English Studies : New Perspectives [1 ed.] 9781443883184, 9781443877275

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English Studies

English Studies: New Perspectives Edited by

Mehmet Ali Çelikel and Baysar Taniyan

English Studies: New Perspectives Edited by Mehmet Ali Çelikel and Baysar Taniyan This book first published 2015 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2015 by Mehmet Ali Çelikel, Baysar Taniyan and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-7727-1 ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-7727-5

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface ........................................................................................................ ix Chapter One ................................................................................................. 1 Hercule Poirot, The Order Restorer: Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Arpine Mzkyan Akfçc Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 11 Looking through the Archetypal Jar: Jungian Esther Greenwood Ayúe Çiftçibaú Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 23 From Hostility to Lasting Friendship: A Study of the Anzac and Turkish Soldier’s Personal Narratives Azer Banu Kemalo÷lu Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 36 “Fantasye and Curious Bisynesse”: Sexual Economics in Chaucer’s The Merchant’s Tale and The Shipman’s Tale Azime Pekúen Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 46 Foe: Robinson Crusoe’s Writeback Bahare A’arabi Chapter Six ................................................................................................ 52 Denying the Narrator: Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending Baysar Taniyan Chapter Seven............................................................................................ 60 How Flexible is the Moral Code of a Businessman? Anthony Trollope and The Way We Live Now Carla Fusco

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Chapter Eight ............................................................................................. 67 Sophia Dilek Kantar Chapter Nine.............................................................................................. 76 A Vindication of the Life of a Woman: Claire Clairmont’s Italy Elisabetta Marino Chapter Ten ............................................................................................... 86 Flaubert’s Parrot and The Sense of an Ending: Two Postmodern Novels Constructed on Truth, Memory and History Elvan Karaman Chapter Eleven .......................................................................................... 96 The Representation of Women in Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies Fatma Kalpakl Chapter Twelve ....................................................................................... 104 Discourse of Masculinity in The Descendants Feryal Çubukçu Chapter Thirteen ...................................................................................... 111 The Grotesque Laughter in James Joyce’s Ulysses Gamze Yalçn Chapter Fourteen ..................................................................................... 124 Political and Ethical Concerns in David Greig’s Dunsinane and John McGrath’s The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black Black Oil Gül Kurtuluú Chapter Fifteen ........................................................................................ 146 Identity Crisis and Ontological Insecurity in Anita Brookner’s Hotel du Lac Gülden Yüksel Chapter Sixteen ....................................................................................... 157 Shakespeare the Critic: Major Issues in the Elizabethan Theatre Himmet Umunç

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Chapter Seventeen ................................................................................... 177 Meeting the Yahoos and the Houyhnhnms: Swift’s Sermon and the Function of Satiric Allegory Kyriaki Asiatidou Chapter Eighteen ..................................................................................... 186 Black Heritage Versus White Dominance in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon Mahsa Khadivi Chapter Nineteen ..................................................................................... 194 A Postcolonial Study of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart: Foregrounding Marginal Elements Mahshid Tajilrou Chapter Twenty ....................................................................................... 207 Marriage Confinement and Female Resistance in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God Meryem Ayan Chapter Twenty One................................................................................ 220 Comedy and Fun: Is Shakespeare Funny? Murat Ö÷ütçü Chapter Twenty Two ............................................................................... 247 The Spiritual Carnivalesque in Wisdom Oya Bayltmú Ö÷ütçü Chapter Twenty Three ............................................................................. 259 Making Up Stories in the Second Millennium: The Raw Shark Texts, A Multimodal Narrative Hoda Khallaf Chapter Twenty Four ............................................................................... 270 V. S. Naipaul’s Magic Seeds: Jack and the Beanstalk Revisited Reyhan Özer Taniyan Chapter Twenty Five ............................................................................... 279 The Transformation of the American Hero: The Comic Book Antihero Seda ùen

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Chapter Twenty Six ................................................................................. 286 Identity in Motion: The Problematics of Black and British Identities in Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia and Zadie Smith’s White Teeth Sezgi Öztop Chapter Twenty Seven............................................................................. 293 Physical Violence Functioning to Reflect an Epic and Marxist Worldview: Edward Bond’s Lear Sibel øzmir Chapter Twenty Eight.............................................................................. 300 Contemporary British Theatre ‘A-la-Mode’ in Turkey (1990-) Sla ùenlen Güvenç Chapter Twenty Nine .............................................................................. 307 Defoe and Holland: The Case of Roxana Margaret J-M Sönmez Chapter Thirty ......................................................................................... 321 Epiphany in Pop Songs Victor Kennedy Chapter Thirty One .................................................................................. 327 The Sense of an Ending: Frank Kermode and Julian Barnes Zekiye Antakyalo÷lu Chapter Thirty Two ................................................................................. 336 Confrontation of Reality via Becoming an “Other Voice” of the Social Context in Dicken’s Hard Times Zennure Köseman Chapter Thirty Three ............................................................................... 347 Reconnection with Nature, Stories and The Land in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony Yeliz ùekerci Contributors ............................................................................................. 363

PREFACE

This volume is a selection academic papers presented at the Seventh International IDEA Conference held at Pamukkale University in Denizli, Turkey on 17-19 April 2013. All of the selected papers have been revised as articles to make up this wonderful volume which I do hope will contribute to the studies in English literary and cultural studies on the international level. I would, therefore, like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all of our contributors who patiently revised and submitted their articles to share and exchange their views on English cultural and literary studies. IDEA is an acronym that stands for the initials of the Turkish name of the “The Association of English Language and Literary Studies in Turkey” affiliated with ESSE, European Society for the Study of English. IDEA association in Turkey has become the most prestigious platform to discuss, share and exchange the researches on English literature, translation studies, cultural studies and ELT studies. The conferences organised by the IDEA association in partnership with a different University within Turkey each year have proved to be a school for young academics who can improve themselves through interaction with the experienced scholars. The seventh IDEA conference at Pamukkale University also marked the importance of English studies in Turkey by bringing together many distinguished scholars not only from Turkey but also from other parts of the world, whose papers truly contributed to field. I would like to thank all my colleagues at the Department of English Language and Literature at Pamukkale University, including Assoc. Prof. Dr. Meryem Ayan, Assist. Prof. Dr. ùeyda ønceo÷lu, Assist. Prof. Dr. Cumhur Ylmaz Madran, Assist Prof. Dr. Murat Göç, Dr. Baysar Tanyan, Lecturers Nevin Usul and Ali Güven, Research Assistants Reyhan Özer Tanyan, Gamze Yalçn, Gülin Çetin and Ali Günalan for their invaluable and devoted efforts during the organisation of the Seventh IDEA Conference and the preparation of this volume. Without them, this volume would not have been realised. Finally, I would like to thank my co-editor Baysar Tanyan for his immense work on the editing of this volume.

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It was a great pleasure and honour for us to edit this volume and hope that it will be efficient and helpful for all the researchers in the field. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ali Çelikel Department Head, English Language and Literature, Pamukkale University.

CHAPTER ONE HERCULE POIROT, THE ORDER RESTORER: AGATHA CHRISTIE’S THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD ARPINE MIZIKYAN AKFIÇICI

There is much debate about when British crime fiction really emerged. According to T. S. Eliot, the first English detective novel was Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone (1868), “the first, longest and best of English detective novels … in a genre invented by Collins and not by Poe”1, and Dorothy L. Sayers called The Moonstone “probably the very finest detective story ever written.”2 However, one writer in particular stands as a pioneer in the field of the detective genre flourished in England. Arthur Conan Doyle introduced the eccentric and intelligent Sherlock Holmes to the world, who made his bow in A Study in Scarlet in 1887. In 1890 was published The Sign of Four, and in the 1890s Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories were published in The Strand Magazine. The enormous popularity of the genre dates from this period. After the First World War, especially by the 1920s, crime fiction had really caught on as a popular genre. As Julian Symons argues, “Up to the middle twenties there had been little serious consideration of crime stories as a particular kind of literature.”3 And the period of the 1920s and 1930s is generally known as the “Golden Age” of detective fiction in England, a term, which today can refer to either the period itself (between the Wars), or the type of mystery fiction produced. The crimes committed are often 1

Deirdre David. Ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 179. 2 Sharon K. Hall. Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Michigan: Michigan University Press, 1979, p. 531. 3 Julian Symons. Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel: A History. London, Sydney and Auckland: Pan Books Ltd., 1994, p. 114.

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depicted as a seemingly impossible puzzle, a mystery to be solved, in which a precise chronology, a closed circle of suspects, and secluded confines of an environment are fundamental to the solving of the crime. The principle purpose of this kind of writing is that something has taken place to disrupt an otherwise civilized section of society, and the reader is made confident that the novel will offer a coherent solution along with the detective who ensures the narrative completion. It is through a rational and scientific investigation that the detective clears up the mess and catches the culprit successfully, and thus order is ultimately restored. Usually, all the characters presented have motives for the crime. Therefore, all come under scrutiny by the detective until a number of carefully laid clues leads to the culprit. Providing the reader with the potential to unravel the puzzle before the detective discloses the solution, has become an important concern with many writers who have used this approach. Agatha Christie, the acknowledged queen of the Golden Age writers,4 who published her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, in 1920, used this structure very often throughout her career. Her particular style in her novels came to embody the essential qualities of the so-called “cosy”5 type of detective fiction. In The Murder of Roger Ackroyd,6 she used the country-house as her setting, and her criminals include everyone from the detective’s confidant to the supposed murder “victim.” In effect, the reaction against the bloodshed of the war is implicated in Golden Age fiction, as the years following the end of the First World War had a profound influence on the course of the crime and detecting form, both in Western Europe and North America, with divergent outcomes. When the War was declared in August 1914, the recruiting offices in Britain were crowded with volunteers. Not only workers but also young men from the universities and public schools were eager to participate in the army. In the country, patriotic euphoria was persistent and stories about the heroism of the British soldiers were exalting the British cause.

4

Three other names also stand out in the twenties: Dorothy Sayers and Anthony Berkeley in Britain and S. S. Van Dine in America 5 The fictional crimes in those detective stories very often occured within the “closed” environment of an English country house or a secluded environment, which became very popular with the writers of the time. Miss Marple, the fictional female sleuth created by Christie, represents the “cosy” style of mystery fiction that became famous in the Golden Age in England during the 1920s and 1930s. 6 Future references to this novel will be identified as MRA.

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However, when the war was over one generation of young males had been killed and almost a million war pensions were being paid.7 In the 1920s the English middle classes had witnessed the crumbling of the empires, the flourishing of Labour parties, and the collapse of middleclass standards. Notably, they were forced to recognize the fact that their world had disappeared for ever, and they sought refuge in a form of literature teeming with rules and conventions: a type of literature that was centred around stereotyped situations and characters and looked back to a period of stability, order and harmony, where the lines of class distinctions were easily demarcated and generally acknowledged. Thus it can be said that in Britain, the detective fiction of the years following the end of the war seemed to be a deliberate attempt on the part of the writers to go back to “the good old days” where everyone knew their place in a classconscious society. The war also played a pivotal role in the history of the crime story in the sense that it distinguished the world of reason from that of force. The main approach of the classical detective story was that human affairs are ruled by reason. 8 Closely connected with this assumption was the reinforcement of people’s belief in rationality, and in their hope that, even in cases of extreme difficulty and ambiguity, the human mind will eventually overcome and bring in the light. A crime occurs and the case is solved and order reinstalled by a male detective, representative of the reassuring patriarch. Nevertheless, Golden Age writers found themselves the anxious spectators of quite a different world, one in which force was supreme. With the end of the war efforts to adjust to the world of people killed marked the nature of crime writing. In both social setting and the handling of crime as self-contained, these stories indicated a sense of nostalgia and stability already vanishing out of existence. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd rests on the death of two people, who are closely related to each other. The novel opens with a death that appears to be suicide and is later discovered to have been murder. Dr. Sheppard, from whose point of view the novel is narrated, has just returned from the deathbed of Mrs. Ferrars, a local woman. Most profoundly influenced by her death is Roger Ackroyd, a wealthy manufacturer of wagon wheels. Ackroyd, a widower himself, was in love with Mrs. Ferrars and she with him. In fact, the two had agreed to be married. The story is set in a village deep in the English countryside that serves as the backdrop for many other Christie novels. And the narrative 7

See Christopher Hibbert. The English: A Social History 1066-1945. London: Paradin, 1988. pp.181-182. 8 Symons, p. 13.

