“HAKİKATİ SÖYLEYİN Kİ GLASGOW GELİŞEBİLSİN:” ALASDAIR GRAY’İN LANARK ROMANINDA İSKOÇ BAĞIMSIZLIK ARAYIŞI

Abstract

Lanark: Dört Kitaplık Bir Hayat (1981), çok yönlü sanatçı, eleştirmen ve şair Alasdair Gray’in Glasgow’un sanatsal temsili için yarattığı bir araçtır. Roman, türsel çeşitliliği ve kendine referans veren yapısı sebebiyle ağırlıkla postmodern bir metin olarak analiz edilmiş olsa da bu çalışma, bahsedilen özelliklerin romanın birincil kaygısını vurgulamaya hizmet ettiğini savunmaktadır: siyasi, sanatsal ve iktisadi bağımsızlık elde etmek için zorunlu bir öz temsil ihtiyacı. Metin, yeni bir ulusal edebiyatın ortaya çıkışını hem talep etmekte hem de müjdelemektedir. Sanatçı için edebi temsil, siyasi temsilin ve dolayısıyla bağımsızlığın ön koşuludur. 1979 İskoç özerklik referandumunun sonucuna duyulan memnuniyetsizlik, Lanark’ın siyasi arka planlarından biri olarak görülebilir. Bu anlamda roman, hem son siyasi yenilgiyi kabullenme çabası hem de iktisadi olarak sanayisizleştirilmiş ve siyasi olarak kutuplaştırılmış, devletsiz bir ulus pozisyonunda İskoç gerçekliğini temsil etme çabasıdır.

Keywords

• Alasdair Gray
• çağdaş kurgu
• İskoç edebiyatı
• Lanark
• postmodern kurgu

“LET GLASGOW FLOURISH BY TELLING THE TRUTH:” SEARCH FOR THE SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE IN ALASDAIR GRAY’S LANARK

Abstract

Lanark: A Life in Four Books (1981) is a medium through which the versatile Scottish artist, critic, and poet Alasdair Gray can create an artistic representation of Glasgow. While the novel has been predominantly analysed as a quintessential postmodern text due to its generic multiplicity and self-referential qualities, this paper argues that these very qualities are in the service of highlighting the novel’s primary concern: the urgent need for self-representation to achieve political, artistic, and economic independence. The text both calls for and heralds the emergence of a new national literature. For the artist, literary representation is the prerequisite for political representation, and consequently, for independence. The disillusionment with the 1979 Scottish devolution referendum can be seen as one of the political backdrops of Lanark. The novel, in that sense, is an attempt at both coming to terms with the recent political defeat and an artistic endeavour to represent the Scottish reality as the position of a stateless nation that has been deindustrialised economically and polarised politically.

Keywords

• Alasdair Gray
• contemporary fiction
• Lanark
• postmodern fiction
• Scottish literature

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