Anne Enright’ın Toplantı adlı eseri, Veronica Hegarty’nin erkek kardeşinin istismara uğramasına tanıklık etmesi ile ilgili travmatik çocukluk anılarını ve kardeşinin trajik intiharıyla baş etme çabalarını sunan acı verici anlatısına dayanmaktadır. Veronica’nın öz bütünlüğü olmayan anlatısı ontolojisi çözülmüş ve keder afektiyle dağılmış bir öznellik yansıtır. Bu makale, Jean-Luc Nancy’nin ve Eugenie Brinkema’nın yazma, öznellik ve keder üzerine olan kuramsal tartışmaları çerçevesinde, Veronica’nın hissettiği kederin yoğun biyolojik deneyiminin dil ile temsil edilemez oluşundan ve yazının da bedenin gerçeğine erişememesinden dolayı, Veronica’nın yazma sürecinin iyileştirici ve yas sürecinin de diyalektik olmadığını iddia eder. Veronica’nın yas sürecinde yaşanan biyolojik deneyimler olarak temsil edilen keder afekti, Freud’un, yas ve melankoli üzerine çalışmasında yer alan, vurguladığı ancak ayrıntılı olarak açıklamadığı kayba özgü acı kavramıyla yakından ilişkilidir. Freud bu kavramıyla sevilen objenin kaybında yaşanan düşünsel bir acıdan çok fiziksel bir acıdan bahseder. Eserde, kaybın biyolojik yönünün, kayba özgü acı üzerinde durularak betimlenmesi, kaybın yaratıcı özellikleriyle ele alınmasına yol açan yeni yaklaşımlara da katkıda bulunur. Veronica’nın kayba özgü acısının tasviri, İrlanda toplumunu, çocuk istismarı sorunu hakkında politik farkındalık ve etik sorumluluk alarak eyleme geçirmeyi amaçlar.
Brinkema, E. (2014). The forms of the affects. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Dell’Amico, C. (2010). Anne Enright’s The Gathering: Trauma, testimony, memory. New Hibernia Review, 14(3), 59-73. doi: 10.1353/nhr.2010.0014
Downum, D. (2015). Learning to live: memory and the Celtic Tiger in novels by Roddy Doyle, Anne Enright, and Tana French. New Hibernia Review, 19(3), 76-92. doi:10.1353/nhr.2015.0044
Enright, A. (2007). The Gathering. London: Vintage.
Freud, S. (1957a). Inhibition, symptom, and anxiety. J. Strachey (Ed. & Trans.). The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. X, pp. 77–179). London: The Hogarth Press.
Freud, S. (1957b). Mourning and melancholia. J. Strachey (Ed. & Trans.). The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. XIV, pp. 237–258). London: The Hogarth Press.
Ganteau, J-M. (2015). The ethics and aesthetics of vulnerability in contemporary British literature. New York, NY: Routledge.
Gardam, S. C. (2009). “Default[ing] to the oldest scar”: a psychoanalytic investigation of subjectivity in Anne Enright’s The Gathering. Études Irlandaises, 34(1), 99-112. doi: 10.4000/etudesirlandaises.2590
Goh, I. (2019). Exscription, or the sense of failure: Jean-Luc Nancy, Tecuciztecatl, and Édouard Levé. MLN, 134(5), 1080-1097. doi: 10.1353/mln.2019.0113
Harte, L. (2010). Mourning remains unresolved: trauma and survival in Anne Enright's The Gathering. Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory, 21(3), 187-204. doi: 10.1080/10436928.2010.500590
Nancy, J-L. (1993). The birth to presence (B. Holmes et al., Trans.). Stanford, California, CA: Stanford University Press.
Pine, E., Leavy, S., Keane, M., Casserly, M., Lane, T. (2020). Modes of witnessing and Ireland’s institutional history. In E. Falci and P. Reynolds (Eds.), Irish literature in transition: 1980-2020 (pp. 278-294). Cambridge University Press.
Ramazani, J. (1994). Poetry of mourning: The modern elegy from Hardy to Heaney. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Schneider, A-K. (2014). Skin as a trope of liminality in Anne Enright’s The Gathering. Contemporary Women’s Writing 8(2), 206-222. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/cww/vps028
Schwall, H. (2008). “Muscular metaphors in Anne Enright: An interview”. The European English Messenger, 17(1), 16-22.
Shepherdson, C. (2008). Lacan and the limits of language. New York, NY: Fordham University Press.
