Çağdaş Dönem Korkuları: İngiliz Kurgusunda Groteskin Yeniden Tasavvur Edilmesi

Abstract

Bu çalışma, üç çağdaş İngiliz romanında grotesk geleneğinin temsilini inceliyor: William Golding’in Sineklerin Tanrısı (1954), Iain Banks’in Eşek Arısı Fabrikası (1984) ve Neil Gaiman’ın Sokağın Sonundaki Okyanus (2013). Çalışma, groteskin, yazıldıkları dönemde kültürel iklimden duyulan memnuniyetsizliği dile getirmek için önemli bir araç olarak işlev gördüğünü öne sürüyor ve groteskin kaynaklarının bu altmış yıllık süreçte nasıl değiştiğini karşılaştrmalı olarak yansıtıyor. Bu romanların, kusursuz uyum, simetri, statik ve orantı barındıran güzelliği tasvir eden estetik nitelikler olan klasik dönem sanatsal kriterleri nasıl parçaladığını ve bunları grotesk sanatın ikili zıtlıkları olarak nasıl sunduğunu araştırıyor. Çalışmanın göze çarpan özelliği grotesk terminolojisinin eleştirel terim olan brikolaj ile olan ilişkisidir ve grotesk geleneğinin Viktor Şklovski’nin tanımladığı “sanatın amacı”na olumlu bir şekilde hizmet ettiğini savunmaktadır. Analiz, fiziksel grotesk temsilleri, melezliği, ikircikliliği, canavarlığı, tersine çevirmeyi, karnavalesk unsurları (özellikle dışkılamayı), iğrençliği, tekinsiz etkiyi ve anlatısal şok mekanizmalarını derinlemesine inceliyor. Modern dünyanın kolaj portrelerini yaratarak, bu romanlar grotesk imgeleri kullanarak çağdaş bireyin parçalanmış, yabancılaşmış, tekinsiz, şüpheci ve güvensiz duygularını tasvir ediyor ve dönemin yaygın karamsarlığını yansıtıyor.

Keywords

• Bakhtin
• Shklovsky
• grotesk
• brikolaj
• karnavalesk

Thanks

This article is based on the doctoral dissertation titled “Representations of the Grotesque in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Iain Banks’ The Wasp Factory, and Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane,” completed under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Zeynep Zeren Atayurt Fenge in the Department of English Language and Literature, Institute of Social Sciences, Ankara University.

Contemporary Horrors: Reimagining the Grotesque in British Fiction

Abstract

This study investigates the representation of the grotesque tradition in three contemporary British novels: William Golding’s Lord of the Flies (1954), Iain Banks’s The Wasp Factory (1984), and Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013). The study posits that the grotesque functions as an essential tool to voice dissatisfaction with the cultural climate at the time of their writing, explicitly comparing how the sources of the grotesque have shifted across this sixty-year span. It explores how these novels dismantle classical artistic qualities, namely, aesthetic qualities depicting beauty holding flawless harmony, symmetry, statics and proportion, presenting them as binary opposites to grotesque art. A key aspect is the interrelation of grotesque terminology with the critical term bricolage, arguing that the grotesque tradition positively serves Viktor Shklovsky’s defined “purpose of art.” The analysis delves into physical grotesque representations, hybridity, ambivalence, monstrosity, inversion, carnivalesque elements (particularly excrement), the abject, the uncanny effect, and narrative shock mechanisms. By creating bricolage portraits of the modern world, these novels use grotesque imagery to depict the fragmented, alienated, uncanny, sceptical, and insecure feelings of the contemporary individual, reflecting the pervasive pessimism of the era.

Keywords

• Bakhtin
• Shklovsky
• grotesque
• bricolage
• carnivalesque

Thanks

This article is based on the doctoral dissertation titled “Representations of the Grotesque in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Iain Banks’ The Wasp Factory, and Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane,” completed under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Zeynep Zeren Atayurt Fenge in the Department of English Language and Literature, Institute of Social Sciences, Ankara University.

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