The Sense of Home and Memory in John Clare’s Asylum Poems

Abstract

As a basic human need from past to present, home has been the subject of many disciplines where different perspectives converge and intersect each other in a multidimensional framework. This interdisciplinarity has transformed it into a concept that conveys much more than a visible and tangible reality. John Clare (1793-1864), a 19th century English poet who spent the last twenty-seven years of his life in asylum, also widely used home as a central theme. His sense of home in his asylum poems emerges peculiarly in three dimensions which are the countryside of his childhood and youth, the cottage where he lived, and his first love. In such a perspective, the different meanings of the concept become interwoven, and home gradually transforms from a tangible reality into a mental image and metaphor configured in his memory. The aim of this study is to reveal how the sense of home in Clare’s asylum poems can be associated with the poet’s countryside, cottage and first love, and to investigate the consistency of this relation through memory. The study is limited to the asylum poems to show how Clare responds to what the concept of home evokes under the influence of his mental disorder.

Keywords

• John Clare
• English Poetry
• Asylum Poems
• Memory
• sense of home

John Clare’in Tımarhane Şiirlerinde Ev Düşüncesi ve Bellek

Abstract

Geçmişten günümüze temel bir insan gereksinimi olan ev, çok boyutlu bir çerçevede, değişik perspektiflerin bir araya geldiği ve birbirini kestiği birçok disipline konu olmuştur. Bu disiplinlerarasılık onu, görülür ve dokunulur bir gerçeklikten çok daha fazlasını anlatan bir kavrama dönüştürmüştür. Ömrünün son yirmi yedi yılını tımarhanede geçiren bir 19. yüzyıl İngiliz şairi olan John Clare (1793-1864) de evi merkezi bir tema olarak yaygın biçimde kullanmıştır. Onun tımarhane şiirlerindeki ev düşüncesi, çocukluğunun ve gençliğinin geçtiği kırsal, içinde yaşadığı kulübesi ve ilk aşkı olmak üzere alışılmışın dışında üç boyutta ortaya çıkar. Böyle bir bakışta kavramın farklı anlamları birbirine geçer ve ev giderek somut bir gerçeklikten onun belleğinde yapılandırılan ussal bir imgeye ve mecaza dönüşür. Bu çalışmanın amacı, Clare’in tımarhane şiirlerindeki ev düşüncesinin; şairin kırsalı, kulübesi ve ilk aşkı ile nasıl ilişkilendirilebileceğini ortaya koymak ve bu ilişkinin tutarlılığını bellek üzerinden araştırmaktır. Çalışma, Clare’in zihinsel rahatsızlığının etkisinde ev kavramının çağrıştırdıklarına nasıl karşılık verdiğini göstermek için tımarhane şiirleri ile sınırlandırılmıştır.

Keywords

• John Clare
• İngiliz Şiiri
• Tımarhane Şiirleri
• Ev Düşüncesi
• Bellek

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