Abstract
İlk kısmında, Beowulf’un Heorot’da yaşadıklarına odaklanarak, bu çalışma, Eski İngiliz edebiyatına ait epik bir eser olan Beowulf’u Heorot’da gerçekleşen söylemsel kaymalar bağlamında okumayı amaçlar. Grendel ve Annesi tarafından temsil edilen ilk söylem anasoylu epistemolojilere yakındır; Hrothgar ve Beowulf tarafından temsil edilen ikinci söylem ise erken dönem feodalizminin daha gelişmiş bir haline aittir; Hristiyan anlatıcı tarafından temsil edilen ikinci söylemse ilk ikisini onları yeniden ifade ederek kendine entegre etmeye çalışan daha geç döneme ait bir epistemolojiyi dışa vurur. İlk söylemden ikinciye geçişte, ve sonra üçüncü söyleme geçiş sırasında, Spivak’ın epistemik şiddet olarak tanımladığı şiddeti görürüz. Bu şiddet kuşaklararası olduğu için, görünür olmamasına rağmen, ilk kuşakta bireylerin psikesine işleyen gizli bir travmaya neden olur. Bu bağlamda, bu makale, Grendel’in Heorot’a saldırısının ikinci baskıcı söylemdeki kolektif-bastırılmış olanın geri gelişi olduğunu iddia eder. Makale, Heorot’dakiler Grendel’e tüm güçleriyle saldırırken, bu sürecin aynı zamanda söylemler arasındaki bir gerilime işaret ettiğini tartışır. Metindeki anlatıcı Hristiyandır, ve sözmerkezli, ataerkil ve (ikinci söylemdekinden daha gelişmiş olan) feodal bir geçmişe sahiptir. Anlatıcının söyledikleri, metnin içindeki anlatısal boşlukların işaret ettikleriyle çelişki içindedir. Bu makale, metnin içindeki anatısal boşlukları, Heorot’yu çarpışan söylemsel pratiklerin kesişme noktası olarak tartışmayı hedefler.
References
- Beowulf and Other Old English Poems. (1988). (Rev. and 2nd ed.), C. Heath (Trans.). Bantam.
- Birlik, N. (2018). Hermeneutics of lack of Lack and the dyad of the (m)Other and the shared Other, in Zemeckis’s Beowulf. Neophilologus, 102(2), 241–56. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-018-9552-1.
- Birlik, N. (2021). Lacanian implications of departures in Zemeckis’s Beowulf from Beowulf, the old English Epic. Text Matters, 11, 178-185.
- Berzins, A. (2004). The challenge of an adaptation. Retrieved from http://www.beowulfandgrendel.com/the-challenge-of-an-adaptation/. Accessed November 12, 2017.
- Brown, L. S. (1995). Not outside the range: One feminist perspective on psychic trauma. In C. Caruth (Eds.), Trauma: Explorations in Memory (pp. 100-112). The Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Craps, S., & Gert, B. (2008). Introduction: Postcolonial trauma novels. Studies in the Novel, 40, (1&2), 1-12.
- Eagleton, T. (2008). Literary Theory. Blackwell Publishing.
- Foucault, M. (1986). Of Other places: Utopias and heterotopias. Diacritics, 16(1), 22-7. JStor, doi.org/10.2307/464648.
- Heaney, S. (2000). Introduction. Beowulf: An illustrated edition (pp. 7–24). S. Heaney (Trans.). Norton.
- Howard, J. E. (1986). The new historicism in Renaissance studies. English Literary Renaissance, 16(1), 13-43.
- Klaeber, F. (1996). The Christian elements in Beowulf. The Medieval Institute.
- Lacan, J. (1988). The Seminar of Jacques Lacan Book I Freud’s papers on technique 1953- 1954. J.-A. Miller (Ed.), J. Forrester (Trans). W.W. Norton.
- Lacan, J. (2006). Écrits (1st complete edition in English). B. Fink (Trans). W.W. Norton.
- Niles, J. D. (1983). Beowulf: the poem and its tradition. Harvard University Press.
- Puhvel, M. (c2005). Cause and effect in Beowulf: Motivation and driving forces behind words and deeds. University Press of America.
- Schlauch, M. (1956). English medieval literature and its social foundations. Oxford University Press.
- Soja, E. (2009). The city and spatial justice [«La ville et la justice spatiale», traduction: Sophie Didier, Frédéric Dufaux], justice spatiale | spatial justice | n° 01 septembre | september 2009 | http://www.jssj.org [Paper prepared for presentation at the conference Spatial Justice, Nanterre, Paris, March 12-14, 2008]. https://www.jssj.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/JSSJ1-1en4.pdf
- Sarup, M. (1992). Jacques Lacan. Harvester Wheatsheaf.
- Spivak, G. C. (1988). Can the subaltern speak? In C. Nelson and K. Grossberg (Eds.), Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture (pp. 271-313). Macmillan Education.