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technique of the story is very striking and for this reason the novel is noted for its twist on the established genre. As Julian Symons notes, “Every successful detective story in this period involved a deceit practised upon the reader”9, and here the trick is making the murderer the doctor, who tells the story and functions as Poirot’s Watson. The murderer appears at first as an accepted and often respected figure. Nevertheless, this mask is stripped away towards the end of the book, when his real features as lawbreaker are revealed. Ronald Knox, laying down in 1928 his “Ten Commandments of Detection”, insisted that the criminal must be someone mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to follow10

In this context, the novel was criticized heavily at the time of its publication, because it was thought that Christie was not “playing fair” with her readers on account of her deceiving the readers about the identity of the murderer. After being misdirected throughout the novel, the reader is left bewildered by unexpected revelations. Christie broke with many of the early format restrictions of the detective story which had some strict rules and limits within which writers of detective stories should operate.11 Christie’s violating the “rules” of the game, undoubtedly, enabled her to unveil social pretence and to make us, as readers, less secure in our expectations of comfortable closure. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd presents the refugee Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, who enters a situation after its central action has already taken place. Provided with the details of unfamiliar lives, he indulges in the business of deciding what is relevant and what is not, which in fact leads to the truth, and who among a group of diverse personalities has been driven to commit a crime and thereby demolishing the prevalent order. Poirot penetrates a tangle of actions and emotions and, as the agent of the reassuring patriarch, eventually establishes the order. Christie introduced the Belgian Hercule Poirot in her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles in 1920, three years after the final Holmes story appeared in The Strand Magazine. Like Sherlock Holmes, Poirot is an order establisher of the year 1926, the post-war period when patriarchal dominance was shattered and fragmented. Yet, he differs in many ways 9

Ibid., p. 121. A. Ronald Knox. “A Detective Decalogue”. Detective Fiction: A Collection of Critical Essays. Robin W. Winks, ed. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice – Hall, Inc. 1980. 11 Symons, p.114. 10

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from Holmes who was created as an outcome of a number of factors that gave rise to the Sherlock Holmes paradigm which aimed to reinvent and reconstitute manhood for the early 20th century Britain in a time of social unrest, instability and cultural anxiety. The standards of masculinity then like many other dimensions went through a transition as a result of some internal and external conflicts which were threatening English social stability. Dr. Sheppard describes Poirot as having “[a]n egg-shaped head, partially covered with suspiciously black hair, two immense mustaches, and a pair of watchful eyes”12. Contrary to Holmes, Poirot has a comic look: an egg-shaped head with a small body and his appearance strikes one as being rather like that of Humpty Dumpty,13 with an unusual moustache and a Watson of extreme stupidity in Captain Hastings, his side-kick. The association between Humpty Dumpty and Hercule Poirot serves to undermine the power and authority of the detective. Captain Hastings was a former British army officer. He is not present in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, but lives in Argentina with his wife and is now a retired soldier because of his wounds in the war. It is interesting to note that his surname is Hastings. It alludes to The Battle of Hastings that occurred in 1060, during the Norman conquest of England, between the Normans and the English and it was a decisive Norman victory. Therefore, the interchangeability of Watson and the blackmailing murderer mocks the heroic model of Holmes and Watson. Poirot is not English, he is a Belgian. So he is foreign. It is worth noting his Belgian nationality because of Belgium’s occupation by Germany, it was considered patriotic to express sympathy with the Belgians, since the invasion of their country had justified Britain’s entering the First World War.14 Alison Light and Gill Plain, in their work on Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, have defined a sense of antiheroism in the figure of the male detectives created by female authors in the traumatised aftermath of the First World War. 15 Susan Rowland, supports this argument by drawing attention the fact that, “The detective in golden age fiction is a new hero for the post World War I traumatised 12

MRA, p. 20. Humpty Dumpty is a character in a nursery rhyme portrayed as an egg, which has come to stand for a short, clumsy person. 14 J. A. S. Grenville. A History of the World in the Twentieth Century. Massachusetts: Harvard Univesity Press, 1994. p. 102. 15 See Alison Light, Forever England: Femininity, Literature and Conservativism between the Wars. London and New York: Routledge, 1991. p.45. Gill Plain. Women’s Fiction of the Second World War. Gender, Power and Resistance. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996. p.89. 13

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landscape” 16 . The feminised detectives of the interwar years, such as Christie’s Poirot, Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey and Allingham’s Albert Campion exemplify a reaction against a posited traditional male heroism of wartime endeavour because they uphold feminine intuition and empathy as their fundamental methods of detection. Obsessively neat and fastidious, Hercule Poirot is delineated as a feminised character, reflecting a clash about gender which is deliberately distanced from pre-war styles of male heroism. His name includes two contrasting components and it is not a coincidence that he should be named after the mythological figure Hercules that is the Roman name for the Greek hero Heracles who stands for action and masculinity, as well as great strength and courage. Nevertheless, his name which does not have an “s” at the end, reinforcing his lack of physical strength and action, contradicts his form because he is a small man. His surname, on the other hand, is significant in that its root “poire” means “pear” in the French language and is used for someone who is easily deceived. Phonetically it is also similar to the French word “poireau” which means leek. In shape it looks like the phallus, thus a symbol of masculinity. Yet, the combination of his name and surname is mock-heroic because it is a form of belittling on the part of the detective. Narrated by a suspect, Dr Sheppard, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is one of Christie’s most controversial novels because its well-manoeuvred final twist in the plot has an important impact on the detective narrative form. The novel starts with some sort of antagonism between two siblings, between Sheppard and his good-natured but intensely inquisitive gossipy spinster sister, Caroline, over medical diagnosis. Caroline believes that Mrs. Ferrars poisoned her husband, and because of a strong sense of remorse she committed suicide. Dr Sheppard disagrees with his sister claiming that Mrs. Ferrars died in her sleep because she took too much sleeping pills unconsciously and tries to dissuade Caroline from spreading that “rumour”. 17 Significantly, this quarrel undermines the demarcation between the male and female gender roles as well as the preconceived definitions of maleness. As Martin Priestman comments,

16

Susan Rowland. From Agatha Christie to Ruth Rendell: British Women Writers in Detective and Crime Fiction. London: Palgrave, Macmillan. 2001. p. 27. 17 MRA, p. 2-4.

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The purported regularity of women’s behaviour toward men plays an important role in constructing the world of ideal conformity which, perhaps, is one of the subliminal aims of detective fiction to create18

The conflict between professional masculine science and feminine modes of knowledge is brought upside down by the arrival of “feminised” detective, Hercule Poirot, who defends Caroline’s form of social detection by interpreting her strange signs of intuition as keen skills of perception.19 Quite interestingly, the breakdown of gender polarity is further illustrated by Poirot’s utilizing intuitive forms of knowledge traditionally constructed as feminine for his detecting process. Although he is at first disliked by almost all the male characters, Poirot continually turns the tables on them and wins hands down, for instance, by undoing the bumbling work of the local policemen who are notoriously clumsy in their attempts to solve the criminal mystery. His novel methods of scientific deduction and his deep insight into human nature, which is the basic component of unravelling a mystery in detective fiction, enable him to establish an empathy with the passions of both victim and suspects in the English country village of King’s Abbot. The village name, the embodiment of the religious, social and political authority, is evocative of the fact that two forms of prevalent institutional masculinity can no longer keep the established order. The doctor lives with his sister Caroline who anticipates Miss Marple’s character. It is ironic that she should be appropriately named after an age in English history, The Caroline Age, which alludes to the reign of Charles I. and Charles II. The name is derived from “Carolus” the Latin version of “Charles”. It was the time of the English Civil War, fought between the supporters of the King and the supporters of Parliament and resulted in the execution of the King. It should further be noticed that her brother’s name James is a reference to James I and James II of England of the 17 Century. The history of England in Stuart times is the story of a struggle between the Kings and the Parliaments of the period. Even though great power was concentrated in this patriarchal head of the state, an authority to be obeyed and never to be resisted by his subjects, with the execution of Charles I, however, the monarchical order, with its authoritarian hierarchy and patriarchal values, was shaken. By choosing the names, James and Caroline, for her characters, Christie tries to indicate the artificiality and vulnerability of the dominant male order.

18

Martin, Priestman. Crime Fiction from Poe to the Present. Plymouth: Northcote House Publishers Ltd., 1998, p. 91. 19 Ibid., 129.

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From the very beginning of the novel, Caroline acts like a detective herself, which annoys her scientific-oriented brother James since she bases herself on subjective forms of knowledge conventionally assigned to an inferior, feminised position. Similarly, Poirot is also criticized for his attention to domestic details and gossip, but his defence of what are characterized as “feminine” methods of investigation in the novel turns out to be crucial. Dr. Sheppard disregards Caroline’s statements as she strikes him as not quite intelligible. Caroline’s being a spinster, and as such having no identity, furthermore, evokes a male fear of the unmarried, and therefore unsubdued, placeless female. She challenges male control of female sexuality, since activity and self-assertion are male prerogative, and females who attempt to transgress gender roles are doomed to be annihilated. When it comes to women, the male-dominated system is essentially the same: the female of the species should be suppressed as much as possible. Here we are reminded of Cassandra from mythology whose gift of explaining divine prophecy was negated by an act of the male. She received the gift of prophecy from Apollo, who was enamoured of her. However, as she slighted him, the god declared that no trust should be placed in her prophecies. While the doctor situates her on the side of irrationality and foolishness because she disrupts the ways in which femininity and masculinity have been previously construed, Poirot’s evaluation of Caroline’s detective skills is remarkable: [Women] are marvellous! They invent haphazard—and by miracle they are right. Not that it is that, really. Women observe subconsciously a thousand little details, without knowing that they are doing so. Their subconscious mind adds these little things together—and they call the result intuition.20

The novel ends with an unprecedented twist: near the investigation’s end, like a magician performing a trick, Poirot, the centre of attention, gathers all of the suspects including the guilty party and delivers a masterful speech in which he lays out his view of the case. The main point of this dramatic scene is to unmask the criminal, the doctor, in front of the pre-assembled audience. Dr Sheppard is an unreliable narrator not because of the fact that he is lying to us but that he is omitting some facts. He was Mrs. Ferrars’s blackmailer and murdered Mr. Ackroyd to stop him learning the truth from her. After Poirot’s resolution, Dr. Sheppard adds a confession and a suicide note which are incorporated into the Chapter entitled “Apologia”. The murderer-narrator of the novel points out that “[he] had meant this 20

MRA, p. 144.

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account to be published some day as the history of one of Poirot’s failures”21 but it was not to be. In addition, he also reveals that he has not been at all untruthful as a narrator: I am rather pleased with myself as a writer. What could be neater, for instance, than the following: “The letters are brought in at twenty minutes to nine. It was just on ten minutes to nine when I left him [Roger Ackroyd], the letter till unread. I hesitated with my hand on the door handle, looking back and wondering if there was anything I had left undone.”22

It should further be noticed that, phonetically, the word Sheppard is very similar to “shepherd” though their spellings are different: Sheppard and shepherd. The doctor, who is the socially recognized medical force in the novel and one of the pillars of society, undermines the foundations of the order necessary for its survival. In the biblical context, Jesus Christ is known to be “the good Shepherd”. Dr. Sheppard uses his mental and professional resources to plot diabolical murders. As such, he betrays his most sacred responsibilities by using the very skills that afford him status. Dr. Sheppard represents the perverted form of the function of Jesus by becoming a murderer. Poirot gives the criminal two choices: either he surrenders to the police, or he commits suicide. In effect, Dr Sheppard was telling the truth but had not written the whole truth. In particular, he did not point out what happened between twenty and ten minutes to nine, during which he was in fact murdering Roger Ackroyd.

Works Cited Christie, Agatha. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. 1991. David, Deirdre. Ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Grenville, J. A. S. A History of the World in the Twentieth Century. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1994. Hall, Sharon K. Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Michigan: Michigan University Press, 1979. Hibbert, Christopher. The English: A Social History 1066-1945. London: Paradin, 1988.

21 22

Ibid., p. 275. Ibid., 276. The italicized lines belong to the author.

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Knox, Ronald A. “A Detective Decalogue”. Detective Fiction: A Collection of Critical Essays. Robin W. Winks, ed. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice – Hall, Inc. 1980. Light, Alison. Forever England: Femininity, Literature and Conservatism between the Wars. London and New York: Routledge, 1991. Plain, Gill. Women’s Fiction of the Second World War. Gender, Power and Resistance. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996. Priestman, Martin. Crime Fiction from Poe to the Present. Plymouth: Northcote House Publishers Ltd. 1998. Symons, Julian. Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel: A History. London, Sydney and Auckland: Pan Books Ltd., 1994.

CHAPTER TWO LOOKING THROUGH THE ARCHETYPAL JAR: JUNGIAN ESTHER GREENWOOD AYùE ÇøFTÇøBAùI

The Bell Jar (1963) is a semi-autobiographical novel written by the American woman writer Sylvia Plath under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas.1 The events in the novel are analogous to Plath’s twentieth year, and its characters are from real people despite the fact that Plath changed their names and added fictional details.2 In this sense, the novel is possible to be considered a roman à clef, which is a type of novel about real life covered with fictional descriptions.3 That is to say, Esther Greenwood’s change from sanity to insanity is in parallel to Plath’s own experiences of mental illness. It is claimed by some critics that the novel is significant in American literature in that it is believed to make the socially-silenced women heard. Having been generally criticized in feminist terms, the novel dwells on the repression of women in the 1950s and portrays Esther’s struggle within a patriarchal society and her endeavour to maintain control over her life.4 The Bell Jar retrospectively and introspectively depicts six months in the life of nineteen-year-old Esther Greenwood, her psychological breakdown, her suicide attempts and her hospitalization. The novel is set in New York City and the suburbs of Boston during the cold war. It deals with Esther’s anxiety and depression as a young girl, the exploration of the constrained role of women in the 1950s, and the psychological conditions of the repressed women. Esther, who is restrained by her mother and the society to conform to their expectations, suffers from a psychological breakdown and an identity crisis. Rather than fulfilling her desires to be an 1

O’Reilly, “Sylvia Plath”, 355. Bloom, Bloom’s Guides: Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, 12. 3 Serafin and Bendixen, The Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature, 525. 4 Bloom, 14. 2

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educated female individual, Esther is pushed to get married, deliver children and serve to her husband, which are some stereotypical female roles in the American society in the 1950s. The difference between her ambitions and the expectations of the society causes her identity to be fragmented and her mind to be destabilized. Mentally unfit for both the glittery world of New York and the stultifying suburbs of Massachusetts, she ultimately experiences descent into psychological breakdown. Consisting of 20 chapters, The Bell Jar starts with Esther’s stay in New York. The first nine chapters handle her experiences in the city through the flashbacks relating to her relationship with Buddy Willard, a typical nearly perfect man of the period who studies to become a doctor, and some details of her academic accomplishments. 5 The novel is not of a linear structure since the events move backward in time to uncover scenes from the past that have been instrumental in Esther’s current debilitated state of mind. Furthermore, the introspective narration provides a mixture of external events and the internal workings of her mind, which contributes to the two major themes of the novel: patriarchal society’s suppression on women to comply with the restricted roles and the fragmentation of identity. While the first half of the novel is more about her social development, the second half of the novel is more about her psychological condition, recording Esther’s suicide attempts and her hospitalization, which portrays the issue of mental illness and its history of treatment during the 1950s.6 The novel is narrated in the first-person point of view, enabling Esther to depict her psychological breakdown directly. Detached, observant and witty, Esther’s voice shows her complexity and intelligence, which makes her mental illness more vivid and understandable to the reader. In other words, the reader witnesses her gradual descent into insanity and withdrawal from reality through her own perspective. The Bell Jar has been mainly examined from feminist standpoint, focusing on the claim that Esther’s alienation from the world and her own self is engendered by the expectations put on her as young women living in America in the 1950s. 7 Esther is in between her desire to study academically to write and the pressure she feels to get married and start a family as a housewife. The longer she cannot resolve her dilemmas, the more she gets insane and gets away from the world and her own self, ending up in psychological breakdown and identity crisis. However, this paper aims to examine the novel in Jungian archetypal criticism with reference to Jung’s four major archetypes of the Persona, the Shadow, the 5

