Genly’s Reformation of His Self through Intersubjective Encounter in The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Yıl 2022, Cilt: 20 Sayı: 2, 206 - 213, 28.06.2022

Yağmur Sönmez Demir

https://doi.org/10.18026/cbayarsos.1055863

Öz

The purpose of this study is to display the transformation in the self and identity of the protagonist Genly Ai in The Left Hand of Darkness (1969). Having spent two years on what he calls as a “damned planet”, Genly (master) has a chance to recognize the other (the slave), namely Estraven closely, thus experiences intersubjective encounter. In the framework of the Hegelian dialectic, Genly comes outside of his own self on Gethen and recognizes the other as a self consciousness that is other than himself. This process makes him transform as a person, develop an attachment to Gethen, and feel at home there. Hence, this study claims that Genly, an alien on another planet, reconstitutes his own self in three stages: journey, intersubjective encounter, and feeling at home on Gethen.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Hegel’s intersubjectiviy, Master-slave dialectic, reformation, journey

Ursula K. Le Guin’in Karanlığın Sol Eli Eserinde Genly’nin Öznelerarası Karşılaşma ile Benlik Reformasyonu

Öz

Bu çalışmanın amacı Ursula K. Le Guin’in Karanlığın Sol Eli adlı eserindeki ana karakter Genly Ai’nin benliğinde ve kimlik algısındaki değişimi metin analizi yaparak göstermektir. “Lanet bir gezegen” dediği Gethen’de iki yıl geçirdikten sonra, Genly (efendi) başkasını (köleyi) yani Estraven’i daha yakından tanıma fırsatı bulur ve öznelerarası karşılaşmayı deneyimler. Hegel’in diyalektiği açısından değerlendirildiğinde, Genly kendi benliğinin dışına çıkarak başkasını da kendisinden bağımsız bir benlik olarak kabul eder. Bu süreç onun benliğinde bir değişime sebep olur, ve Gethen gezegenine bağlılık hissetmesini ve kendini orada evde hissetmesini sağlar. Bu makale, başka bir gezegende uzaylı olan Genly’nin benliğini yolculuk, öznelerarası karşılaşma, ve evde hissetme aşamalarıyla yeniden oluşturduğunu öne sürer.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Hegel’in öznelerarası kavramı, Efendi-köle diyalektiği, yolculuk, reformasyon

Kaynakça

• Adams, R. (1991) “Narrative Voice and Unimaginability of the Utopian ‘Feminine’ in Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness and ‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.’” Utopian Studies, 2/2. Penn State University Press, 35–47.
• Bittner, J. (1984). Approaches to the Fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin. Michigan: UMI Research Press.
• Bloom, H., Ed. (1987). Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. New York: Chealsea,
• Brown, B. (1980). “The Left Hand of Darkness: Androgyny, Future, Present, and Past” Extrapolation: A Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy 21, 227–35.
• Després, C. (1991). The Meaning of Home: Literature Review and Directions for Future Research and Theoretical Development. Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, 8(2), 96–115.
• Fayad, M. (1997). Aliens, Androgynes, and Anthropology: Le Guin’s Critique of Representation in “The Left Hand of Darkness.” Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, 30(3), 59–73.
• Hegel, G. W. F. (2018). The Phenomenology of Spirit (Ed. T. Pinkard), New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Khader, J. (2005) “Race Matters: People of Color, Ideology, and the Politics of Erasure and Reversal in Ursula Le Guin’s ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’ and Mary Doria Russell’s ‘The Sparrow.’” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, 16/ 2 (62), 110–27.
• Kojeve, A. (1969). Introduction to the Reading of Hegel. (Ed. A. Bloom). London: Cornell University Press.
• Le Guin, U. K. (2000). The Left Hand of Darkness. New York: Penguin.
• Mallett, S. (2004) “Understanding Home: A Critical Review of The Literature” The Sociological Review, 62-89.
• Modell, A. (1984). Psychoanalysis in a New Context. New York: Int. Univ. Press.
• Patnaik G. L. and Kumar S. (2016) “The King Was Pregnant”: Subversion of Gender in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. International Journal of English Language, Literature and Humanities 4/3, 472-483.
• Stern, R. (2013). The Routledge Guidebook to Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. Oxon: Routledge.
• ver Eecke, V. (1983). “Hegel as Lacan’s Source for Necessity in Psychoanalytic Theory”. Interpreting Lacan, (Ed. J. Smith & IV. Kerrigan). New Haven: Yale Univ. Press.
• Walker, J. M. (1979). “Myth, Exchange and History in ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’ (Mythe, Échange et Histoire Dans La Main Gauche de La Nuit).” Science Fiction Studies, 6/ 2, 180–89.
• Wilden, A. (1968). “Lacan and the Discourse of the Other.” Speech and Language in Psychoanalysis. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 159-311.
• Wu, K-M. (1993), “The Other is My Hell; The Other is My Home”, Human Studies, 16 (1–2): 193–202.