- Swanton, M. (1987). English Literature before Chaucer. Longman.
Abstract
Focusing on Beowulf’s presence in Heorot in the first part of the text, this essay aims to read the Old English epic Beowulf as an account of discursive shifts that are objectified in Heorot. The earliest discourse represented by Grendel and his Mother is closer to the matrilinear epistemologies; the second represented by Hrothgar and Beowulf belongs to a more organised form of early feudalism, and the third discourse represented by the Christian narrator is acting out a more recent epistemology that tries to integrate the previous discourses into itself by reformulating them. In the transition from the first to the second, and then to the third discourses we see what Spivak terms epistemic violence. As this violence is transgenerational, it has also led to insidious trauma that is infiltrated into the psyche of the individuals in the earliest epistemology despite the lack of visible violence. This essay claims that what Grendel does in Heorot is the return of the collective repressed of second oppressive discourse. It is argued that when the others perform a wholesale attack on Grendel, this process also reveals the oppositional energy between the three discourses. The narrator in the text is Christian and comes from a different epistemological background which is logocentric, patriarchal, and feudal (in a more enhanced form than the second discourse). What we hear from the narrator clashes with what the text reveals through its ruptures. This essay also aims to look at the ruptures in the text by taking Heorot as a space of interface between clashing discursive practices.
References
- Beowulf and Other Old English Poems. (1988). (Rev. and 2nd ed.), C. Heath (Trans.). Bantam.
- Birlik, N. (2018). Hermeneutics of lack of Lack and the dyad of the (m)Other and the shared Other, in Zemeckis’s Beowulf. Neophilologus, 102(2), 241–56. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-018-9552-1.
- Birlik, N. (2021). Lacanian implications of departures in Zemeckis’s Beowulf from Beowulf, the old English Epic. Text Matters, 11, 178-185.
- Berzins, A. (2004). The challenge of an adaptation. Retrieved from http://www.beowulfandgrendel.com/the-challenge-of-an-adaptation/. Accessed November 12, 2017.
- Brown, L. S. (1995). Not outside the range: One feminist perspective on psychic trauma. In C. Caruth (Eds.), Trauma: Explorations in Memory (pp. 100-112). The Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Craps, S., & Gert, B. (2008). Introduction: Postcolonial trauma novels. Studies in the Novel, 40, (1&2), 1-12.
- Eagleton, T. (2008). Literary Theory. Blackwell Publishing.
- Foucault, M. (1986). Of Other places: Utopias and heterotopias. Diacritics, 16(1), 22-7. JStor, doi.org/10.2307/464648.
- Heaney, S. (2000). Introduction. Beowulf: An illustrated edition (pp. 7–24). S. Heaney (Trans.). Norton.
- Howard, J. E. (1986). The new historicism in Renaissance studies. English Literary Renaissance, 16(1), 13-43.
- Klaeber, F. (1996). The Christian elements in Beowulf. The Medieval Institute.
- Lacan, J. (1988). The Seminar of Jacques Lacan Book I Freud’s papers on technique 1953- 1954. J.-A. Miller (Ed.), J. Forrester (Trans). W.W. Norton.
- Lacan, J. (2006). Écrits (1st complete edition in English). B. Fink (Trans). W.W. Norton.
- Niles, J. D. (1983). Beowulf: the poem and its tradition. Harvard University Press.
- Puhvel, M. (c2005). Cause and effect in Beowulf: Motivation and driving forces behind words and deeds. University Press of America.
- Schlauch, M. (1956). English medieval literature and its social foundations. Oxford University Press.
- Soja, E. (2009). The city and spatial justice [«La ville et la justice spatiale», traduction: Sophie Didier, Frédéric Dufaux], justice spatiale | spatial justice | n° 01 septembre | september 2009 | http://www.jssj.org [Paper prepared for presentation at the conference Spatial Justice, Nanterre, Paris, March 12-14, 2008]. https://www.jssj.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/JSSJ1-1en4.pdf
- Sarup, M. (1992). Jacques Lacan. Harvester Wheatsheaf.
- Spivak, G. C. (1988). Can the subaltern speak? In C. Nelson and K. Grossberg (Eds.), Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture (pp. 271-313). Macmillan Education.
- Swanton, M. (1987). English Literature before Chaucer. Longman.
Details
| Primary Language | English |
|---|---|
| Subjects | European Language, Literature and Culture, British and Irish Language, Literature and Culture |
| Journal Section | İnceleme makalesi |
| Authors | |
| Publication Date | June 25, 2025 |
| Submission Date | November 18, 2024 |
| Acceptance Date | February 6, 2025 |
| Published in Issue | Year 2025 Volume: 65 Issue: 1 |
Ankara University Journal of the Faculty of Languages and History-Geography is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).