Ibid., 18. Ibid., 19. 7 Ibid., 14. 6

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Animus and the Self by touching on some feminist perspectives. In doing so, the reasons for Esther’s psychological breakdown, her identity crisis, her isolation and alienation are sought to be explored. Since The Bell Jar is possible to be considered a bildungsroman in structure and context, the education and development of Esther Greenwood in her quest for identity are appropriate to be investigated in psychological aspects. First used in English in the 1540s,8 the word “archetype” derives from the Latin word “archetypum”, which refers to the beginning or origin of the pattern, model or type.9 In the psychological field, an archetype stands for a model of a person, personality or behaviour. 10 The concept of archetypal psychology was developed by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustave Jung. Jung suggested that archetypes are innate and universal prototypes for ideas and personalities. He considered the archetypes as psychological organs in parallel to physical ones. 11 Archetypes are regarded as the “ancient and archaic images that derive from the collective unconsciousness”. 12 Jung distinguished the archetypes from instincts because an instinct is “an unconscious physical impulse towards actions and the archetype [is] the psychic counterpart”. 13 Deriving from the collective unconscious, archetypes are common to all humanity, which are reshaped by each individual’s experience of life, and thus they develop a unique set of psychological characteristics. If the archetypes are on the unconscious level, their existence are understood implicitly by examining behaviour, images, art, myths, religions, dreams and so on. When archetypes come up to consciousness unintentionally, they are directly realized as images or manifest in behaviour on interaction with the outer world. That is, “[t]he archetype corresponding to the individual’s outward or inward life is actualized and in taking form appears before the camera of the conscious mind – is ‘represented’”.14 In other words, Archetypes are, by definition, factors and motifs that arrange the psychic elements into certain images, characterized as archetypal, but in such a way that they can be recognized only from the effects they produce. They exist preconsciously, and presumably they form the structural dominants of the psyche in general . . . As a priori conditioning factors they represent a 8

“Archetype,” Online Etymology Dictionary. Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 121. 10 Ibid. 11 Boeree, “Personality Theories: Carl Jung”, 15. 12 J. Feist and G. Feist, Theories of Personality, 105. 13 Ibid. 14 Jacobi, Complex, Archetype, Symbol in the Psycology of C G Jung, 34. 9

14

Chapter Two special psychological instance of the biological ‘pattern of behaviour’, which gives all things their specific qualities. Just as the manifestations of this biological ground plan may change in the course of development, so also can those of the archetype. Empirically considered, however, the archetype did not ever come into existence as a phenomenon of organic life, but entered into the picture with itself.15

According to Jung, there are various archetypes, including the great mother, the wise old man, the hero, and they are limitless. This paper concentrates on his archetypes of the Persona, the Shadow, the Animus and the Self to expose Esther’s relation to or alienation from the outside world and to manifest her psychological condition with regard to the concept of developing identity. The Persona stands for the social face the individual presents to the world and his society. It is “a kind of mask, designed on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and on the other to conceal the true nature of the individual”. 16 This social mask is instrumental for the person in adapting to the external world. Upon winning a fashion magazine contest by writing a story, Esther is rewarded with a job in New York for a month. However, she is an outsider and she can easily recognise the pettiness and exploitativeness of the New York scene. She is not prepared yet to fit into her new society in New York, therefore she creates her persona to feel safer by concealing her true name and origin: My name's Elly Higginbottom, I said. I come from Chicago. After that I felt safer. I didn't want anything I said or did that night to be associated with me and my real name and coming from Boston . . . I certainly learned a lot of things I never would have learned otherwise this way, and even when they surprised me or made me sick I never let on, but pretended that's the way I knew things were all the time.17

Esther introduces herself with a fake name, Elly Higginbottom, with a fake hometown, Chicago, instead of Boston. She hides her real identity and origin. It shows that she is not comfortable with herself in her new surroundings. She wants to reinvent herself in order to fit into her new society. In Jacoby’s words, “[a] strong ego relates to the outside world through a flexible persona; identification with a specific persona (doctor, scholar, artist, etc.) inhibits psychological development”.18 Esther creates 15

Jung, “A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of Trinity”, 222. Jung, Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, 190. 17 Plath, The Bell Jar, 13. 18 Jacoby, The Analytic Encounter: Transference and Human Relationship, 118. 16

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her persona as a studious and an asocial suburban girl, who can be easily led by the strong-willed people around her. Moreover, persona is “a mask or shield which the person places between himself and the people around him”.19 The metaphor of the bell jar is significant in this sense since the metaphoric glass functions as a shield by which others can be kept away so that they cannot affect the person negatively. Esther’s discomfort with her new society, the hypocrisy of people she knows, her dilemma between the desire to be an author and the expectation of the society on her to marry and lead a family life cause Esther to be enclosed in the bell jar. Although it may seem useful to fit into the society in the first place, Jung claimed that there is danger when people “become identical with their personas”, 20 which results in “the shallow, brittle, conformist kind of personality which is ‘all persona’, with its excessive concern for ‘what people think’”. 21 It also leads to an impetuous state of mind “in which people are utterly unconscious of any distinction between themselves and the society they live in”.22 Esther unconsciously imprisons herself so much in the bell jar that she feels isolated, alienated and stifled: I felt myself shrinking to a small black dot against all those red and white rugs and that pine panelling. I felt like a hole in the ground . . . every second the city gets smaller and smaller, only you feel it's really you getting smaller and smaller and lonelier and lonelier, rushing away from all those lights and that excitement at about a million miles an hour . . . I didn't know where in the world I was . . . The silence depressed me. It wasn't the silence of silence. It was my own silence. I knew perfectly well the cars were making noise, and the people in them and behind the lit windows of the buildings were making a noise, and the river was making a noise, but I couldn't hear a thing. The city hung in my window, flat as a poster, glittering and blinking, but it might just as well not have been there at all, for all the good it did me. The china-white bedside telephone could have connected me up with things, but there it sat, dumb as a death's head.23

Shut out in the metaphoric bell jar, she is lost in her feelings and thoughts. Her loneliness makes her silent. Her silence prevents her from hearing the outer voices. For this reason, she feels like she is in the bell jar, apart from the rest of the world. The bell jar is a powerful metaphor for the isolation and mental distress Esther suffers. She is trapped in a 19

Berne, Sex in Human Loving, 98. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, 416. 21 Stevens, On Jung, 43. 22 Dawson, “Literary Criticism and Analytical Psychology” 267. 23 Plath, 17-20. 20

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glass prison. She can see others but cannot touch them, cannot feel them, and cannot hear them. It stands for the inability to communicate meaningfully. By making her prison of glass rather than brick, Esther allows herself to observe others, and this observation usually worsens her sense of being alone. That is why, “the dissolution of the persona is therefore absolutely necessary for individuation” after the adaptation. 24 However, the disintegration of the persona may also lead to some chaotic state in the individual. As Jung put it, “one result of the dissolution of the persona is the release of fantasy . . . disorientation”.25 In Esther’s case, her disorientation is derived from her need to choose between profession and domesticity. However, breaking the bell jar is not so easy for Esther because “she carries the weight of having to maintain a number of conflicting identities – the obliging daughter and the ungrateful woman, the successful writer and the immature student, the virginal girlfriend and the worldly lover”.26 The second phase of personality is the Shadow archetype, referring to the unconscious part of the personality the conscious mind cannot recognize. It is “the black shadow which everybody carries with him, the inferior and therefore hidden aspect of the personality”.27 The shadow is mostly regarded as negative since the unconscious keeps the least desirable aspects of personality. Jung wrote that “Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is”. 28 Interaction with the shadow means that the person suffers from some conflicting thoughts and feelings. The metaphor of shadow is repeated many times when Esther is hospitalized due to her psychological breakdown posed by her endeavour to meet social and cultural expectations of women without giving up her personal and professional ambitions: I thought the most beautiful thing in the world must be shadow, the million moving shapes and cul-de-sacs of shadow. There was shadow in bureau drawers and closets and suitcases, and shadow under houses and trees and stones, and shadow at the back of people's eyes and smiles, and shadow, miles and miles and miles of it, on the night side of the earth.29

24

Jung, Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, 156,284. Ibid., 277. 26 Wagner, “Plath’s The Bell Jar as Female Bildungsroman”, 58. 27 Jung, Psychology of the Transference, 219. 28 Jung, “A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of Trinity”, 131. 29 Plath, 165. 25

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Esther cannot find her standpoint in life. She is getting more insane. She lives more in her psychological and unconscious world than her physical and conscious world. She is alienated from her society and from her own self. She wants to remain in the shadow. This archetype also implies that “[b]eneath the surface a person is suffering from a deadly boredom that makes everything seem meaningless and empty”.30 It is true for Esther owing to the fact that she cannot deal with the daily life. Normal things seem abnormal to her. She considers the possible as the impossible: What bothered me was that everything about the house seemed normal, although I knew it must be chock-full of crazy people. There were no bars on the windows that I could see, and no wild or disquieting noises. Sunlight measured itself out in regular oblongs on the shabby, but soft red carpets, and a whiff of fresh-cut grass sweetened the air.31

Jung stated that “[t]he shadow personifies everything that the subject refuses to acknowledge about himself”, adding that it represents “tight passage, a narrow door, whose painful constriction no one is spared who goes down to the deep well”.32 Esther also resorts to similar images while describing her psychological situation in New York. Jung also warned that the shadow overwhelms a person’s actions from time to time when the conscious mind is struck, bewildered and paralyzed by indecision and ambiguity: “A man who is possessed by his shadow is always standing in his own light and falling into his own traps . . . living below his own level”. 33 Rather than the stifling constraints of society, Esther’s oblique perception of the world around her makes her already imprisoned in her unconscious mind: I felt like a hole in the ground . . . every second the city gets smaller and smaller, only you feel it's really you getting smaller and smaller and lonelier and lonelier, rushing away from all those lights and that excitement at about a million miles an hour . . . I felt very low. I had been unmasked . . . and I felt now that all the uncomfortable suspicions I had about myself were coming true, and I couldn't hide the truth much longer . . . I was letting up, slowing down, dropping clean out of the race.34

30

von Franz, “The Process of Individuation”, 166. Plath, 165. 32 Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, 21. 33 Ibid., 123. 34 Plath, 17, 31. 31

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Chapter Two

As a matter of fact, Esther is uncomfortable and doubtful about herself and others from the very beginning of the novel, which implicitly suggests to the reader that she is already showing signs of mental instability. She feels that something is wrong with her. She feels still and empty. However, she has always wanted to go to college, become a professor and write poetry. Although she wants to be a writer, she can see no way to do it in her society. She loses her direction in life: I knew something was wrong with me that summer, because all I could think about was the Rosenbergs . . . I was supposed to be having the time of my life . . . I couldn’t get myself to react. I felt very still and empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, movingly dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo.35

The Rosenbergs, Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg and Julius Rosenberg, were American communists who were electrocuted for conspiracy to commit espionage during a time of war. They were charged with passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.36 Esther’s mind is continuously preoccupied with their electrocution: It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York. I’m stupid about executions. The idea of being electrocuted makes me sick . . . It had nothing to do with me, but I couldn’t help wondering what it would be like, being burned alive all along your nerves.37

The electrocution of the Rosenbergs suggests the theme of death from the very beginning of the novel. Esther questions and thinks of death all the time. She imagines their electrocution scene, reads suicide news in papers, and attempts at suicide throughout the novel. Her obsession with the idea of death is one of the causes of her depression brought about by the death of her father when she was a child. As the psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck pointed out, “in the course of development, the depression-prone person may become sensitized by certain unfavourable types of life situations such as the loss of a parent”. 38 This traumatic experience is revealed within Esther’s psyche. She mentions her father three times throughout the novel, ending up at her father’s gravestone kneeling and

35

Ibid., 2-3. “The Atom Spy Case,” The Federal Bureau of Investigation, 37 Ibid., 1. 38 “The Development of Depression: A Cognitive Model”, 7. 36

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“howling [her] loss into the cold salt rain”.39 Her father’s death triggers her mental disorder in her youth: “I thought how strange it had never occurred to me before that I was only purely happy until I was nine years old”.40 The third phase of personality development is the Animus archetype, which represents reason and spirit in women. It signifies the male aspect of the female psyche. This archetype is reflected in numerous male images and characters such as artists, heroes, warriors, philosophers and so on. The animus allows women to develop rational drive like the male. Esther’s father, as a man, contributes to the male side in her female body. It is thanks to her father that she has been interested in scholarship, writing and carrying out a profession in the male-dominated society. According to Jung, Woman is compensated by a masculine element and therefore her unconscious has, so to speak, a masculine imprint. This results in a considerable psychological difference between men and women, and accordingly I have called the projection-making factor in women the animus, which means mind or spirit.41

It can be put forth that the male within the female signifies woman’s mental and social power as well as her ability to act creatively in the maledominated world. In Esther’s case, writing can be considered as an incentive to the animus. Esther wants to earn her life by writing instead of getting married, delivering children and serving to her husband. Her father was also a man of scholars and he wrote, too. Though absent in the novel as a character, her father activates her energy and creativity in writing. For Esther, writing means escape from the social norms and the socially expected role of being a woman, wife and mother. She thinks that writing helps to fix a lot of people and her own self. However, she is too depressed to write because writing causes more troubles to her. Despite her tendency to be stubborn in patriarchal matters, she still feels anxiety in patriarchal society, which confuses her mentally. It means that the animus can be creative, powerful or even destructive, depending on her relationship with men. That is, the animus has two characteristics, which are energy and ambivalence.42

39

Plath, 167. Ibid., 75. 41 Jung, “The Syzygy: Anima and Animus”, 171. 42 Crisp, “Archetype of the Animus – Jung’s view of the male in the female”, Dreamhawk 40

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Chapter Two

The last phase of developing personality is the Self archetype, which refers to the unification of the conscious and the unconscious in a person, and pertains to the psyche as a whole.43 The self is fulfilled as the product of individuation, which is the process of integrating one’s personality. Jung suggested that the self represents the centre of the total personality, containing consciousness, unconsciousness and the ego. To put it another way, the self is the whole and the centre. It is the last phase on the path to self-realization of individuation.44 As Jung stated, “the Self is the total, timeless man . . . who stands for the mutual integration of conscious and unconscious”.45 Towards the end of the novel, Esther overcomes some of the obstacles that inhibit her wholeness and individuation. When she experiences sex, she feels happy to lose her virginity before marriage because she has shown the self-determination of her body and has set her own social norms as opposed to the patriarchal norms. She writes her own short stories denying the expectations of the patriarchal culture. At the end of the novel, she is considered to be released from the mental hospital. She believes that she enters a new part of her life. She will do well at college. She will be more comfortable with her relation to the world than she ever has been before. Now, she has the sexual freedom, can write poetry and is different from what her mother and the patriarchal society would wish for. She is considered to have achieved wholeness in mind and body, the conscious and the unconscious, and to complete her process of individuation. She is now ready to go out of the bell jar. It implies rebirth as it is a return to the wholeness of birth, which is dissolved into many parts after birth throughout life: “I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am”.46 To conclude, Plath described Esther, her traumatic experiences and her psychological breakdown from her point of view. As it is regarded as a semi-autobiographical novel, Plath portrayed her own condition in Esther’s voice, who was no stranger to the disease herself and could provide some solutions for wellness in a realistic manner. By employing Jungian archetypal criticism with regard to some feminist perspectives, the novel has focused on two primary themes, the first of which is Greenwood’s identity development, or lack of it, and the second of which is her struggle against submission to the authority of men and her society. The novel has shown that for a woman living in the 1950s, finding an identity was a notable achievement despite some obstacles and suffering. 43

Henderson, “Ancient Myths and Modern Man”, 128. Jacobi, 118. 45 Jung, Psychology of the Transference, 311. 46 Plath, 274. 44

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The Bell Jar has effectively presented Esther’s struggle to establish her identity, to re-attain her orientation, and to become a writer as she has always dreamed after going through some traumatic experiences and mental disorder in the patriarchal society.

