GRIEVABLE AND UN GRIEVABLE LIVES: PHIL KLAY’S REDEPLOYMENT

Abstract

The Middle East occupies considerable space in the US media and public debate after America’s recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This paper examines Phil Klay’s delineation of these wars in his award-winning story collection, Redeployment (2014), in accordance with its approach to the value of life of both Americans and non-Americans and its perspective(s) on violence. It is Judith Butler’s contention that, in Western democracies, lives and deaths are treated with a different method; while the lives of western citizens are valued and grieved, the lives of non-citizens are devalued and ungrieved. I investigate the status of life/death in this work in the first section while the stories’ appropriation(s) to and justification of violence are elaborated in the second part. In these stories, fatalities among both Americans and locals are abundant and grief appears to dominate the scenes, however, in rather different way.

Keywords

• grievable
• Phil Klay
• ungrievable
• war fiction

KEDERLİ VE KEDERLİ OLMAYAN YAŞAMLAR: PHIL KLAY’IN REORGANİZASYONU

Öz

Ortadoğu, son 20 yılda, özellikle Amerika’nın Afganistan ve Irak’taki son savaşlarından sonra, ABD medyasında ve kamuoyunda önemli bir yer almaktadır. Bu makale, Phil Klay’ın bu savaşların tanımını, ödüllü öykü koleksiyonu olan Redeployment (2014)’da hem Amerikalıların hem de Amerikalı olmayanların yaşam değeri ve şiddet perspektifinden incelenmektedir. Judith Butler’a göre, Batılı demokrasilerde hayat ve ölümler farklı olarak değerlendiriliyor, Batılı vatandaşların hayatları daha değerli ve kederli olmalı düşünürken, vatandaş olmayanların hayatları daha az değerlidir. Birinci bölümde yaşam / ölüm durumu incelenirken, öykülerin uygunluğunu ve şiddetin gerekçesi ikinci bölümde ele alınmaktadır. Bu öykülerde, Amerikalılar ve yerliler arasındaki ölümler sahneler oldukça çoktur ve kederli görünmektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• kederli
• Phil Klay
• dayanılmaz
• savaş kurgusu

Kaynakça

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