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Mourning and Melancholy in Julian Barnes’s Levels of Life and The Only Story

Year 2020, Volume: 14 Issue: 2, 158 - 169, 29.12.2020
https://doi.org/10.47777/cankujhss.848800

Abstract

References

  • Barnes, Julian. A History of the World in 10/5 Chapters. Vintage, 1989.
  • Barnes, Julian. Levels of Life. Vintage, 2013.
  • Barnes, Julian. The Only Story. Jonathan Cape, 2018.
  • Brault, Pascale-Anne and Michael Naas. “Editors’ Introduction.” The Work of Mourning. University of Chicago Press, 2001.
  • Derrida, Jacques. Memories for Paul de Man. Trans. and Eds. Cecile Lindsay and Jonathan Culler, et al. Columbia University Press, 1989.
  • Derrida, Jacques. “Circumfession.” Jacques Derrida. Trans. George Bennington. Chicago University Press, 1993.
  • Derrida, Jacques. The Gift of Death. University of Chicago Press, 1995.
  • Derrida, Jacques. The Work of Mourning. Eds. Pascale-Anne Brault and Michael Naas. University of Chicago Press, 2001.
  • Ferber, Ilit. “Melancholy Philosophy: Freud and Benjamin.” E-rea, vol. 4, no. 1, 2006.
  • Freud, Sigmund. “Mourning and Melancholia.” The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud, vol. 14. Trans: James Strachy. Hogarth Press: Institute of Psychoanalysis, 1957.
  • Kirkby, Joan. “Remembrance of the Future: Derrida on Mourning.” Social Semiotics, vol. 16, no. 3, 2007. pp.461-472. https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330600824383
  • Woodward, Kathleen. “Freud and Barthes: Theorizing Mourning, Sustaining Grief” Discourse, A Special Issue on the Emotions, vol. 13, no. 1, Fall-Winter 1990-91, pp. 93-110. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41389171. Accessed on 29 May 2020.

Mourning and Melancholy in Julian Barnes’s Levels of Life and The Only Story

Year 2020, Volume: 14 Issue: 2, 158 - 169, 29.12.2020
https://doi.org/10.47777/cankujhss.848800

Abstract

The loss of the beloved, the fear or experience of it, either because of death or other reasons has been a repeatedly occurring theme in the work of Julian Barnes. In Before She Met Me, the fear of loss forms the subconscious of a humorous and meticulous examination of obsessive jealousy, in Talking It Over and Love etc., it is analysed through deception, revenge and resentment. Even behind the apparent postmodernist strategies and playful tone of Flaubert’s Parrot, there resides the story of a retired, bereaving narrator who is trying to overcome the recent death of his once infidel wife. Irony and humour have always been the main traits of Barnes, no matter how serious the issues he represented. However, since the publication of The Sense of an Ending in 2011, Barnes’s novels have grown to be more melancholic and lyrical in tone and less humorous and playful in style. Barnes’s latest novels – The Sense of an Ending (2011), Levels of Life (2013), The Noise of Time (2016) and The Only Story (2018) – all develop around an aged protagonist or narrator whose story unfolds in an ironically self-aware lyrical tone, which detaches Barnes from postmodernism. The writing style of Julian Barnes, as a mature novelist, gets plainer as his mood becomes more sentimental and melancholic. This paper examines Barnes’s representation of mourning and melancholy in Levels of Life where he dedicates the last section to his bereavement process after the loss of his wife, Pat Kavanagh, and The Only Story where he offers the piercing and grim love story of Susan (48) and Paul (19). The concepts of mourning and melancholy will be analysed by reference to Freud’s and Derrida’s views to illustrate how Barnes subtly probes them in the two novels as an artist.

References

  • Barnes, Julian. A History of the World in 10/5 Chapters. Vintage, 1989.
  • Barnes, Julian. Levels of Life. Vintage, 2013.
  • Barnes, Julian. The Only Story. Jonathan Cape, 2018.
  • Brault, Pascale-Anne and Michael Naas. “Editors’ Introduction.” The Work of Mourning. University of Chicago Press, 2001.
  • Derrida, Jacques. Memories for Paul de Man. Trans. and Eds. Cecile Lindsay and Jonathan Culler, et al. Columbia University Press, 1989.
  • Derrida, Jacques. “Circumfession.” Jacques Derrida. Trans. George Bennington. Chicago University Press, 1993.
  • Derrida, Jacques. The Gift of Death. University of Chicago Press, 1995.
  • Derrida, Jacques. The Work of Mourning. Eds. Pascale-Anne Brault and Michael Naas. University of Chicago Press, 2001.
  • Ferber, Ilit. “Melancholy Philosophy: Freud and Benjamin.” E-rea, vol. 4, no. 1, 2006.
  • Freud, Sigmund. “Mourning and Melancholia.” The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud, vol. 14. Trans: James Strachy. Hogarth Press: Institute of Psychoanalysis, 1957.
  • Kirkby, Joan. “Remembrance of the Future: Derrida on Mourning.” Social Semiotics, vol. 16, no. 3, 2007. pp.461-472. https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330600824383
  • Woodward, Kathleen. “Freud and Barthes: Theorizing Mourning, Sustaining Grief” Discourse, A Special Issue on the Emotions, vol. 13, no. 1, Fall-Winter 1990-91, pp. 93-110. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41389171. Accessed on 29 May 2020.
There are 12 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Literary Studies, Literary Theory
Journal Section Articles
Authors

Zekiye Antakyalıoğlu This is me 0000-0002-6031-834X

Publication Date December 29, 2020
Published in Issue Year 2020 Volume: 14 Issue: 2

Cite

APA Antakyalıoğlu, Z. (2020). Mourning and Melancholy in Julian Barnes’s Levels of Life and The Only Story. Cankaya University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 14(2), 158-169. https://doi.org/10.47777/cankujhss.848800

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