Works Cited “Archetype”. Online Etymology Dictionary. Accessed November 30, 2012. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/archetype. Beck, Aaron Temkin. “The Development of Depression: A Cognitive Model.” In The Psychology of Depression: Contemporary Theory and Research, edited by R. J. Friedman and M. M. Katz. Washington: Hemisphere Publishing Corporation, 1974. Berne, Eric. Sex in Human Loving. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1973. Bloom, Harold. Bloom’s Guides: The Bell Jar. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2009. Boeree, C. George. “Personality Theories: Carl Jung.” Internet Archive. Accessed November 30, 2012. http://www.social-psychology.de/do/pt_jung.pdf Crisp, Tony. “Archetype of the Animus – Jung’s view of the male in the female.” Dreamhawk. Accessed November 30, 2012. http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/archetype-of-the-animusjungs-view-of-the-male-in-the-female/. Dawson, Terence. “Literary Criticism and Analytical Psychology.” In The Cambridge Companion to Jung, edited by Polly Young-Eisendrat and Terence Dawson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977. Feist, Jess, and Gregory Feist. Theories of Personality. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. von Franz, Marie-Louise. “The Process of Individuation.” In Man and His Symbols, edited by Carl Gustave Jung. New York: Anchor Press, 1964. Henderson, Joseph L. “Ancient Myths and Modern Man.” In Man and His Symbols, edited by Carl Gustave Jung. New York: Anchor Press, 1964. Jacobi, Jolande. Complex, Archetype, Symbol in the Psycology of C G Jung. London: Routledge, 1959. Jacoby, Mario. The Analytic Encounter: Transference and Human Relationship. Toronto: Inner City Books, 1984. Jung, Carl G. “A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of Trinity.” In Psychology and Religion: West and East, The Collected Works Vol. 11. London: Routledge, 1942. —. “Psychology and Religion”. In Psychology and Religion: West and East. The Collected Works Vol. 11. London: Routledge, 1942.

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—. Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. The Collected Works Vol. 7. London: Routledge, 1953. —. Psychology of the Transference. The Collected Works Vol. 16. London: Routledge, 1954. —. “The Syzygy: Anima and Animus.” In Aion: Researches into Phenomenology of the Self. The Collected Works Vol. 9.2. London: Routledge, 1982. —. Memories, Dreams, Reflections. London: Random House, 1983. —. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. The Collected Works Vol. 9. London: Routledge, 1996. Liddell, Henry G., and Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1945. O’Reilly, Caitriona. “Sylvia Plath.” In Oxford Encyclopaedia of American Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar. New York: Harper Collins, 2006. Serafin, Steven R., and Alfred Bendixen. The Continuum Encyclopaedia of American Literature. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005. Stevens, Anthony. On Jung. London: Taylor & Francis, 1990. “The Atom Spy Case”. The Federal Bureau of Investigation. Accessed November 30, 2012. http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/the-atom-spy-case. Wagner, Linda W. “Plath’s The Bell Jar as Female Bildungsroman.” Women’s Studies, 12, nos. 1-6 (1986): 55-68.

CHAPTER THREE FROM HOSTILITY TO LASTING FRIENDSHIP: A STUDY OF THE ANZAC AND TURKISH SOLDIER’S PERSONAL NARRATIVES1 AZER BANU KEMALOöLU

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side now here in this country of ours... you, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well. Atatürk, 1934.2

Gallipoli Campaign, 1915 has been studied from a variety of perspectives relying on the historical and military records. Especially the academic interest is noteworthy and the scholarly input is remarkable in the works of the combatant countries. However, the fictional representations and personal stories of the Gallipoli campaign have been limited compared to the grand historical narratives produced by the combatant countries. Objective grand historical narratives dominate the field of study while the subjective stories have been ignored and the human side left out. It is great to see a growing interest on the representations of Gallipoli in the recent years. Remembering the Gallipoli Campaign through writing has become a significant effort in many areas 1

This chapter is a part of a research project entitled ‘’From Hostility to Lasting Friendship: Cultural Reflections from the Turkish and Anzac Soldiers' Diaries’’, funded by TUBøTAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey). 2 This inscription appears on Gallipoli Memorial at Anzac Cove, Çanakkale, Turkey, the Kemal Atatürk Memorial, Anzac Parade, Canberra, Australia.

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Chapter Three

ranging from military history to fiction. As the centenary of the First World War is approaching there is more need to remember and commemorate the Gallipoli campaign in a variety of perspectives. In this respect, it is significant to remember and voice the untold stories of the Gallipoli Campaign by acknowledging Mehmetçik along with the Anzac soldiers, who died in Gallipoli and are still resting there. When Anzac and British troops deserted the Gallipoli Peninsula they left behind a lot of stories hidden in the trenches, the blue waters of Dardanelles and the rocky hills of Anzac Cove. If these personal stories are unearthed the grand narration will also benefit and be enriched with the contribution of the human voice. Without the human voice the military history of the campaign will be incomplete and many of the details lost. In this respect, the aim of this study is to bring out the discussions raised in the personal narratives of Anzac and Turkish soldiers related to the Gallipoli campaign. The primary sources range from personal narratives and letters to newspapers from both sides. The diaries studied in this paper are manuscripts not transcribed or published before, chosen from the ordinary soldiers’ diaries. Rather than standard historical discourses of generals and commanders, the selection will bring together the mutual observation and experience of the common soldiers. The manuscripts and personal narratives are collected from Australian War Memorial in Canberra, State Library of Victoria in Melbourne and State Library of New South Wales in Sydney. This paper is a part of a bigger project funded by TUBøTAK including the study of Ottoman-Turkish diaries, with a team of Turkish researchers and Australian advisors. This study aims to present a part of the ongoing project with a few Australian manuscripts along with some Turkish contributions. In the personal narratives, Gallipoli Peninsula becomes a cultural site of exchange, reconciliation and friendship emphasizing the sacred land. Eventually, the narratives restore history and offer an alternative story of the campaign reminding us the lost human voices and stories ‘’not- quite- said’’ as put by Stephen Greenblatt and Catherine Gallagher (62). It is clearly seen that the human voices unearth discourses never heard before, enrich the field of history by inviting history on the act and finally upgrade implications of personal narratives on the Gallipoli Campaign. In the Gallipoli land mutually othering initiated the perception of soldiers. However observations, experiences and exchanges ultimately changed these prejudices in the eight-month conflict. This transformation will be better analyzed if Gallipoli land is read as a sharing environment and a cultural site producing personal narratives. Limiting the Gallipoli Peninsula to a geographical site disregards the cultural interaction which is

From Hostility to Lasting Friendship

25

at the fulcrum of this study. Hence, the letters, notes and diaries produced in this space need interpretation as Greenblatt argues in Cultural Mobility that ‘’the bodies of the deceased have refused to stay buried’’ (1). Indeed the personal stories need to be voiced as New Historicism treats all texts as literary texts open to interpretation. In this way, personal stories/histories gain importance and help understand the cultural exchange and interaction inherent in the Gallipoli peninsula. Within this scope two major works built on personal narratives confirm Greenblatt’s claim that the dead want to be heard. Australian historian Bill Gammage’s The Broken Years (1974) is a great contribution to the field of history with its focus on the personal narratives. The Broken Years brings together 1000 letters and diaries of the Anzac soldiers and restores the bravery as well as the tragedy of them. Based on previously unused personal narratives, Gammage’s book brings out soldier narratives and remembers the Anzac. Haluk Oral’s Gallipoli 1915: Through Turkish Eyes (2007) is the almost Turkish equivalent of Gammage’s The Broken Years. In Oral’s invaluable book, the memoirs, documents and stories connected to the objects and the illustrations create a vivid panoramic view of the Gallipoli Campaign. In Oral’s book, Mehmetçik is remembered together with the Anzac soldiers. The power of both works is due to the special place they give to the personal stories rather than the military history. Yet, the personal stories do not undermine the grand historical narrative. Indeed they complement and even correct the grand historical narratives. James Clifford argues in ‘Traveling Cultures’ that culture is formed thru ‘travel’ (103), and cultural interactions are discursive formations dependent on movement rather than immobility (96). In this respect, Gallipoli becomes a space of cultural experimentation and interaction. Stuart MacIntyre points out in the Oxford History of Australia that for Anzac soldiers, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, First World War was undoubtedly an attraction for travel, adventure, and good pay besides patriotism and loyalty to the British Empire: So keen was the desire to volunteer, when enlistment began in August,that applicants jolted each other in the queues that stretched before the recruiting tables and strong men choked back their disappointment when rejected as unfit for service. The pay, 5s a day, was undoubtedly an attraction, yet there were some who sold up businesses to enlist; and while the prospect of travel and adventure lured many a Ginger Mick into uniform almost as by casual impulse, there were ardent patriots who travelled long distances to reach the nearest enlistment centre. (143)

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Chapter Three

With a variety of reasons twenty-six Australian troopships and ten New Zealand ships left Indian Ocean for Mediterranean in late September 1914. Anzacs embarked on the ships and landed in Gallipoli on 25th April 1915 (MacIntyre, 145). The major target was to invade Istanbul and Gallipoli was the first step to realize this long lasting desire. Yet, the colonial desires of British Empire failed as in December 2015, Anzacs had to evacuate the peninsula leaving 28000 Australians and 7500 New Zealanders lying next to 251000 Mehmetçik (146). Gallipoli Peninsula became a sacred land burying the fallen Anzacs, signifying their nationhood as well. As McIntyre narrates, in 400 acres of wasteland, Anzacs developed ‘’a confidence in their own capacity, a grudging admiration for the Turk, and a marked lack of respect for the British (152). This wasteland has been the cultural site where soldiers from different cultures fought but managed to become friends. A battlefield turning into a site of friendship and reconciliation was outstanding in the history. Hence, Bill Gammage in The Broken Years argues that although Anzacs were the failed counterpart, Gallipoli was never considered a failure for them; Those acres of Turkey had become sacred soil to Australians, the ground of their nationhood, the origin and proof of their Imperial partnership…The evacuation of Anzac, although it chastened the spirit of Empire a little, guaranteed Gallipoli a place in the heart of Australian sentiment (19).

A Melbourne paper Argus reported on 22 December 1915 confirms Gammage’s argument as follows; …whatever the final result may be, the name of Gallipoli will never spell failure in Australian ears. It was there that our young and untried troops, gathered from their peaceful pursuits in a land remote from the world’s historic battle scenes… gained the plaudits of the world…Gallipoli provided a conspicuous theatre for their achievement, and focused the attention on the world upon them3.

The piece reveals the significant cultural heritage Anzacs inherited during the campaign as pointed out by McIntyre as well (152). It is clearly seen in these examples that Gallipoli has a great significance in the lives of Anzacs even after the war. Gallipoli peninsula, a problematic space, becomes the place where soldiers’ experiences are recorded. According to Gammage, some soldiers started to write during the war and were able to 3

(http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/1587309?searchTerm=22%20December %201915&searchLimits=).

