Non-Heteronormative Attachments: Melancholy and Intimacy in J.M. Coetzee’s Autofiction

Abstract

This essay offers a theoretical lens, through which non-heteronormative attachments in Coetzee’s writing might be uncovered, a lens sensitive to feelings and affective intensities animating the intimacy between self and other. This new interpretive possibility, inspired by Lauren Berlant’s concept of minor intimacy 1998 , reckons with the modes of attachment and belonging that flourish in the shadow of heteronormative intimacies. This essay specifically explores melancholy, desire, and longing that appears throughout Coetzee’s autofictional trilogy Scenes from Provincial Life. It draws on the analytical insights offered by phenomenological literature on emotions, studies on heteronormativity, and existentialist thinker Martin Buber’sideas on intimacy

Keywords

• J.M. Coetzee, autofiction, heteronormativity, melancholy, intimacy

Heteronormatif Olmayan Bağlılıklar: J.M. Coetzee Özkurmacasında Melankoli ve Yakınlık

Abstract

Bu yazı J.M. Coetzee metinlerindeki gayri-heteronormatif bağlılıkları incelemeye imkân veren, duygular ve duygulanımsal yoğunlukları dikkate alacak kuramsal bir mercek öneriyor. Lauren Berlant’ın minör yakınlık kavramından ilham alan bu yeni yorumlama imkâni heteronormatif ilişkilerin gölgesinde büyüyen bağlılık ve aidiyet biçimlerine ışık tutuyor. Bu yazı bilhassa melankoli, arzu ve özlem duygularına odaklanarak J.M Coetzee’nin özkurmaca eseri Taşra Hayatından Manzaralar başlıklı üçlemesini inceliyor. Bu dinamikleri analiz ederken, duygu çalışmalarından, bilhassa varoluşçu ve fenomenoloji geleneklerindeki duygulara dair felsefi önermelerden, heteronormativite çalışmalarından ve varoluşçu düşünür Martin Buber’in fikirlerinden faydalanıyor

Keywords

• J.M. Coetzee, özkurmaca, heteronormativite, melankoli, yakınlık

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