That Light is not Bright’: Cosmos vs. Chaos in Stein’s Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights

Yıl 2015, Cilt: 5 Sayı: 1, 251 - 257, 30.06.2015

Evrim Ersöz Koç

Öz

Written in 1938 by Gertrude Stein, Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights reinterprets the Faustian myth presenting the character Doctor Faustus as a man who has sold his soul to Mephistopheles to make electric light. The setting of the play is a chaotic universe in which the cycle of day and night is broken. Doctor Faustus, along with his companions, is stuck in this artificially lit space in which they are perpetually subject to the “unbright” light of electricity. The use of the light/dark opposition in the play is reminiscent of a similar use in biblical literature in which the cosmos/chaos opposition is accompanied by the opposition of light/dark, with the light serving as a metaphor for providing the cosmos and abolishing chaos. The aim of this study is to compare the use of light in biblical narratives as a necessary divine tool to create an ordered cosmos out of a dark chaos with Stein’s metaphoric use of “electric light” in order to understand Stein’s criticism of modern technological chaos.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Cosmos vs. Chaos, Light vs. Darkness, Gertrude Stein, Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights

‘That Light is not Bright’: Cosmos vs. Chaos in Stein’s Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights

Öz

1938 yılında Gertrude Stein tarafından yazılan Doktor Faustus Işıkları Yakar, elektrik ışığı yaratmak için ruhunu Mefisto’ya satan Doktor Faust karakterini sergileyerek Faust mitini yeniden yorum-lamaktadır. Oyun gündüz gece döngüsünün bozulduğu kaotik bir evrende geçmektedir. Doktor Faust, ona eşlik edenlerle beraber sonsuza kadar “aydınlık olmayan” elektrik ışığına maruz kaldıkları yüzeysel olarak aydınlanan bu mekanda tutsak kalmıştır. Oyundaki aydınlık/karanlık karşıtlığı, kozmos/kaos karşıtlığının aydınlık/karanlık karşıtlığı ile birlikte kullanıldığı ve ışığın kozmosu oluşturmak ve kaosu önlemek için bir mecaz olarak kullanıldığı İncil edebiyatını hatırlatmaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, Stein’ın modern teknoloji kaosu eleştirisini anlamak için, İncil anlatılarındaki ışığın karanlık bir kaosu düzenli bir kozmosa dönüştürmek için gerekli bir tanrısal araç olarak kullanımı ile Stein’ın mecazi “elektrik ışığı” kullanımını karşılaştırmaktır

Anahtar Kelimeler

Kozmos Kaos Karşıtlığı, Aydınlık Karanlık Karşıtlığı, Gertrude Stein

Kaynakça

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