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finish only a few pages while some decided to record their memories only after they reached home. Some diaries had no entries except for the name and the address of the soldier. Some wrote home, others recorded the conflict in details. Some ignored the war whereas some hardly mentioned it. Some diaries saved soldiers’ lives acting as a shield while some Turkish diaries were collected from the battlefields as souvenirs as trophy hunting was popular among the Anzac soldiers. The ones who survived brought them home, some left them in the trenches to come and pick up later. As Private Paul Haworth narrates he collected several small trophies from the dead bodies and hid them somewhere, to bring them home later (5). Yet, he was wounded and taken to hospital ship finishing his adventure in Gallipoli land with trophies left to be picked up. And the Turkish diaries, prayer books and pocket-size Kur’ans discovered in Australian libraries during the preliminary research of the TUBITAK project explain this attitude of ANZAC soldiers. Strikingly, the battlefield and the trenches particularly become the focus of interest for most historians. Gammage’s perception of the battlefield is a very narrow area but it becomes the most contested space; ‘’Their [Anzac and Turks’] opposing trenches lay between 20 yards and two feet apart, and the land between became the most disputed on Gallipoli’’ (74). Since Anzacs and Turks were situated in the opposing trenches, 20 metres apart, interaction between them was inevitable. Gammage argues that in the process of time, trenches and battlegrounds turned into a cultural site. Especially during the armistices soldiers shared their food and water first, then sang together, made jokes and even chatted resulting in a mutual respect, love and sympathy (101). Soldiers started sharing more and converse, exchange water, tobacco and bread as Gammage narrates; Particularly after August, [Anzacs] threw bully beef and condensed milk in exchange for boiled onions, and swapped cigarettes, knives, photographs and badges between the lines. Men sometimes walked safely into No Man’s Land and even to the opposing trenches to retrieve gifts thrown short, and garrisons wrote each other notes of friendly abuse or of commiseration for the life of a soldier. (102)

At this point I would like to refer to the perceptions of Anzac soldiers towards Turkish soldiers and study how stereotyping initiated, changed and finally challenged during the course of the eight-month Gallipoli Campaign. As Edward Said argues in Orientalism, ‘’Oriental was identified by the West’’ as a cultural representation deeply ingrained within the Western practices, discourses and subjectivities to claim the

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superiority and hegemony of the West (40). In Said’s discussion Turkey suffered from this practice as during the First World War ‘’Asiatic Turkey was being surveyed by Britain and France for its dismemberment. There laid out on an operating table for surgery, was the Sick Man of Europe, revealed in all his weakness, characteristics, and topographical outline’’ (223). The superiority of the West and the imperial aspirations can be clearly seen in the attitudes of Anzac soldiers as Gammage argues ‘’[s]hooting a Turk,…was to many much like striking down some shadowy foe of the Empire’s past’’ (113). The reflection of this image of ‘’Sick Man of Europe’’ is seen in the soldier narratives Gammage provides as ‘’poor old Turk’’ (101). In Said’s reading especially Islamic Oriental male was seen as wily, fanatical, cruel and despotic while Christian Western male was pictured as normal, civilized and an intellectual. Western stereotype of the Islamic Oriental male is inherent in the narratives Gammage refers to. For Anzacs, Turkish soldiers were nothing but a barbarian, a stereotype of the Western thought promoted during the British trainings in Egypt. Gammage argues; As boys they had learnt to hate their Empire’s adversaries, and to revile the Turks for barbarous atrocities. At the Landing many believed willingly that Turks had mutilated Australian dead and wounded, and some accepted the most improbable accounts of Turkish barbarity: on 27 April a wounded Australian wrote, ‘We have one man here with his tongue cut out, another lay wounded and a Turk cried ‘Australian’ and drove his bayonet in, but was shot and the bayonets work was not completed. (101)

An Anzac soldier, Corporal Paul E. Haworth (1893- ) wrote 'My personal experience at Gallipoli' while serving with the 4th Australian Infantry Brigade. An extended letter to his parents, the account spans April 1915 - August 1915, concluding when Haworth received a shrapnel wound and was sent to London. Haworth’s narrative gives a detailed account of life on the Gallipoli Peninsula. His diary is a distinguished one focusing on personal experience, starting with an Orientalist perception and concluding with a humanist one, with a changing attitude towards Turkish soldiers. Haworth writes that during their training in Egypt, British had taught them how Turkish mutilated their prisoners (31)and warned them never to fall in the hands of Turkish, never to retreat before Turks but ‘’to hold [their] position till the last man is dead’’ (13) since Turkish were cruel. It was the British who introduced Turkish to the Anzac soldiers as Haworth writes; ‘’…before we landed we were given lectures on the cruelty of the Turks’’ (77). Naturally the stereotype Turk emerges in the first pages of the diary and Haworth calls Turkish soldier as ‘’Terrible Turk’’ (17). In

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addition, Haworth identifies Turks with Egyptian people and writes that ‘’I don’t want any Turkish woman blaming me for killing her husband or harem master, whichever the case may be. I have seen their cousins in Egypt and don’t like them’’ (70). This Oriental identification is the result of Western ideology imposed on the Eastern Islamic cultures to indicate the superiority of the West and inferiority of the East. By stressing on the inferiority of Turks, British make Anzacs believe that it was ‘’only a matter of a few days till we would be well on our way to Constantinople’’(43). In his narration Haworth despises and even makes fun of the religious devotion and belief of Turkish soldier who cries ‘’Allah, Allah, Allah’’ while attacking. As he writes; Hmm…if they are going to tell us every time they are going to attack, it will be peaches and cream for us. That is what religion does for them. The more they call to their God, the more lead they get poured into them. I suppose our religion would be just as useless if it were put to that test (38).

Similar to the prejudices or misconceptions of Anzacs towards the Turkish side, Turkish soldiers lacked a true knowledge of the Anzacs as well. Yet, it was in the Gallipoli Campaign that Turkish and Anzac soldiers met for the first time. As Turkish soldier narratives reveal, their knowledge of Anzacs was limited to the German claims as ‘’cannibals’’. Ömer Çakr quotes Ali Ekrem, a war correspondent of newspaper Tanin, who defines the enemy as ‘’a flock of cannibals consisted of Scottish, Irish, New Zealander, British, French, Senegalese and many other nations’’ (462, author’s translation). Çakr quotes another news piece from another newspaper ‘’Tasvir-i Efkar’’ which uses the metaphor of ‘’a wild zoo’’ to denote the brutality of the enemy (461, author’s translation). This claim is confirmed by an Australian soldier Ellis Silas who landed on Anzac Cove in April 1915 and witnessed the most terrible bloodshed at Gallipoli while acting as a signaller until he was wounded. The sketches and comments of Silas on each drawing provide an eyewitness account of the Gallipoli campaign. His drawing and comment in May, 1915 reveals the role of prejudice on the Turkish soldiers; This gives some idea of the difficulties and dangers the stretcher-bearers had to contend with. Their bravery was quite equal to any heroism shown on the field of battle. When we first landed, the Turks shot at anything that moved, sparing not even the wounded on stretchers. They had been told by the Germans that the Australians were cannibals. (58)

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Despite all the prejudices imposed on both sides, the Gallipoli peninsula, the trenches particularly, changed the perceptions of soldiers. The Gallipoli land became a cultural site of interaction and learning. Gammage reports from soldier narratives that the Anzac hatred of the Turk died almost away a month after the landing (101) and stereotype representation of the Turk turned into ‘’a brave and resourceful… gentlemanly opponent who followed the rules’’ at the end of the campaign (105). As Gammage argues Australians regarded the Turk affectionately since the Turkish soldiers kept the terms of armistice. Eventually the Turkish soldier was christened by them as “‘Jacko’, or ‘Abdul’, or ‘Johnnie Turk’” (102). This attitude reveals how the prejudices disappeared through interaction and Anzac soldiers identified the Turkish soldiers with English names. This issue is further elucidated by Gammage who quotes from a diary entry of an officer; They are the whitest fighters that ever fought…and are playing the game like men to the last post. Any of our wounded they pick up, they are said to treat skilfully, and humanely, and prisoners are treated in the best possible fashion. This is very different from the first round, when ‘no prisoners’ was the order of the day on either side, [because each was under a misimpression about the other]. (105)

Haworth’s perception of the Turk starts changing as the days pass and Constantinople looks like a quixotic dream. As Turks prove they are not cowards and their military power and belief make their argument stronger, (44) the Turkish soldier receives Anzac soldier’s respect despised earlier (38). Especially after the armistice on 25th May, 1915, when both sides declared to bury their dead, the first exchanges started between the Anzac and Turkish soldiers. Haworth writes that they exchanged salutations; some even threw tins of tobacco and beef; As the day wore on we mixed more with the Turks, some of whom could speak fairly good English. They seemed to have great respect for the Australian fighting abilities, but were very much surprised when they find out that we were white, they having been told that we were big black savages, who ate their prisoners. We became quite friendly with several of them. We had no grudge against them, as they fought as fair as any soldiers ever did (77-78).

After the brief introduction to the Turkish soldier, Haworth learns more about his character and goes on to narrate humorous stories related with Turks. The prejudice is already gone and transformed into an

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appreciation of the Turkish mind as Haworth calls the Turk as ‘’humanist regardless of what people say’’: On one occasion we had put a lot of barbed wire out in front, spending considerable time in doing so. The next morning the wire was gone from in front of our trench, was in front of the Turks trench. That evening after dark a note tied around a stick was thrown into our trench and in English was written ‘’Kindly cut the wire longer next time as it is slightly too short for our use. Thanks all the same (81).

In another time as Haworth records, Turkish soldiers manage to steal 300 empty sandbags from Anzac trenches and carry to their own, leaving another ‘Thank You’ note (84). One night Turkish soldiers throw a dark object midway between their trenches, and Anzacs wait for the morning to discover it is a large placard, and written on it the words ‘’Wake up, Warsaw has fallen’’ (85). After these examples the name of Turk changes into Johnny the Turk in Haworth’s narration as a sign of Anzacs identifying the Turk with a Western name, rather than othering. Similarly, Çakr quotes another war correspondent of Tanin, Cemil Hakk who argues that Anzac soldiers fought violently using every means of wilful destruction ranging from shells, torpedoes, machine guns, dynamites to blockbusters to succeed and died rather ‘’altruistically’’ (464, author’s translation). The same empathy is established on the Turkish side revealing the significance of cultural interaction achieved within the narrow space between Turkish and Anzac trenches. The sincere feelings towards the Turkish soldiers are extended during the evacuation as well. Gammage narrates an Anzac soldier’s letter addressed to the commander of the Turkish forces on Gallipoli upon evacuation in December 1915. The letter starts with compliments to the ‘’worthy TURKISH opponents’’ and expresses the deep regret of diminishing the long-lasting friendship between Turkish and British Empires. The letter ends with the mention of wine, coffee, tobacco, food and a supply of fuel left as gifts to their descent opponents (123). As seen in these examples, a significant evolution occurred in the perceptions of soldiers from the beginning to the end of the campaign. In the narrow space between trenches, both parts managed to see the other as human and normal. Stereotyping turned into positive acculturation which is an indication of the cultures involved. In addition, Gallipoli became a site of cultural experimentation despite all the prejudices implemented on both sides. The respect Anzac soldiers started to feel for the Turkish soldiers as brave and honourable fighters is strengthened after Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s tribute to the fallen Anzac soldiers in 1934. The immortal

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words of the victorious commander of the Turkish forces gave comfort to the mothers who lost their sons in the Gallipoli Campaign and initiated reconciliation inspiring peace and friendship. Hence it is not only the cultural interaction established between the soldiers in the Gallipoli peninsula but also the powerful words of Atatürk which triggered the peace after a bloody war. Prejudices and themes of reconciliation pointed out in the personal narratives stand out as the most remarkable issues related with the Gallipoli campaign. However, the landing on 25th April, 1915 has also been one of the mostly debated events of the conflict. Private Alfred Herbert Love (1886-1915) wrote a very brief diary while serving with the 1st Australian Infantry Brigade until his death on 27th April in action. In his 3 page-diary Private Love describes landing as hell and argues that ‘’so far machine guns played hell on our men, for a start they were getting hit and killed all around me, but I escaped…so far’’. This is the last entry to the diary. The machine gun mentioned by Private Love has also been mentioned by other soldiers in their diaries. For example, the Lance Corporal Eric Wallace Moorhead of the 5th Infantry Battalion writes on the morning of 25th April as follows: No Turks were to be seen but the air was literally full of bullets, and the sound was deafening. Some of the men were wounded, others I saw afterwards, dead. Still no Turks were to be seen and there was no target for our rifles. Some fired a few shots aimlessly into space, but mere warned that they might easily be firing on their own men (8-9).

In addition, the historical and military narratives of the Anzacs claim that the Turkish machine gun fire was one of the reasons for failure during landing. For instance, Charles W. Bean, the official war correspondent of Australia in Gallipoli claims that the Ottoman forces had machine guns and from Fisherman’s Hut, ‘’two machine guns and many rifles were firing at the same time’’ (327). Furthermore, Gammage refers to the heavy machine gun fire by Turks during the first moments of landing; The men threw their packs on to the beach, and turned to the enemy. All was confusion before them. Instead of the open plain they expected, the scrub-covered hills rose steeply away. The bushes winked with Turkish rifle and machine gun fire, and bullets enfiladed many parts of the beach. (65)

Moreover, some other personal narratives Gammage refers to describe the moment of the gun fire as a ‘’terrific chorus’’ or ‘’merciless fusillade’’ pinning Anzacs ‘’by machine gun fire’’ (65-66). However, according to a

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Turkish soldier’s letter discovered and discussed by Haluk Oral in Gallipoli 1915: Through Turkish Eyes, another fact is revealed related with the machine guns. The wounded Reserve Lieutenant øbrahim Hayrettin Efendi, known also as øbradl øbrahim narrates the landing contrary to what Anzacs write. According to the letter of øbradl øbrahim during the landing there were only about 250 Turkish soldiers located on the three hills in Arburnu. There were three Platoons and øbradl øbrahim was the commander of the 1st Platoon positioned near the Fisherman’s Hut area. They were the only defence force against Anzacs until 08.30 when help came from other divisions and at 10.30 when Mustafa Kemal arrived with his division. Anzac landing began at 04.30 in the morning, so for four hours, the commander øbradl øbrahim organized such a planned rifle fire with the limited number of Turkish soldiers against 2000 Anzacs that they managed to press the attack and engage Anzacs to a narrow space on the beach (47-49). Oral quotes from the letter of øbradl øbrahim as follows: I was part of a platoon made up of ninety soldiers, which was part of the fourth company of the third battalion of the twenty-seventh regiment, and which on Sunday, 24th April 1915 had been assigned the duty of keeping a look-out for the enemy…near Arburnu. On the early morning of that day,… the English,…..turned towards A÷ldere and attacked there, thinking that they would meet with less resistance. As for us we face them with our few weapons and our faith, and thanks to the devastating fire we rained down upon them, within an hour’s time we had felled and destroyed so many invading soldiers that the shores were covered with their bodies. (49)

As the letter of øbradl øbrahim reveals, for the first 4 hours the 1st Platoon managed to delay the invading forces. It is possible that this wellorganized delaying operation might have misled the Anzacs who believed Turkish armed forces had machine guns during the first hours of landing. In addition, the letter of øbradl øbrahim confirms that there were no machine guns in his Platoon. Oral further argues that the Turkish expected the landing in Kabatepe where a powerful defence system was planned with a variety of mechanisms. However, according to Oral, placing machine guns at Fisherman’s Hut, far from Kabatepe … did not make much sense from a strategic point of view. Considering that the almost ninety soldiers under the orders of øbradl øbrahim could each fire up to ten shots a minute and that their opponents simply got the wrong impression and believed that they were being fired upon by machine guns. (54)

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In this respect, the letter of øbradl øbrahim reveals the significance of personal narratives in the greater picture. It is seen that private stories have the power to complete or correct the already accepted facts offered by the grand narratives. Indeed, this example shows us how personal details are important in constructing history and how stories from both parts should be closely read to achieve a fuller picture of the conflict. Consequently, the shift from grand narratives to personal narratives empowers the ignored or the stereotype. In this context, both the ‘’cannibal’’ Anzacs and the ‘’barbarous’’ Turkish soldiers profit from this exchange as previously established notions are challenged and questioned. To recall Stuart Hall, such studies will mobilize everything that it can to eliminate and erase the fear people have towards the different and the so called other (343). As seen in the examples, the personal narratives question, complete, contribute, and even change some of the widely accepted truths the grand histories narrate related with war and people. As common suffering and pain of the soldiers writing/creating the history of the Gallipoli Campaign is unearthed, grand history ultimately is uplifted. While the effect of personal narratives, anecdotes and even brief entries on the historical records is emphasized, the study reveals to what extent personal narratives illuminate the grand narratives as well. Moreover, Gallipoli peninsula is restored and remembered as a cultural site which established a long-lasting friendship between combatant nations once enemies. Hence, the contribution of personal narratives to grand historical narrative shows that we can learn differently from personal narrations than from historical narratives. They provide a wider consideration and a deeper insight into how different cultures talk and write about their past. Bringing an international perspective, reconciling the once combatants, personal narratives bridge the national and cultural differences and remind us the lost human voices and stories ‘’not- quite- said’’ as put by Greenblatt and Gallagher (62).

