QUEST FOR UTOPIAN IMPULSE IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY DYSTOPIAN NARRATIVE: P. D. JAMES’S CRITICAL DYSTOPIA, THE CHILDREN OF MEN

Yıl 2019, Cilt: 17 Sayı: 1, 243 - 264, 26.03.2019

Emrah Atasoy

https://doi.org/10.18026/cbayarsos.524119

Öz

Dystopian narrative has gained enormous worldwide recognition and
popularity with an upsurge in the number of literary dystopias and
dystopian films. Dystopia presents alternative world scenarios, which
project a relatively worse dystopian social order than the current
experienced one, thereby functioning as a cautionary tale. Twentieth
century witnessed the emergence and gradual rise of dystopia in the
aftermath of the socio-political conjuncture and led dystopia to be
generally interpreted as pessimistic. However, twentieth-century
dystopian fiction is not completely pessimistic since it signifies hope
through open-ended narratives, especially in the critical dystopias of
the century. The experiential journey motif, which facilitates potential
transformation in the character’s stance on the dynamics of the
projected system, plays a significant role in eliciting the utopian
impulse. The aim of this article is therefore to discuss the possibility of
hope in twentieth-century dystopian fiction through a comprehensive
analysis of P. D. James’s critical dystopia, The Children of Men (1992),
which has not achieved critical and scholarly acclaim it deserves,
probably due to the success of Alfonso Cuaron’s film, Children of Men
(2006).  

Anahtar Kelimeler

critical dystopia, hope, P. D. James, journey, utopian impulse

20. YÜZYIL DISTOPIK ANLATISINDA ÜTOPIK DÜRTÜ ARAYIŞI: P. D. JAMES’IN ÜMITVAR DISTOPYASI, THE CHILDREN OF MEN

Öz

Distopik romanlardaki ve filmlerdeki artış, distopik anlatının dünya
çapında tanınırlık kazanmasına büyük ölçüde katkıda bulunmuştur.
Distopya, deneyimlenen toplumsal düzene kıyasla daha kötü bir
toplum düzenini yansıtan alternatif dünya senaryolarını sunmaktadır.
Bu bağlamda distopyanın uyarıcı, ikaz edici bir boyutu da
bulunmaktadır. 20. yüzyıl, distopyanın sosyo-politik konjonktür
sonrası ortaya çıkışına ve kademeli gelişimine tanıklık etmiştir. Bu da
distopyanın karamsar bir tür olarak algılanmasına yol açmıştır. Ancak,  20. yüzyıl distopik anlatısı tamamıyla karamsar değildir çünkü bu
yüzyılda yazılan romanların, özellikle de eleştirel distopyaların açık
uçlu yapısı umudu barındırmaktadır. Eserdeki karakterin, tasarlanan
sistemin dinamiklerine olan tutumunda olası bir değişimi mümkün
kılan ve tecrübeye dayanan seyahat motifi, ütopik dürtünün ortaya
çıkarılmasında önemli bir rol oynamaktadır. Bu anlamda bu
makalenin amacı, muhtemelen Alfonso Cuaron’un Children of Men
(Son Umut, 2006) başlıklı filminin başarısı yüzünden şu ana kadar hak
ettiği değeri görmeyen P. D. James’in ümitvar4 distopyası, The Children
of Men (1992)’in kapsamlı analizi üzerinden, 20. yüzyıl distopik
anlatısında umudun olasılığını tartışmaktır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

P. D. James, eleştirel distopya, umut, P. D. James, seyahat, ütopik dürtü

Kaynakça

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