DECONSTRUCTING THE PLAGUE: AMBIVALENCE OF MARY SHELLEY’S THE LAST MAN

Abstract

This article will examine Mary Shelley’s The Last Man as an end-of-the-world narrative and explore the ambivalence of the global progression of the deadly plague that brings the end of the world. I would like to examine the plague’s ambivalence not only as a deconstructive strategy that resists traditional orientalist readings and promotes a counter-politics of nationalism and orientalism, but also an effective self-effacing principle that persistently eliminates any possibility of a meta-narrative in the novel, even when that same meta-narrative could involve a critique of western hegemony. With the purpose of examining the text’s self-deconstructive foundation, I will do a double reading of the novel that on the one hand illustrates its critique of orientalism and nationalism while on the other hand focuses on the ambivalence as a central disorienting force in the narrative, which is perhaps a gesture that stands for the text’s refusal to colonize itself.

Keywords

• Mary Shelley,The Last Man,Orientalism,Apocalypse

Vebanın Yapısökümü: Mary Shelley’nin Son İnsan’ındaki Muğlaklık

Abstract

Bu makale Mary Shelley’nin Son İnsan adlı romanını apokaliptik bir metin olarak incelemekte ve dünyanın sonunu getiren ölümcül vebanın yeryüzüne yayılışındaki belirsizliğe odaklanmaktadır.  Vebanın çıkış ve dağılışındaki muğlaklığı, geleneksel şarkiyatçı okumalara karşı çıkan yapısökümcü bir strateji olarak yorumlamanın yanı sıra, aynı zamanda metnin genelinde bir üst-anlatının (ki bu üst-anlatı Batı hegemonyasını eleştirel nitelik taşıyor olsa bile) oluşma imkanını baltalayan etkin bir “kendini yoketme” prensipi olarak analiz edeceğim. Metnin yapısökücü temelini irdelemek amacıyla, bir yandan romanın milliyetçi ve şarkiyatçı yaklaşımlara eleştirel tutumunu, öte yandan da belirsizliğin metnin ana merkezi oluşunu, iki yönlü bir okuma yaparak tartışmayı hedefliyorum

Keywords

• Mary Shelley,Son İnsan,Şarkiyatçılık

References

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