Works Cited Bean, C.E.W. The Story of Anzac. Vol. I. New York: University of Queensland Press, 1981. Clifford, James, ‘’Traveling Cultures’’, Cultural Studies. Eds. L. Grossberg, C. Nelson and P. Treichler. London: Routledge, 1992: 97105. Çakr, Ömer. Türk Harp Edebiyatnda Çanakkale Mektuplar. Ankara: Akça÷, 2009.

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Gammage, Bill. The Broken Years: Australian Soldiers in the Great War. Melbourne: Melbourne UP, 2010. Greenblatt, Stephen, ‘’Cultural Mobility: An Introduction’’, Cultural Mobility: A Manifesto. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2010. Hall, Stuart, ‘’Race, Culture, and Communications: Looking Backward and Forward at Cultural Studies’’, What is Cultural Studies? Ed. J. Storey. London: Routledge, 1997: 336-343. Haworth, Paul. Private Record. PR 01516 (Australian War MemorialResearch Centre), Canberra, ACT. Love, Alfred H. Private Record. MS 9603 (State Library of Victoria), Melbourne. MacIntyre, Stuart, ‘’The War’’, The Oxford History of Australia: The Succeeding Age, 1901-1942. USA: OUP,1993: 142-167. Moorhead, Eric W. Private Record. 3DRL/7253 (Australian War Memorial-Research Centre), Canberra, ACT. Oral, Haluk. Gallipoli 1915: Through Turkish Eyes. østanbul: øú Bank Publications, 2007. Said, Edward. Orientalism. Penguin Books. London: 2003. Silas, Ellis. An Eyewitness Account of Gallipoli: Words and Sketches. NSW: Rosenberg Publishing, 2010. “Wednesday, December 22, 1915’’. The Argus. 22 Dec. 1915. (http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/1587309?searchTerm=22%20D ecember%201915&searchLimits).

CHAPTER FOUR “FANTASYE AND CURIOUS BISYNESSE”: SEXUAL ECONOMICS IN CHAUCER’S THE MERCHANT’S TALE AND THE SHIPMAN’S TALE1 AZøME PEKùEN

Chaucer’s fabliaux, the Merchant’s Tale and the Shipman’s Tale in the Canterbury Tales follow a plot which involves an adulterous young wife who cheats on her old husband. The action in these fabliaux, thus, revolves around the love triangle in which woman pursues her sexual adventures and cuckolds her husband; and it further develops around the wife’s struggle to hide her sexual exploits until she achieves to manipulate the situation to her own advantage. Therefore, women in the fabliaux act out their traditionally defined role of the deceiver as a reflection of their immoral and lewd nature. The mercantile narration in these fabliaux reinforces such an antifeminist description of married women as unscrupulous, lustful, scheming and manipulative. Marriage imbued with mercantile values is regarded not only as a business transaction but also as a market in which brides can be merchandised to male purchasers. Mercantile narration is accompanied to the main plot of adultery. Accordingly, fabliau women’s sexual pursuits make them merely commodities for the male use. However, fabliau women do not yield to commodification and subjection. Instead, they create their own meanings and take pleasure in their marginal space by stealing from the available male space which systematically condemn and exclude them. They reform their position by speaking within and against the dominant patriarchal discourse. This paper will specifically analyse how May in the 1 This article includes some parts of my thesis entitled as ““Blameth Nat Me”: Popular Resistance and Chaucer’s Women in His Fabliaux.”

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Merchant’s Tale and the wife in the Shipman’s Tale evade the oppressions of being a married woman and subvert their subjugation through negotiating and challenging the mercantile narration. May in the Merchant’s Tale plays her part as the unfaithful wife who cuckolds her husband Januarie with her young lover Damyan. May’s adulterous relationship with Damyan reveals her traditionally designated nature which is immoral and lewd. In this sense, May as the instigator of the plot with her sexual pursuits seems to affirm her promiscuous nature which is readily labelled on woman. May plays her part as the trickster and lecherous wife in the fabliau plot, but she turns out to be unscathed in the denouement of the fabliau and Januarie never understands her betrayal and the marriage resumes. Although it seems May has achieved what she wants and takes no harm for what she does, her subordination is always implicated in all aspects such as in marriage institution. Since marriage in the Middle Ages is basically “a transaction organized by males to serve economic and political ends, with the woman treated as a useful, childbearing appendage to the land or goods being exchanged”2, woman loses any economic rights and properties she owns before marriage (Aers 143). May as a married woman automatically loses her possessions if she had any. Silence is bestowed on her because May lacks the power to reject Januarie. Also, she must be a servant with utter obedience, a housekeeper and a wife who will satisfy his lust and provide him with heirs3. In his eyes, May will be a new possession for his enjoyment in all these aspects. She is simply the subordinate one in the tale. In spite of her subjugation, some scholars regard May as a “willing prostitute” for selling her sexual power 4 . However, marriages in the Middle Ages were rather business contracts that regulated people’s lives in accordance with dominant discourses. In this case, it is more reasonable, as David Aers notes, to “call medieval parents, guardians and those holding rights over wards coercive but respectable pimps than to call May, and the women she represents ‘willing’ prostitutes” (154). Then, the situation of May and her deeds should be assessed with the recognition of her subordination to January in the fabliau. In the Merchant’s Tale, Januarie makes use of every means to

2 David Aers, Chaucer, Langland and the Creative Imagination. (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul,1980), 143. 3 Geoffrey Chaucer, The Riverside Chaucer, edited by Larry D. Benson. (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008), (IV 1446-1455). 4 P. M. Kean, Chaucer and the Making of English Poetry. Vol.2. (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972), 160. R. B. Burlin, Chaucerian Fiction. (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1977), 212.

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achieve what he desires and realizes them, but May is represented as an addition to complete Januarie’s wishes: He purtreyed in his herte and in his thought Hir fresshe beautee and hir age tender, Hir myddel small, hire armes longe and sklendre, Hir wise governaunce, hir gentillesse, Hir womanly berynge, and hire sadnesse. And whan that he on hire was condescended, Hym thought his choys myghte nat ben amended.5

May’s helplessness is not overtly mentioned, but how the masculine power restricts her and leaves no chance to voice her thoughts is evident. May’s existence matters only if she serves well for the ends of Januarie. Even, Justinus, the Just One, warns Januarie that marriage is not a “childes pley” 6 and advises Januarie to investigate May’s wealth. According to Justinus, ideal wife should be “a good and safe investment for the man”7 and she should not be a “wastour of thy good”8. He does not even talk about love, care and responsibilities of the couple in the marriage; he is after the financial affairs. So, Justinus only shares “the pragmatic wisdom of market-place”9 although he is generally regarded as the sensible adviser when compared to Placebo. Chaucer also represents the action in this market to a process of “[h]eigh fantasye and curious bisynesse”10 in which Januarie tries to acquire himself a wife: Many fair shap and many a fair visage Ther passeth thurgh his herte nyght by nyght, As whoso tooke a mirour, polished bright, And sette it in a commune market-place, Thanne sholde he see ful many a figure pace By his mirour [. . .]11

The mercantile issues and Januarie’s sexual fantasies are represented together, and; the market and the action of it are normalized. Accordingly, May is relegated to a commodity which will eventually be bought by 5

Chaucer, The Riverside, (IV 1600-1606). Ibid., (IV 1530). 7 Aers, Chaucer, 152. 8 Chaucer, The Riverside, (IV 1535). 9 Aers, Chaucer,152. 10 Chaucer, The Riverside, (IV 1577) 11 Ibid., (IV 1580-1585) 6

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Januarie. Nevertheless, it is a socially accepted process, and it would be very unusual that the woman is represented as an individual who decides her own future in a market place which is organized by males. May’s passivity is clearly reflected in the grammar structure when her marriage is planned without her knowledge: They wroghten so, by sly and wys tretee, That she, this mayden, which that Mayus highte, As hastily as evere that she myghte, Shal wedded unto this Januarie. I trowe it were to longe yow to tarie, If I yow tolde of every scrit and bond By which that she was feffed in his lond.12

After all this procedure in accordance with the market regulations, May is chosen as the appropriate bride for Januarie and it is the time for the sacramental union: “But finally ycomen is the day/That to the chirche bothe be they went/For to receive the hooly sacrament”13. Although it is stressed that the church seeks to turn “the exploitatory and loveless purchase of a young person into a more than respectable union, a sacramental one” 14 , the blessings of the church also position May as a desirable possession for Januarie’s use. Hence, May is again reduced into a commodity to be purchased in the market place; and the blessings of the church do not change her situation any better. In both, she is treated as an object of masculine desire while Januarie becomes the legal owner of May. May is subordinated because she is sold in the market to Januarie. However, May initiates a guerrilla attack to the power structures that disempower her. Hence, May’s negation is positioned in the very place which “is formed always in reaction to, never as part of, the forces of domination” 15 . As a married woman, she is under the guardianship husband, the domination. Since she is the subordinate, her desires are ignored in the narration. May’s thoughts are mostly opaque to the readers; and, the first and the only thought of May which is mentioned is her fantasy about Damian16. However, she is aware of her subordination and has to comply with the dominance who/which disempowers her. Strictly kept by her legal owner, May at first yields to Januarie and the medieval 12

Ibid., (IV 1692-1698) Ibid., (IV 1700-1702) 14 Aers, Chaucer, 155. 15 John Fiske, Understanding Popular Culture. (London and New York: Routledge, 1991), 43. 16 Chaucer, The Riverside, (IV 1983-1985) 13

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discourse of patriarchy to be able to be a part of the power. However, she also partially resists this system through tactics – the tactics of the weak because she does not let Januarie to be the master of her body and her love17. Therefore, she makes use of the opportunities of the power to voice her own needs and desires. She vows to Januarie to be loyal 18 and guarantees the property and the money she will receive19; and, she also betrays her husband and “comforts herself with the fantasy of a world well lost for love”20. Her desires and feelings are more important than all these; thus, she decides to be with Damian: “Certeyn,” thoghte she, “whom that this thing displease I rekke noght, for here I hym assure To love hym best of any creature, Though he namoore hadde than his sherte.”21

She subverts the immoral purposes of Januarie upon her and manipulates them into her own advantage. For example, the garden, which was built by Januarie for his sexual pursuits, later turns out to be the garden of May with her lover Damian. This garden is resembled to the Garden of Eden: Januarie talks about Adam and Eve22, the wife is defined as a paradise23. Such biblical allusions to the Garden of Eden, however, do not denote that the fabliau represents “Januarie’s [sic] [f]all from virtue to sin”24. Indeed, he was never moral and the reason for building a garden is his demand of conjugal debt from May: And whan he wolde paye his wyf hir dete In sommer seson, thider wolde he go, And May his wyf, and no wight but they two; And thynges whiche that were nat doon abedde.25

It is known that marriage for Januarie is only an “eyewash that allows [him] to continue following “his bodily delyt/On wommen”26. Thus, he 17

Priscilla Martin, Chaucer’s Women. (Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 1990), 105. Chaucer, The Riverside, (IV 2165-2172) 19 Ibid., (IV 2186-2193) 20 Martin, Chaucer’s Women, 105. 21 Chaucer, The Riverside, (IV 1983-1986) 22 Ibid., (IV 1324-1329) 23 Ibid., (IV 1332) 24 Helen Phillips, An Introduction to the Canterbury Tales: Reading, Fiction, Context. (New York: St. Martin’s P, 2000), 124. 25 Chaucer, The Riverside, (IV 2048-2051) 18

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made himself a walled garden where he makes love with May. Nevertheless, May manipulates Januarie’s space to her own where she practices her needs and desires. In the Shipman’s Tale, the description of the husband as a rich merchant who is obsessed with money and the representation of wife with extraordinary beauty as squander presents the focal point of the conflict between spouses; that is, money. The financial plot is tightly interrelated with the sexual plot of the fabliau in which the exchange of these is highly common27. The wife of the merchant in the Shipman’s Tale is depicted as an extravagant woman. Extravagance of woman as an antifeminist topos is seen in the Shipman’s Tale and is followed by another antifeminist theme, that is, the immoral nature of women. The wife in the tale is depicted as an unvirtuous woman because she betrays her husband for the sake of money and accordingly proves the lecherous nature of woman in her deeds. Her disloyalty in the fabliau is perceived as treachery: “And but I do, God take on me vengeance/As foul as evere hadde Genylon of France” 28 . Resembled to Ganelon, the traitor in the Chanson de Roland, the wife is included in “marital treachery”29. Thus, the wife in the Shipman’s Tale seems to perfectly answer the descriptions of women in the antifeminist literary tradition. However, the fact that she yields to afford the money she needs in an immoral way shows that the husband has the total authority on the economy of the home. Moreover, since the fabliau presents a physical world in which the characters’ desires are favoured30, every medium the woman may use should be fair and permissible. If her husband does not afford her needs and pleasures, the wife in the Shipman’s Tale creates her own ways to achieve her desires. Supply and demand equilibrium works efficiently in the fabliau; and when the wife demands, her wishes are accomplished though the supplier changes. The wife adopts certain tactics and tricks to be able to resist the norms which subordinate her in an economic way, and eventually manipulates the chaotic situation into her own advantage. Merchant’s wife utilizes what she has or makes do stratagems. Her medium is her sexuality, through which she defies the oppressive agents, pays her dress bill and takes pleasure in her liberating manoeuvres. In this respect, her resistance is the battle of the subordinate; 26

