Beyond the Limits of the Body, within the Possibilities of Fiction: Posthumous Narration in Neil Jordan’s Shade

Abstract

This paper examines Neil Jordan’s Shade through the lens of posthumous narration, focusing on the complex interplay between body, soul, and narrative form. It argues that the novel’s ghost narrator, Nina Hardy, embodies an “absent presence” that challenges conventional narrative authority by inhabiting a liminal space beyond physical and temporal constraints. Drawing on philosophical traditions from Plato’s dualism to Merleau-Ponty’s embodied phenomenology, the analysis situates Nina’s ghost as a spectral figure that transcends the boundaries of life and death while retaining narrative agency. The novel’s unnatural narratology, characterized by fluid temporality, circular structure, and self-reflexive commentary, destabilizes linear storytelling and contributes to the unusual situation of a ghost narrator maintaining its ties with the world of the living through storytelling. It is argued that in Jordan’s Shade, posthumous narration serves to draw attention to the possibility of fiction representing what lies beyond the limits of the body by complicating the conventional narrative premises and “natural” narrators.

Keywords

• Neil Jordan
• Shade
• posthumous narration
• unnatural narratology
• ghost narrator

Supporting Institution

This study was conducted without any financial support.

Thanks

In this study, artificial intelligence-supported tools were used to a limited extent within the acceptable boundaries defined in Nesir: Journal of Literary Studies’ Artificial Intelligence Use Policy; all content has been reviewed and approved in its final form by the author(s).

Bedenin Sınırlarının Ötesinde, Kurgunun Olanakları Dâhilinde: Neil Jordan’ın Gölge Romanında Ölüm Sonrası Anlatım

Abstract

Bu makale, Neil Jordan’ın Gölge romanını ölüm sonrası anlatım perspektifinden inceleyerek beden, ruh ve anlatı biçimi arasındaki karmaşık etkileşime odaklanmaktadır. Makalede, romanın hayalet anlatıcısı Nina Hardy’nin, fiziksel ve zamansal kısıtlamaların ötesindeki bir sınır alanında var olarak geleneksel anlatı otoritesine meydan okuyan bir “yokluk içindeki varlık”ı örneklendirdiği savunulmaktadır. Platon’un dualizminden Merleau-Ponty’nin bedenlenmiş fenomenolojisine kadar uzanan felsefi geleneklerden yararlanarak yapılan analiz, Nina’nın hayaleti, anlatı öznelliğini korurken yaşam ve ölüm sınırlarını aşan hayaletvari bir figür olarak konumlandırmaktadır. Akışkan zamansallık, döngüsel yapı ve öz-yansıtıcı yorumlarla karakterize edilen romanın doğal olmayan anlatıbilimi, doğrusal hikâye anlatımını sarsar ve hayalet anlatıcının hikâye anlatımı yoluyla yaşayanlar dünyasıyla bağlarını sürdürdüğü alışılmadık bir duruma katkıda bulunur. Jordan’ın Gölge adlı eserinde, ölüm sonrası anlatımın, geleneksel anlatı öncüllerini ve “doğal” anlatıcıları karmaşıklaştırarak, bedenin sınırlarının ötesindekini temsil etme konusunda kurgunun sunduğu olasılıklara dikkat çekmeye hizmet ettiği savunulmaktadır.

Keywords

• Neil Jordan
• Gölge
• ölüm sonrası anlatım
• doğal olmayan anlatı bilimi
• hayalet anlatıcı

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