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Year 2020, Volume: 14 Issue: 2, 187 - 202, 29.12.2020
https://doi.org/10.47777/cankujhss.848863

Abstract

References

  • Barnes, Julian. “A Short History of Hairdressing.” The Lemon Table, Picador Pan MacMillan, 2005, pp. 1-23.
  • Barnes, Julian. “Bark.” The Lemon Table, Picador Pan MacMillan, 2005, pp. 121-137.
  • Barnes, Julian. “Hygiene.” The Lemon Table, Picador Pan MacMillan, 2005, pp. 67-85.
  • Barnes, Julian. “The Story of Mats Israelson.” The Lemon Table, Picador Pan MacMillan, 2005, pp. 23-49.
  • Franklin, Ruth. “I Beg Your Pardon.” New Republic, vol. 231, no. 11/12, Sept. 2004, pp. 39-41.
  • Kermode, Frank. “Age has not withered him.” The Guardian, 13 March. 2004. Web. 12 September 2019.
  • Leitch, B. Vincent. Deconstructive Criticism: An Advanced Introduction, Columbia University, 1983.
  • Mallon, Thomas. “As Young as You Feel.” The New York Times, 27 June. 2004. Web. 12 September 2019.
  • May, Todd. Reconsidering Difference, Pennsylvania State University, 1997.
  • Merritt, Stephanie. “Things can only get bitter.” The Guardian, 14 March. 2004. Web. 12 September 2019.
  • Norris, Christopher. Derrida, Harvard University, 1987.
  • Spikes, Michael P. “Present Absence Versus Absent Presence: Kripke Contra Derrida.” Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 75, no. 2/3, 1992, pp. 333-355. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41178579. Accessed 10 January 2020.

Julian Barnes’s The Lemon Table as a Collection of Stories of Absence

Year 2020, Volume: 14 Issue: 2, 187 - 202, 29.12.2020
https://doi.org/10.47777/cankujhss.848863

Abstract

In his collection of short stories, Julian Barnes mainly focuses on the themes of loss and death. Through their stories, Barnes’s characters are depicted in glimpses in their long journey which is from their early life to their very old age. Starting from the very first story titled “A Short History of Hairdressing,” the main character’s kind of metamorphosis into an old man is narrated with ruptures and gaps which seem to be loopholes to be completed for the reader. That the narrator leaves these means of evasion can be evaluated in light of Derrida’s reversal of the traditional ordered pairs like presence/absence. While the first term is viewed as primary and original, the second one is derivative in the Western epistemology. Yet, for Derrida this priority is not intact and can easily be reversed as both the primary and the secondary terms are dependent on each other while bearing the traces of one another. In this axis of binary oppositions, man is associated with either presence or primary; on the contrary, woman is absent or subordinate. In the stories under scrutiny here, male protagonists are fully depicted and most of their actions are mostly legitimized. However, female characters are not allowed to contribute to the flow of the fiction; that is, they are accessories and almost show no presence. In this hierarchical space, women are naturally degraded, which in turn prevents men from achieving any kind of intersubjectivity with anyone. Thus, the course of events including even some of the most intimate details about the characters acts as a screen for absence; that is, they fail to give any worthy information about them. The so-called presence of incidents is indeed absence. In this light, it can be concluded that what goes on or what does not go on in Barnes’s stories can be discovered amidst the slippery ground where the primary and the secondary terms are reversed and intermingled.

References

  • Barnes, Julian. “A Short History of Hairdressing.” The Lemon Table, Picador Pan MacMillan, 2005, pp. 1-23.
  • Barnes, Julian. “Bark.” The Lemon Table, Picador Pan MacMillan, 2005, pp. 121-137.
  • Barnes, Julian. “Hygiene.” The Lemon Table, Picador Pan MacMillan, 2005, pp. 67-85.
  • Barnes, Julian. “The Story of Mats Israelson.” The Lemon Table, Picador Pan MacMillan, 2005, pp. 23-49.
  • Franklin, Ruth. “I Beg Your Pardon.” New Republic, vol. 231, no. 11/12, Sept. 2004, pp. 39-41.
  • Kermode, Frank. “Age has not withered him.” The Guardian, 13 March. 2004. Web. 12 September 2019.
  • Leitch, B. Vincent. Deconstructive Criticism: An Advanced Introduction, Columbia University, 1983.
  • Mallon, Thomas. “As Young as You Feel.” The New York Times, 27 June. 2004. Web. 12 September 2019.
  • May, Todd. Reconsidering Difference, Pennsylvania State University, 1997.
  • Merritt, Stephanie. “Things can only get bitter.” The Guardian, 14 March. 2004. Web. 12 September 2019.
  • Norris, Christopher. Derrida, Harvard University, 1987.
  • Spikes, Michael P. “Present Absence Versus Absent Presence: Kripke Contra Derrida.” Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 75, no. 2/3, 1992, pp. 333-355. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41178579. Accessed 10 January 2020.
There are 12 citations in total.

Details

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

Buket Doğan 0000-0003-4190-9205

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

Cite

APA Doğan, B. (2020). Julian Barnes’s The Lemon Table as a Collection of Stories of Absence. Cankaya University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 14(2), 187-202. https://doi.org/10.47777/cankujhss.848863

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