Arada olmanın keyfi: Henry James’in The Ambassadors (Elçiler) eseri

Abstract

Çok sayıda eseriyle, Amerika’nın sürgün roman ve deneme yazarı Henry James, hem 19. yy sonu hem de 20. yy başlarına tanıklık eden bir yazar olarak, ABD’de modernizme geçiş süreci hakkındaki algımızın zenginleşmesine önemli ölçüde katkıda bulunmuştur. Uzun bir süre püriten düzeni yaşayan ve katı bir şekilde kurulmuş ahlaki kurallara saplanıp kalmış olan Amerika’nın New England toplumu yeni yüzyılın gelişiyle birlikte eski muhafazakar kabuğunu kırıyordu. James bu geçiş sürecine, The Ambassadors, Bostonians ve Transatlantic Sketches gibi birçok eseriyle ışık tutmuştur. Bu çalışmada, James’in Avrupa tecrübelerinin bir izdüşümü sayılabilecek olan The Ambassadors eseri, Paris ve Woollett, daha büyük eksende Eski Dünya ve Yeni Dünya’nın karşılaştırmalı temsilleri üzerinden ele alınıyor. Hayatının büyük bir kısmını Eski ve Yeni Dünya arasında gidip gelerek geçiren James, burada ele alınan eserinde okuyucularına, romanın başkarakteri, Strether’in gözünden, bu yerler hakında eşsiz bakış açıları sunmaktadır. Woollett ve Paris arasında yapılan önemli ayrımlar üzerinden, James’in modern Amerikan kimliğini, Atlantik’in iki yakasına dayanarak nasıl yeniden inşa ettiğinin incelenmesi amaçlanmıştır.  

Keywords

• James ve Amerika,ahlaklılık,Avrupa,sanatsal yaşam,dönüşüm

The joy of in-betweenness: Henry James’s The Ambassadors

Abstract

With his numerous works, the well-known prolific American expatriate novelist and essayist, Henry James considerably contributed to enriching our perception of the transition process in the USA to modernism as an author witnessing both late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. After experiencing a long period of puritanical order and remaining stuck in the strictly established moral rules, American New England society was breaking its earlier conservative crust with the advent of the new century. James shed light on this transition process with many of his works such as The Ambassadors, Bostonians and Transatlantic Sketches. In this study, The Ambassadors, which can be seen as the projection of James’s European experiences, is scrutinized with respect to the comparative representations of Paris and Woollett, and in a bigger scope, Europe and America. Spending most of his time by commuting between the Old and New World, James provided his readers with unique perspectives about these places in hereby-handled fiction through the eye of his protagonist, Strether. Drawing on the distinctions made between Woollett and Paris, this article examines how James reconstructs modern American identity hinging upon the two sides of Atlantic.

Keywords

• James and America,morality,Europe,artistic life,transformation

References

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