considered independently of modernism. Postmodern writers support an understanding that practises on all the legacy of literature, makes references to different works, texts and writers. Irony and pastische are characteristics of this movement. Contrary to modern writers, throughout the work postmodern writers make the reader feel that the story is fictional. In this study, after giving a brief summary of this work, which is an example of a postmodern novel, the answer to the question of who is postmodern writer is sought. The fact that the author sometimes presents himself as a novel character in the work shows that he wrote his work using the metafiction technique of postmodern literature. After examining the examples of this technique in the work, the features like epigraph, collage, quotation and reference of the concept of intertextuality, which is one of the areas used by the postmodern literary movement, are discussed.
The Discourse of 'Othering' in Hanif Kureishi's “The Buddha of Suburbia”
(IKSAD Publishing House, 2020) Alkan, Halit
In order to sell overproduction, find new markets and buy larger amounts of raw materials at cheapest price, most developed European countries occupied territories especially in areas with no political and economic structures from the 16th century to the 20th century. In addition to Western colonialism, Western people take the so called ‘civilizing mission’ on as a duty because they believe in superiority of their civilization. Therefore, the Western ideology has produced arbitrary boundaries between itself and ‘other’, and referred to ‘other’s land as the ‘Orient’ and ‘the land of barbarians’. During postcolonial period, many communities from the former colonial regions have migrated to Britain. The discourse of ‘othering’ has been maintained by the host British society for centuries. In this context, Hanif Kureishi’s "The Buddha of Suburbia" (1990) allows readers to analyse the discourse of ‘othering’ in terms of gender, class, culture, and race. The novel concerns the quest of both an Indian Haroon who is married to a British woman and his adolescent son Karim to find ethnic, cultural and gender identity in British society. Haroon and his friend Anwar, representing first-generation immigrants in the multicultural British society, are not only silenced by the ruling British society, which see them as intruders and dependents, but also considered by representatives of the ruling group as exotic, suspicious, and the ‘other’. Although Haroon’s son, Karim, imitates the host culture, he cannot escape being considered as the ‘other’ because of his race, colour, class and culture. Although Anwar’s daughter, Jamila, struggles between her main culture and the host culture in a multicultural society, and represents the role of a contemporary woman who questions the patriarchal understanding is also considered as the ‘other’. There are racial lines, with the white Europeans on one side, and everyone else on the other.
ESCAPING AND WITHSTANDING THE REALITY THROUGH ART IN EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL’S STATION ELEVEN
(2020) Alan, Bülent; Maviş, Yunus
Having been an ever-present part of Western culture, end of time speculations, namely apocalypse scenarios, are largely originated in biblical ending scenarios and have always appealed to and intrigued the scholars in a wide range of fields, including the literati. These apocalypse and post-apocalypse scenarios have found a dominating place in literature as part of ecocriticism, which in general terms, puts nature and the themes focusing on ecology in the focal point. Covering dystopian, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic narratives as genres, ecocriticism includes a broad range of literary and artistic studies and critical theories that emphasize nature and environment relevant problems. Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven (2014) is a distinctive example for dystopian and post-apocalyptic narratives describing the beginning of a global epidemic, Georgia Flu, and life twenty years after the catastrophe, because it both tries to explore man’s potential to create and sustain meaning through art, story and sharing in an ambitious and versatile way, and scrutinizes whether the ethical and cultural values still exist in a post-apocalyptic world, and the likely ways people live together, which is of the set of ideas suggested by post-apocalyptic literature. In this study, we argue that in Station Eleven (2014), Emily St. John Mandel considers art as an intrinsic need for humanity and the real survivor even after a probable apocalypse, and becomes a source of endurance against harsh realities of life, functioning like a home that shelters humans to which they escape.
An Existentialist Approach to Jean-Paul Sartre’s "No Exit"
(Mardin Artuklu Üniversitesi Yayınları, 2020) Alkan, Halit
Existentialism that began to be active in the 20th century is the approach to define the human being not only as the thinking being but also as the acting and feeling human individual. This study aims to analyse Jean-Paul Sartre’s "No Exit" (1944) in terms of existentialist approach, namely human’s existence of freedom which depends on the on-going relationships between the aspects of ‘being as a subject’ and ‘being as an object’. The play No Exit depicts the afterlife in which Joseph Garcin, Ines Serrano and Estelle Rigault are brought to the same room in hell. The ‘being as a subject’ of the three characters is judged by people on the earth and is reduced to the state of ‘being as an object’ which gets the unchangeable state by the judgment of others. Joseph will be remembered as a coward and Estelle as a pretty blonde who is the murderer of her child and crazy about money and males while nobody will remember Inez at all. They become the prisoners of each other in hell where the time is stable and where they are completely deprived of the freedom of existence of ‘being as a subject’ because they no longer have the opportunity to act and to change the thoughts about themselves. This imprisonment fixes them in the state of ‘being as an object’. The victim changes every time and there are two tortures against it. Therefore, they are both the torturers and the victims: Hell is other people.

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