Trauma of the Gaze in John Banville’s The Book of Evidence

Year 2023, Volume: 13, 193 - 204, 30.06.2023

Gülden Hatipoğlu

Abstract

John Banville’s The Book of Evidence, the first book of his art trilogy, is an ekphrastic crime novel that introduces the reader to a storyworld populated with gazing subjects and gazed objects. Narrated by a murderer who describes himself as a “floating eye”, the novel raises questions about the complex link between subjectivity, gaze, and power. This article aims to introduce a critical reading of the symbolic universe of The Book of Evidence in terms of the shaping role the gaze plays in the protagonist’s traumatic experience of murder. The overall discussion will follow a critical trajectory that seeks to explore the pivotal significance of the gaze and the act of looking in the formation and affirmation of the self in relation and response to the Other. The gaze as a particular semiotic mechanism will be addressed as a tool of exercising power on the object of the gaze especially in the context of the phallocentric dynamics of the male gaze. With this argumentative frame, the article seeks to contribute to the critical literature on Banville and The Book of Evidence by introducing a different conceptual lens that may enrich the archive of readings on Banville’s ekphrastic content.

Keywords

John Banville, The Book of Evidence, Trauma

John Banville’in Tutanak Defteri Başlıklı Romanında Bakışın Travması

Abstract

John Banville’ın sanat üçlemesinin ilki olan Tutanak Defteri, okuru bakan özneler ve bakılan nesnelerle dolu bir hikâye evrenine sokan, ekfrastik bir suç anlatısıdır. Kendisini “yüzergezer bir göz” olarak tarif eden bir katilin ağzından anlatılan roman, öznelik, bakış ve güç/iktidar arasındaki karmaşık ilişkiye dair sorular ortaya koyar. Bu makalenin amacı, Tutanak Defteri başlıklı romanın sembolik evrenini, anlatıcı karakterin travmatik cinayet deneyiminde bakışın ve bakma eyleminin oynadığı belirleyici rol açısından okumaktır. Bu çerçevede, tartışmanın genelinde, benliğin Öteki ile ilişkisinin oluşumunda ve teyidinde bakışın ve bakma eyleminin önemini irdelemeyi amaçlayan bir eleştirel izlek takip edilecektir. Bir tür semiyotik mekanizma olan bakışın, bakılanı nesneleştirmede bir iktidar aracı olarak kullanılması, özellikle eril bakışın erkek egemen dinamikleri bağlamında ele alınacaktır. Bu tartışma çerçevesinde, makalenin, Banville ve Tutanak Defteri üzerine şimdiye kadar üretilen literatüre katkıda bulunması ve sunduğu farklı kavramsal mercek ile Banville’in ekfrastik içeriğine dair üretilen eleştiri arşivini zengin- leştirmesi umulmaktadır.

Keywords

John Banville, The Book of Evidence, Trauma

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