THE HETEROTOPIC PUB IN CONOR MCPHERSON’S THE WEIR

Yıl 2025, Cilt: 13 Sayı: 25, 372 - 390, 20.03.2025

Kübra Vural Özbey

https://doi.org/10.20304/humanitas.1579766

Öz

Conor McPherson makes use of a pub setting in his play entitled The Weir (1997), in which characters come together and begin telling stories to each other after the appearance of the only female character Valerie in the pub. The act of storytelling reveals the individual traumas of characters along with allusions to Irish folk culture and the collective troubles of the nation. The pub enacts a cultural space where characters are isolated from the outside world and contemplate personal and national problems. While the pub appears as a site of retreat for characters, it still remains a part of daily life. McPherson’s portrayal of the setting becomes heterotopic in the sense that the pub juxtaposes counter-sites but does not take on a utopic quality, since it is a common element of Irish culture. Moreover, the pub fulfils a function for characters in crisis, separates them from their course of life and sets old and new values side by side. These aspects of the pub sit with Michel Foucault’s dictum of heterotopia. This paper analyses the pub in The Weir as a heterotopic place where characters penetrate deeply into the stories teemed with cultural elements, uncovering individual and national troubles. In grounding the concept of heterotopia, this paper entails Foucault’s discussion of the term and extends beyond his principles to single out McPherson’s pub in the play.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Conor McPherson, The Weir, Ireland, pub, Michel Foucault, heterotopia, storytelling

CONOR MCPHERSON’IN THE WEIR ADLI OYUNUNDA HETEROTOPİK BAR

Öz

Conor McPherson, The Weir (1997) başlıklı oyununda, karakterlerin bir araya geldiği ve tek kadın karakter olan Valerie’nin gelişiyle hikaye anlatmaya başladıkları yer olan barı mekan olarak kullanır. Hikaye anlatıcılığı, karakterlerin bireysel travmalarının yanı sıra İrlanda folk kültürünü ve ülkenin toplu sorunlarını ortaya çıkartır. Bar karakterlerin dış dünyadan soyutlandığı ve kişisel ile ulusal sorunlar üzerine düşündükleri kültürel bir alanı temsil eder. Bar, karakterler için bir kaçış bölgesiyken, hala günlük yaşamın bir parçasıdır. Bar karşı mekanları karşılaştırdığı ama İrlanda kültürünün yaygın bir unsuru olduğundan ütopik bir özellik taşımadığı için McPherson’ın mekan tasviri heterotopik hale gelir. Ayrıca, bunalımdaki karakterler için işlev görür, hayat akışından uzaklaştırır ve eski ile yeni değerleri yan yana koyar. Barın bu özellikleri Michel Foucault’nun heterotopya açıklamasıyla örtüşür. Bu çalışma, The Weir adlı oyunda, karakterlerin kültürel ögelerle bezeli kişisel ve ulusal sorunlarını açığa çıkartan hikayelere derince daldıkları barı analiz eder. Bu çalışma heterotopya konseptini temel alırken Foucault’nun terim tartışmasını kullanır ve McPherson’ın oyundaki barını vurgulamak için Foucault’nun heterotopya ilkelerinin ötesine geçer.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Conor McPherson, The Weir, İrlanda, bar, Michel Foucault, heterotopya, hikaye anlatıcılığı

Kaynakça

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