Alienation in Families and the Breakdown in Children’s Educational Process: Ann Tyler’s Teenage Wasteland (1983)

Year 2022, Issue: 48, 131 - 144, 25.12.2022

Zennure Köseman

https://doi.org/10.21497/sefad.1218404

Abstract

This research article highlights that postmodern era after the modern period causes fragmentation because of the existence of alienation and isolation senses in family units and ends up undesirable failure in children’s educational process as reflected in American writer Ann Tyler’s Teenage Wasteland. Thereby, these are concurrently the basics of modernism that destructs human lives. Similar to T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, Tyler emphasizes the existence of a dramatic monologue deriving from the disillusionment in the infertile land and the alienation in social living. Tyler specifies the presence of a meaningless life and alienation for children. At the same time, Tyler concerns how parents become unable to deal with their children in their intensive working life. She hints that children become unsuccessful in their educational process due to their parents’ intensive working. Therefore, the teenager and his parents have mutual lack of communication in their alienated worlds. A “wasteland” in the target short story implies having the sense of loneliness which causes failure in children’s educational world and rises the disturbance in family units. Accordingly, family members are the victims of their working life and embrace the senses of alienation and isolation in their inner worlds. Therefore, this article will pursue a psychoanalytical consideration in the selected short story.

Keywords

Disorganization, meaninglessness, lack of communication, trauma, alienation

Ailelerde Yabancılaşma ve Çocukların Eğitim Yaşantısındaki Bozulma: Ann Tyler’ın Teenage Wasteland adlı Kısa Hikâyesi (1983)

Abstract

Bu araştırma makalesi, modern dünyadan sonra postmodern dünya içerisinde aile bireylerinin birbirlerinden uzaklaşma ve yalnızlık yolu ile parçalanma yaşadıklarının altını çizerek çocukların eğitim yaşantısında istenmeyen başarızırlık sonucuna sebep olduğunu Amerikalı yazar Ann Tyler’ın Teenage Wasteland adlı kısa hikâyesini ele alarak vurgulamaktadır. Bu özellikler, aynı zamanda insan yaşantısını mahveden modenizminde sahip olduğu özelliklerdir. Tyler, T. S. Eliot’un The Waste Land adlı uzun şiir çalışmasına benzer bir şekilde hem verimsiz topraklardaki hayal kırıklığını hem de sosyal yaşamda görülen yabancılaşmayı ve anlamsız yaşantının sebep olduğu dramatik monoloğu sergiler. Aynı zamanda, ebebeyinlerin ve çocukların yoğun çalışma hayatından dolayı karşılıklı iletişim kopukluğuna sahip olduklarını belirtmektedir. Çocuklar ailelerinin çalışma hayatlarındaki yoğunluktan dolayı eğitim yaşantılarında başarısızlık yaşadıklarını ortaya koyarlar. Dolayısıyla, bu hikâyedeki genç ve ebebeyinleri yabancılaşmış dünyalarında karşılıklı iletişim kopukluğuna sahiptirler. Seçilmiş olan kısa hikâyeki bu çorak toprak aslında gençlerin hayatlarında yaşadığı anlamsızlık ve amaçsızlığı vurgular: Tyler, yaşanılan boşluğun ise çocukların başarısızlığına ve ailelerindeki huzursuzluğa sebep olduğunu belirtir. Aslında, aile bireyleri artık çalışma dünyalarının kurbanı olmuşlardır: Yanlızlık ve yabancılaşma hissini böylece iç dünyalarında kucaklamışlardır. Dolayısıyla, bu makale belirtilen kısa hikâye içerisinde bir psikoanalitik izlenim takip edecektir.

Keywords

Düzensizlik, anlamsızlık, iletişimsizlik, travma, yabancılaşma

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