Ibid., (IV 1249-1250) Phillips, An Introduction, 158 28 Chaucer, The Riverside, (VII 1379-1380) 29 Phillips, An Introduction, 161. 30 Thomas J. Farrell, “Privacy and the Boundaries of Fabliau in The Miller’s Tale.” (ELH. John Hopkins University Press, Vol. 56. No. 4. (Winter 1989), 773. 27

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thus, she employs guerrilla tactics. The merchant’s wife, as Fiske maintains in a different context, “never challenge[s] the powerful in open warfare, for that would be to invite defeat, but maintain[s] [her] own position within and against the social order dominated by the powerful”31. She is also aware of the dangers of any defiance to her husband; therefore, she does not prefer open warfare. She poaches upon the powerful and forms strategies. Her sexual tricks provide her with both the freedom of her body and money: I wol delyvere yow out of this care; For I wol brynge yow an hundred frankes. And with that word he caughte hire by the flankes, And hire embraceth harde, and kiste hire ofte.32

She utilizes her sexuality as trade. The words used for describing sexuality belong to “the language of bargaining”33. Such business terms as “dette,” “tally,” “score” are employed for sex. The rhyme of “frankes” and “flankes” exemplifies the parallelism between sex and money. The wife also uses a business term for sex in the denouement of the fabliau: For I wol paye yow wel and redily Fro day to day, and if so be I faille, I am youre wyf; score it upon my taille, And I shal paye as soone as ever I may.34

She uses the notion of debt for the money she owes her husband and also for the sex she owes as a part of the conjugal debt. ‘Taille’, tally or tail, is another sexual and financial pun, which both means the private parts and also the account book35. Hence, she will use her tail as tally and will pay her debt to her husband through her sexuality. Her sexually active position gives her the chance to subvert “the traditional role of woman as an object of exchange between two men” and employs sex as “merchandise, currency or credit”36. That is, she works through channels and maintains a position herself in a mercantile society. She both internalises the rules of the market and creates herself meanings and 31

Fiske, Understanding, 19. Chaucer, The Riverside, (VII 1386-1389) 33 Phillips, An Introduction, 160 34 Chaucer, The Riverside, (VII 1600-1603) 35 Thomas D Cooke, The Old French and Chaucerian Fabliaux: A Study of Their Comic Climax. (London: U of Missouri P, 1978), 173. 36 Martin, Chaucer’s Women, 89. 32

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pleasures that oppose the market37. In Sheila Delany’s words, “she is both merchant and commodity: her youth and beauty”38. The wife in the Shipman’s Tale opposes the oppressive norms of the medieval society through her guileful ruses and sexual stratagems. Ironically, she barters her sexuality and she gains the autonomy of her body through the same way. In conclusion, the fabliau women in the Merchant’s Tale and the Shipman’s Tale form their own popular culture – the culture in which they generate their own meanings and pleasures. Each adopts similar strategies although the outcomes of these strategies may differ from each other. May as the subordinate wife in the Merchant’s Tale does not yield to subservience and makes guerrilla attacks on the system disempowering her. May makes her sexuality and body serve for her own desires not for her husband Januarie. She avoids her subjection and challenges the discourse of medieval patriarchy. Through their artful stratagems, they create their own meanings and show popular resistance; and gain popular pleasure. The conflict or power struggle between May and her husband Januarie (the subordinate and the power) brings about popular pleasure. Accordingly, May’s sexual body is not Januarie’s possession or commodity where he can exercise his power, but May has the power to control her body. Therefore, she produces her meanings and pleasures through her hit-and-run tactics. The merchant’s wife in the Shipman’s Tale displays resistance to her husband, who is the epitome of mercantile values in the tale. The wife also generates her own meanings and pleasure like May. Moreover, she also gains financially. This secret is revealed to her husband at the end of the fabliau, but she manipulates the dangerous situation to her advantage. Therefore, both fabliau women evade the mercantile meanings that subjugate them and even subvert them to their own benefit. In the wife of Bath’s words, fabliau “[w]ommen desiren to have some sovereynetee”39 and they construct creative ways to attain it through their sexuality. They incessantly make poaching attacks upon the oppressive system which subjugates them; “they win small, fleeting

37

Ruth Evans and Lesley Johnson, eds, Feminist Readings in Middle English Literature: The Wife of Bath and All Her Sect. (London and New York: Routledge, 1994), 19. 38 Sheila Delany, “Sexual Economics, Chaucer’s Wife of Bath and The Book of Margery Kempe.” Feminist Reading in Middle English Lierature: The Wife of Bath and All Her Secte, edited by Ruth Evans and Lesley Jonhson. (London and New York: Routledge, 1994), 73. 39 Chaucer, The Riverside, (III 1038).

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victories, keep the enemy constantly on the alert”40 through their sexual exploits. They negotiate their position in the medieval society and evade its oppressive norms through artful stratagems. Evasion of these repressive structures offers them the chance to “come out on top” 41 and they efficiently utilize this chance and realize their own choices and desires. Hence, they position themselves both within and against the oppressive network of medieval misogyny; and display popular resistance, through which they evade their subordination, attain partial freedom and gain popular pleasure. As Huriye Reis contends, it is not possible to state that [Chaucer’s women in his fabliaux] as the young wives of old husbands pursued for their bodies by amorous young men, are agents of total freedom from the dominant power.42

Nevertheless, their evasion of the dominant and their subversive use of the dominant’s resources evidently provide them with partial relief from the dominant’s impositions.

Works Cited Aers, David. 1980. Chaucer, Langland and the Creative Imagination. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Burlin, R. B. 1977. Chaucerian Fiction. Princeton: Princeton UP. Chaucer, Geoffrey. 2008. The Riverside Chaucer, edited by Larry D. Benson. Oxford: Oxford UP. Cooke, Thomas D. 1978. The Old French and Chaucerian Fabliaux: A Study of Their Comic Climax. London: U of Missouri P. Delany, Sheila. 1994. “Sexual Economics, Chaucer’s Wife of Bath and The Book of Margery Kempe.” Feminist Reading in Middle English Literature: The Wife of Bath and All Her Secte, edited by Ruth Evans and Lesley Johnson. 72-88. London and New York: Routledge. Evans, Ruth and Lesley Johnson, eds. 1994. Feminist Readings in Middle English Literature: The Wife of Bath and All Her Sect. London and New York: Routledge. 40

Fiske, Understanding, 19. Lesley Johnson, “Women on Top: Antifeminism in the Fabliaux?” (The Modern Language Review. Modern Humanities Research Association, 1983, Vol. 78, No. 2), 299. 42 Huriye Reis, “Chaucer’s Fabliau Women: Paradigms of Resistance and Pleasure.” Hacettepe University Journal of Faculty of Letters, (December 2012, Vol. 28, No. 2), 134. 41

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Farrell, Thomas J. 1989. “Privacy and the Boundaries of Fabliau in The Miller’s Tale.” ELH. John Hopkins University Press. Vol. 56. No. 4. (Winter 1989). 773-795. . Fiske, John. 1991. Understanding Popular Culture. London and New York: Routledge. Johnson, Lesley. 1983. “Women on Top: Antifeminism in the Fabliaux?” The Modern Language Review. Modern Humanities Research Association. Vol. 78, No. 2, (Apr. 1983). 298-307. Kean, , P. M. 1972. Chaucer and the Making of English Poetry. Vol.2. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Martin, Priscilla. 1990. Chaucer’s Women. Iowa City: U of Iowa P. Phillips, Helen. 2000. An Introduction to the Canterbury Tales: Reading, Fiction, Context. New York: St. Martin’s P. Reis, Huriye. 2012. “Chaucer’s Fabliau Women: Paradigms of Resistance and Pleasure.” Hacettepe University Journal of Faculty of Letters. Vol. 28. No. 2, (December 2012).

CHAPTER FIVE FOE: ROBINSON CRUSOE’S WRITEBACK BAHARE A’ARABI

‘Writing back to’ or ‘rewriting’ the European canons from a postcolonial perspective is a significant method of foregrounding the oppositional relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. As a matter of fact, the canonical text can be regarded as an antithesis of the new text. Considering the fact that all British canons represent the empire, these postcolonial revisions are considered as their resistive reactions. Postcolonial writers write back to the European writers who have miswritten about them. They write against the original work, the canonical text, trying to break the stereotypes of representation presented by the hegemony of English literature. Postcolonial rewrites look at the old text in a new way, mostly through the eyes of the colonized instead of the colonizer. Actually, in most cases, the postcolonial rewrites change the point of view of the text and look at the same story through the eyes of the colonized and marginalized character. Postcolonial rewrites present a kind of resistance towards the dominant European culture; they study the same situation deeply to reveal the hidden truth beyond it. Postcolonial rewrites accept the influence of the English culture on the native culture and at the same time, reject the stereotypes or misrepresentations that have been created by that culture. As a matter of fact, they never ignore or reject this influence, but try to question it. Using traditional Western texts as a foundation can allow postcolonial writers to show the hybridity of their cultures without either preferring the European one or ignoring it. Although some postcolonial writers try to ignore the influence of the colonizer's culture on the colonized one; when even these writers write in the language of the colonizer, e.g. English, they contradict their own theories, because, it is impossible to remove the experience of colonialism. In sum, rewriting allows the writers simultaneously to resist and accept the

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influence of the colonizer on the colonized culture and naturally his writing. So, the relationship between the rewrite and the canon is simultaneously opposing and friendly. Many novels, plays and short stories revised the story of Robinson Crusoe and his island. So, these texts have been given the title of 'Robinsonade'. Defoe's novel remains central to the canon of postcolonialism, at least for two special reasons: firstly, because this novel is the first one in the history of the English literature, and secondly, it was published at the very beginning of Great Britain's imperial expansion. Edward Said (qtd. in Lodge 2000, 53) asserts: "Robinson Crusoe is not only enabled by, but also enables, an ideology of overseas expansion” and somewhere else in the same book, he refers to Robinson Crusoe as "a work whose protagonist is the founder of a new world, which he rules and reclaims for Christianity and England" (qtd. In Lodge 2000, 57). Rewriting this work gained importance in the twentieth century. A number of 'Robinsonades' have been written in late twentieth century; especially across the regions which had an experience similar to that of the island and the servant native, Friday. These recent revisions are mostly written as a resistive response to the 'original' text, Robinson Crusoe. Some of these rewrites are as follows: Derek Walcott's Pantomime (1978), J.M. Coetzee's Foe (1986), Nadine Gordimer's Friday's Footprint (1960), and Head's The Wind and a Boy (1989). This study intends to work on one of these revisions: J.M. Coetzee's Foe. J.M. Coetzee is a South-African novelist, critic, translator, and Nobel Prize winner. Foe (1986) is one of his most important novels. This book revises Daniel Defoe's classic novel Robinson Crusoe. But, here, a woman, Susan Barton, who has been cast away on the same island as Robinson Crusoe (here called Crusoe) and Friday, is the protagonist. Here, a practice of compare and contrast of this text and Robinson Crusoeʊthe mother textʊcan help the colonial issues of the novel be highlighted. Coetzee's Susan Barton finds Friday mute. He is not able to speak. While in Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Friday has the ability of speaking. This can indicate that Defoe's Friday is also mute, although he can talk, for he has no independent ideas from Crusoe. He utters whatever Crusoe wants him to utter. He is another version of the parrot, Poll, that Crusoe tames on the island to utter his very own words. In fact, there is no difference between these two Fridays. As Talib states: A character, who powerfully 'communicates' by remaining silent, is the tongueless Man Friday character from Coetzee's Foe (1986). By not being

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Chapter Five able to speak, he 'communicates' just as much, if not much more, than the original character in Defoe's novel, who subserviently speaks a pidginised version of his master's language. In Helen Tiffin's words (1989:45), Coetzee's account 'raises the problem of white liberal complicity in his voicelessness, and the ways in which Friday has been constructed as voiceless by the European and continuing colonial writing of South African his/story' [Tiffin's emphasis]. (2002, 121)

Cutting of Friday's tongue can symbolize the black-African forced cultural silence imposed by the white invaders. The Friday’s tongue is cutʊalthough we can never know whether it is done by Cruso or someone elseʊand he is never allowed to tell his own story through his own eyes. In fact, Friday's only weapon against cultural dominance of Cruso is to remain silent. As Talib mentions, "Language is used for communication. However, language may also be avoided in order to convey a message […]. Silence-in contrast to what has been said, either by oneself or others-may at times be a more powerful communicative tool than if several words were uttered" (2002, 121).

Friday remains silent up to the end of the story. At this time, a stream comes out of his mouth to the ends of the earth and this stream can be his silence, which is, of course, his very own words: His mouth opens. From inside him comes a slow stream, without breath, without interruption. It flows up through his body and out upon me; it passes through the cabin, through the wreck; washing the cliffs and shores of the island, it runs northward and southward to the ends of the eal1h. Soft and cold, dark and unending, it beats against my eyelids, against the skin of my face (Foe, 157).

Friday can be a postcolonial author like Coetzee himself who comes back to himself and tells his own story which is the real story. In London, Coetzee’s Friday is not the happy, grateful Defoe's Friday. This Friday is going to put on weight, to become depressed, and in general lose even his so-called freedom. As Susan Barton states in the novel, " It is a terrible fall, I know, from the freedom of the island where he could roam all day, and hunt birds' eggs, and spear fish, when the terraces did not call" (Coetzee, 56). Coetzee, here, highlights that, in practice, Defoe's Friday could not be that much comfortable in England, a country with that he even could not communicate properly. Coetzee's Cruso is also different from Defoe's. Here, Cruso plays a minor role in the novel and as a short-tempered, depressed, lazy,

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domineering old man seems to be only a shadow of his former self. The interesting point is that he is not willing to escape from the island. Morgan remarks in his article: Coetzee Cruso is presented as an old man, spent and barren in any attempt or even desire to produce life from the dry terraces he spends so many painful hours constructing. There was too little desire in Cruso and Friday: too little desire to escape, too little desire for a new life" (1994, 65).

