In-between the Uncertainties: Ted Hughes and the Art of Negative Capability

Year 2024, Volume: 18 Issue: 2, 399 - 409, 31.12.2024

Emre Çakar

Abstract

This paper deals with the analysis of the poems of Ted Hughes (1930-1998) from John Keats’ term, Negative Capability. In one of his letters to his brother, Keats writes that Negative Capability is such a state in which a poet is “capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries and doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason” (1817/2005, p. 60). Moreover, poets, according to Keats, have no steady character, they must have a metamorphic identity like a chameleon to adapt themselves to troublesome situations. Keatsian Negative Capability allows the reader to interpret Hughes’ poems from two distinct perspectives, one is about Hughes’ personal life with his wife, Sylvia Plath, and the other one is his public persona in England. This paper aims to reveal Hughes’ struggle with the difficulties both in his personal and public life and interpret his poems to display how he was negatively capable of surviving amid the tragedy of human existence and how he turned his suffering into a work of art in his poems such as “The Hawk in the Rain,” “Wodwo” and “Thought Fox.”

Keywords

Ted Hughes, John Keats, Negative Capability, In-betweenness, Metamorphic Identity

Belirsizlikler Arasinda: Ted Hughes ve Negatif Yetenek Sanatı

Abstract

Bu makale Ted Hughes’un (1930-1998) şiirlerinin John Keats’in Negatif Yetenek terimi üzerinden analizini ele almaktadır. Keats, kardeşine yazdığı mektuplardan birinde, Negatif Yetenek'in, bir şairin, gerçeklerin ve aklın peşinden huzursuzca koşmadan, belirsizlikler, gizemler ve şüpheler içinde olabileceği bir durum olduğunu yazar (1817/2005, s. 60). Dahası, Keats’e göre şairlerin sabit bir karakteri yoktur, kendilerini sıkıntılı durumlara adapte edebilmek için bukalemun gibi metamorfik bir kimliğe sahip olmalıdırlar. Keatsçi Negatif Yetenek, okuyucunun Hughes’un şiirlerini iki farklı perspektiften yorumlamasına olanak tanır; biri Hughes’un eşi Sylvia Plath ile olan kişisel yaşamı, diğeri ise İngiltere’deki kamusal kişiliğidir. Bu çalışma, Hughes'un hem kişisel hem de kamusal yaşamındaki zorluklarla mücadelesini ortaya koymayı ve şiirlerini yorumlayarak insan varoluşunun trajedisi karşısında nasıl olumsuz bir şekilde hayatta kalabildiğini ve “The Hawk in the Rain”, “Wodwo” ve “Thought Fox” gibi şiirlerinde çektiği acıları nasıl bir sanat eserine dönüştürdüğünü göstermeyi amaçlamaktadır.

Keywords

Ted Hughes, John Keats, Negative Capability, Aradakalmışlık, Başkalaşmış Kimlik

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