Sydora, L. E. (2015). “Everyone wants a bit of me”: historicizing motherhood in Anne Enright’s The Gathering. Women's Studies, 44(2), 239-263. doi: 10.1080/00497878.2015.988512
THE PECULIAR PAIN OF LOSS IN ANNE ENRIGHT'S THE GATHERING
Anne Enright’s The Gathering (2007) is based on the painful testimony of the protagonist-narrator Veronica Hegarty, who tries to cope with the traumatic childhood memories of her brother’s being a victim of abuse and his tragic suicide. Veronica’s fragmented narrative reflects a de-ontologised subjectivity which is disrupted by the affect of grief. By referring to Jean-Luc Nancy’s and Eugenie Brinkema’s theoretical discussions on writing, subjectivity and grief, this article argues that Veronica’s writing process is non-therapeutic and her mourning process is undialectical because her intense biological experience of grief fails linguistic signification and reveals that writing cannot access the truth of the body. The affect of grief represented as biological experiences in Veronica’s mourning process is closely connected to the peculiar painfulness of loss Freud underlines, but leaves unexplained, in his discussion of mourning and melancholia. Freud writes about a physical pain rather than a mental pain that is experienced at the loss of a loved object. In the novel, the portrayal of the biological aspect of loss with an emphasis on the concept of peculiar painfulness also contributes to the understanding of the contemporary approach to loss with its productive attributes. The depiction of Veronica’s peculiar pain aims to urge Irish society to follow a course of action on the problem of child abuse with political awareness and ethical responsibilities.
Brinkema, E. (2014). The forms of the affects. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Dell’Amico, C. (2010). Anne Enright’s The Gathering: Trauma, testimony, memory. New Hibernia Review, 14(3), 59-73. doi: 10.1353/nhr.2010.0014
Downum, D. (2015). Learning to live: memory and the Celtic Tiger in novels by Roddy Doyle, Anne Enright, and Tana French. New Hibernia Review, 19(3), 76-92. doi:10.1353/nhr.2015.0044
Enright, A. (2007). The Gathering. London: Vintage.
Freud, S. (1957a). Inhibition, symptom, and anxiety. J. Strachey (Ed. & Trans.). The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. X, pp. 77–179). London: The Hogarth Press.
Freud, S. (1957b). Mourning and melancholia. J. Strachey (Ed. & Trans.). The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. XIV, pp. 237–258). London: The Hogarth Press.
Ganteau, J-M. (2015). The ethics and aesthetics of vulnerability in contemporary British literature. New York, NY: Routledge.
Gardam, S. C. (2009). “Default[ing] to the oldest scar”: a psychoanalytic investigation of subjectivity in Anne Enright’s The Gathering. Études Irlandaises, 34(1), 99-112. doi: 10.4000/etudesirlandaises.2590
Goh, I. (2019). Exscription, or the sense of failure: Jean-Luc Nancy, Tecuciztecatl, and Édouard Levé. MLN, 134(5), 1080-1097. doi: 10.1353/mln.2019.0113
Harte, L. (2010). Mourning remains unresolved: trauma and survival in Anne Enright's The Gathering. Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory, 21(3), 187-204. doi: 10.1080/10436928.2010.500590
Nancy, J-L. (1993). The birth to presence (B. Holmes et al., Trans.). Stanford, California, CA: Stanford University Press.
Pine, E., Leavy, S., Keane, M., Casserly, M., Lane, T. (2020). Modes of witnessing and Ireland’s institutional history. In E. Falci and P. Reynolds (Eds.), Irish literature in transition: 1980-2020 (pp. 278-294). Cambridge University Press.
Ramazani, J. (1994). Poetry of mourning: The modern elegy from Hardy to Heaney. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Schneider, A-K. (2014). Skin as a trope of liminality in Anne Enright’s The Gathering. Contemporary Women’s Writing 8(2), 206-222. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/cww/vps028
Schwall, H. (2008). “Muscular metaphors in Anne Enright: An interview”. The European English Messenger, 17(1), 16-22.
Shepherdson, C. (2008). Lacan and the limits of language. New York, NY: Fordham University Press.
Sydora, L. E. (2015). “Everyone wants a bit of me”: historicizing motherhood in Anne Enright’s The Gathering. Women's Studies, 44(2), 239-263. doi: 10.1080/00497878.2015.988512
Aktari Sevgi, S. (2023). THE PECULIAR PAIN OF LOSS IN ANNE ENRIGHT’S THE GATHERING. Ankara Üniversitesi Dil Ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi, 63(2), 936-952. https://doi.org/10.33171/dtcfdergisi.1280789