He is not the hopeful, prosperous Crusoe who played the protagonist of Defoe's novel. As a matter of fact, the real diaries and travelogues which have remained form the real travellers and castaways show that all these shipwrecks became crazy or committed suicide after a while and no one had the chance of coming out of all these loneliness and isolation as a successful and healthy man as Crusoe. In fact, Robinson Crusoe has been kept healthy after all those 27 years on the island, for he has to represent the deserving colonial hero of the coming years. Alexander Selkirk, who is the foundation of Defoe's novel, left behind for four years and four months on the deserted island of Juan Fernandez and rescued in 1709, "grew, according to Richard Steele's account, 'dejected, languid, and melancholy, scarce able to refrain from doing himself violence.' Leslie Stephen said of Selkirk: He had almost forgotten to talk; he had learnt to catch goats by running on foot; and he had acquired the exceedingly difficult art of making fire by rubbing two sticks. In other words, his whole mind was absorbed in providing a few physical necessities, and he was rapidly becoming a savage'" (Craft-Fairchild, 2005).

Actually, the castaways were heavily influenced by different factors, e.g. fear, climate difference, etc., went mad, or died of physical and psychological diseases. So, Coetzee's Cruso is much nearer to the reality than the old Crusoe. As a proof to this idea, the situation of Susan Barton, the protagonist of the novel, can be put forth. Susan herself states that after a short period of staying on the island, she was on the process of forgetting about human habits, "when Friday set food before me I took it with dirty fingers and bolted it like a dog" (35). Cruso is not willing to escape from the island, or even make a European civilization on it. Unlike Crusoe, he is not after transforming the remains of his ship to the island and gets use of its remained tools. "What has survived the salt and sea-worm will not be worth the saving. We have

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a roof over our heads, made without saw or axe. We sleep, we eat, we live. We have no need of tools" (Foe, 22). Another important difference between Coetzee and Defoe's novels is the presentation of 'Friday': in Robinson Crusoe he is a handsome Carib youth, around 26 years of age, with a number of European features: […] His hair was long and black, not curl'd like wool [….] The colour of his skin was not quite black, but very tawny; […] his nose small, not flat, like the negroes. (Defoe 1972, 205-206).

but in Foe he is an African; He was black: a Negro with a head of fuzzy wool [...] flat face, the small dull eyes, the broad nose, the thick lips, the skin not black but dark grey, dry as if coated with dust. (Coetzee 1986, 5-6)

Friday is depicted as a black African youth with too many differences with the white Europeans, e.g. the appearance. Here, Cruso is not after accomplishing a homogenizing mission in order to make a Friday similar to the codes of the European standards. The role of Susan Barton is very crucial in the novel. Her presence puts forth the notion of gender which is worth mentioning here. Gender plays an important role in this book in contrast to Robinson Crusoe. In Daniel Defoe's novel, the absence of women is very clear, since during 27 years of solitude on the island, he never desires a woman. Just one page of the novel is allocated to his marriage. But in Foe, the protagonist is a woman. Coetzee's Foe is a founding novel in the tradition of postcolonial revision writing. Foe novel reveals the hidden elements of colonialism and helps the readers have a better understanding of its original work Robinson Crusoe.

Works Cited Coetzee, J. M. Foe. New York: Penguin Books,1986. Craft-Fairchild, Catherine. "Castaway and Cast Away: Colonial, Imperial and Religious Discourses in Daniel Defoe and Robert Zemeckis." The Journal of Religion and Film, No. 1 (Apr. 2005). . Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. London: Oxford UP, 1972.

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Morgan, Peter. “Foe's Defoe and La Jeune Née: Establishing a Metaphorical Referent for the Elided Female Voice.” Critique 35.2 (1994): 96. Said, Edward. "Crisis [in Orientalism]." In Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader, edited by David Lodge, 271-86. New York: Pearson Education Inc., 2000. Talib, Ismail S., The Language of Postcolonial Literatures: An Introduction. London: Routledge, 2002. ]

CHAPTER SIX DENYING THE NARRATOR: JULIAN BARNES’S THE SENSE OF AN ENDING BAYSAR TANIYAN

Dusan Kovacevic’s brilliant play The Professionals (1990) raises the question of the possibility of attaining an authentic and accurate knowledge of the past. In the play, Teodor Teja is an intellectual and Luka Laban is a retired security officer who had been commissioned to follow Teja secretly for ten years. During these years, Laban collects items lost or forgotten by Teja and he compiles four books consisting of the daily reports and Teja’s recorded talks. After his retirement, Laban decides to present this collection of material to Teja. Each item he takes out, such as an umbrella, or each line he reads from the reports dramatically not only reveals a forgotten part of Teja’s personal history but also reshapes it. In other words, the audience and Teja witness the reconstruction of Teja’s history. If Teja had been asked to relate his past before the presentation of these items he would have produced a totally different narrative from the one he would relate after being presented with Laban’s account of his past. Does this make him a liar, or is he the unreliable narrator of his own experiences? A similar question arises around the figure of Tony Webster, in Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending (2011) as he tries to tell his own history. His account is falsified several times during the narration, as particular historical documents – in the form of a letter or a photograph – are introduced. He then has either to reshape his past or to come to terms with it. Throughout the narration he constantly foregrounds his suspicions concerning the reliability of his own memory. However, he has to reckon on the recovery of his own memories which are caused to be changed by the discovery of historical documents and which, therefore, constantly frustrate his account. Do the failures of his memory make him a liar, or an unreliable narrator? Does this justify Voltaire who claims that “history is a pack of lies we play on the dead”.

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By the same token, postmodern fiction questions the possibility of presenting an accurate account of the past and the use of the unreliable narrator is one of the commonest techniques in this questioning. Wayne Booth was the first to establish a theoretical background for the unreliable narrator. According to him, a narrator is reliable “when he speaks for or acts in accordance with the norms of the work (which is to say, the implied author’s norms), unreliable when he does not (158-9).” David Lodge, on the other hand, claims that “unreliable narrators are invariably invented characters who are part of the stories they tell” and are used “to reveal in an interesting way the gap between appearance and reality, and to show how human beings distort or conceal the latter (154-5).” Considering the dramatic change in understanding of reality and its representation in the postmodern age, these definitions seem lacking. Greta Olson in 2003 brought together formulations proposed by Wayne Booth and Ansgar Nünning and drew out three main similarities. Olson concludes that these formulations share (1) a reader who recognizes a dichotomy between (2) the personalised narrator’s perceptions and expressions and (3) those of the implied author (or textual signals generated by that source) (93). However, postmodern historiographic metafiction, the outlines of which were drawn by Linda Hutcheon, incorporates unreliable narrators who are beyond these definitions. While it is true that the use of the unreliable narrator in fiction has a long tradition predating postmodernism, the unreliable narrators of postmodern fiction are different compared to their earlier counterparts. In accordance with the highly self-reflexive and metafictional qualities of historiographic metafiction, the unreliable narrators of such novels are paradoxically self-conscious concerning their limited points of view, and their partiality, subjectivity, self-interest and prejudices. Hutcheon claims that history and fiction are discourses which “constitute systems of signification by which we make sense of the past (1995: 89).” Past events can only have meanings by virtue of these systems of signification. Hutcheon further proposes that The postmodern, then, affects two simultaneous moves. It reinstalls historical contexts as significant and even determining, but in so doing, it problematizes the entire notion of historical knowledge. And the implication is that there can be no single, essentialized, transcendent concept of “genuine historicity” (as Fredric Jameson desires), no matter what the nostalgia for such an entity. (1995: 89)

If historiographic metafiction denies the idea of genuine historical knowledge, it should also deny the existence of any reliable narrator. Each metafictional narrator then turns out to be unreliable as do Saleem in

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Midnight’s Children or Stevens in The Remains of the Day. Tony Webster, the unreliable narrator of The Sense of an Ending, tries to recuperate the historical context of his past memories. However, in this pursuit Tony himself problematizes the notion of secure and stable historical knowledge. My contention is that the novel becomes an essay on the compelling task of relating historical knowledge through inadequate and deceptive documentation and that this novel, I propose, denies the existence of any kind of reliable narrator. The novel is divided into two parts. The first part is very much like a traditional Bildungsroman, in which Tony starts to relate his past – beginning from his early schooldays “where it all began” as he puts it – up to his forties. This part introduces Tony’s early school years and Adrian who would have great impact on him throughout his life. Then, his problematic affair with Veronica, their breaking up and the beginning of Veronica’s and Adrian’s affair to which Tony gives his blessing with a supposedly gentle letter; this is followed by Adrian’s suicide, and Tony’s marriage and divorce. In the second part, the reader feels the presence of the past that is elaborated in the first part. This second part is Tony’s reading of his past within the axis of the present, which is accompanied by certain historical documents. This part undermines not only the authenticity of the previous one, but also frustrates Tony’s attempts to reconcile himself to his own past. However, a careful reading of the first part presents clues as to what sort of expectations to be created for the following one. For instance, the very beginning of the novel reveals powerful hints regarding the type of narrator the reader is confronted with: I remember, in no particular order: —a shiny inner wrist; —steam rising from a wet sink as a hot frying pan is laughingly tossed into it; —gouts of sperm circling a plughole, before being sluiced down the full length of a tall house; —a river rushing nonsensically upstream, its wave and wash lit by half a dozen chasing torchbeams; —another river, broad and grey, the direction of its flow disguised by a stiff wind exciting the surface; —bathwater long gone cold behind a locked door. This last isn’t something I actually saw, but what you end up remembering isn’t always the same as what you have witnessed. (3)

The novel opens at the point Tony attempts to form a meaningful account out of memories, and the list includes snapshots from those memories which surface at the first instant. This is a modest proclamation

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of Tony as the narrator: “If I can’t be sure of the actual events any more, I can at least be true to the impressions those facts left. That’s the best I can manage (4).” Brute historical events are in the distant past and the only accessible remnants are the impressions. Then, through metafictional gestures from the very beginning, Tony acts as an unreliable narrator who is highly self-conscious of his own unreliability. It becomes apparent that particular metafictional gestures, present in the text from the outset, establish that Tony is an unreliable narrator who is at the same time highly self-conscious as to his own potential unreliability. He is well aware that being witness to certain events does not qualify one as reliable. In Hutcheon’s words, “the interaction of the historiography and the metafictional foregrounds the rejection of the claims of both ‘authentic’ representation and ‘inauthentic’ copy alike (110).” In a way highly selfconscious narrators of the postmodern self-reflexive texts lay bare the process of creating historical accounts they attempt to compose in order to stress the subjective nature of the historical narration. Even though what is narrated by Tony himself is his own history, to which he is the most important eye-witness, it is again Tony who denies the reader the comfort of authentic representation. History may be “the lies of the victor” or “the self-delusions of the defeated,” as well (Barnes 16). For Tony’s enigmatic and philosopher-type friend Adrian, “history is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation (17).” As if enacting a dialogue, Tony is equally well aware of the existence of the reader and of his own position as the narrator. Unlike an omniscient narrator, he highlights his own defects, partiality and situated-ness, all of which are defining characteristics of a postmodern historiographer. Tony quotes his enigmatic and philosopher-type friend Adrian to stress this central problem of history: “That’s one of the central problems of history, isn’t it, sir? The question of subjective versus objective interpretation, the fact that we need to know the history of the historian in order to understand the version that is being put in front of us.” (12)

For Hutcheon, “knowing the past becomes a question of representing, that is, of constructing and interpreting, not of objective recording (2002: 74).” In the postmodern age, it seems naive to believe in representing “what actually happened,” a task Leopold von Ranke once proposed (86). Historiographic metafiction points out that interpretation has always remained in historiography as “in the choice of narrative strategy, explanatory paradigm, or ideological encoding (Hutcheon, 2002: 74).”

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Therefore, the historian’s personal traits, his ideological position, his ambitions, are important in understanding the version he proposes. If it is a personal history, as in this novel, the damage suffered by the historian throughout his life becomes paramount in the construction of the history. This is what Tony proposes in a direct address to the reader: I certainly believe we all suffer damage, one way or another. [...] Some admit the damage, and try to mitigate it; some spend their lives trying to help others who are damaged; and then there are those whose main concern is to avoid further damage to themselves, at whatever cost. And those are the ones who are ruthless, and the ones to be careful of. You might think this is rubbish—preachy, self-justificatory rubbish. [...] You might even ask me to apply my “theory” to myself and explain what damage I had suffered a long way back and what its consequences might be: for instance, how it might affect my reliability and truthfulness. I’m not sure I could answer this, to be honest. (44-5)

Mimicking Freud on discussion of the repressed memories, Tony proposes that in the name of self-preservation we develop certain methods to cope with the damage and that this may result in the repression and omission of certain memories. This results in a history reconstructed in terms of one’s own psychological preferences to avoid further damage. As Tony also admits, this raises the questions of reliability and truthfulness to which Tony cannot come up with an answer. Tony’s damage is Veronica. For this reason his memories of her as they are related in the first part come to seem highly subjective. During their affair, Tony always feels uncomfortable. His tension grows as he feels inadequate for her. Veronica’s upper-middle-class upbringing and her well-tamed artistic pleasures concerning music and visual arts, his unpleasant weekend visit to her luxurious mansion lead Tony to question his own standards. Her withdrawn and reserved manners towards him and his sense of inferiority bring their relationship to an end. However, the major damage occurs when Tony receives a letter from Adrian which announces his affair with Veronica and kindly requests Tony’s blessing. This causes great harm to Tony because Adrian is the philosopher friend whom he admires and aspires to be like. This damage is superficially related in the novel’s first part by Tony being very much in compliance with “the damage theory”. In accordance with the characteristics of the Bildungsroman, Tony seems to mature towards the end of the first part. The second part, however, reveals the extent of the damage he has suffered. Tony is now in his sixties. While the first part has been about Tony’s memories, from his early school years to

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his forties, the second part introduces his maturity, when certain documents haunt him in his struggle to come to terms with what the first part remembers. In other words, the first part is Tony’s past while the following one is his present which is shaped and then re-shaped by the revealed documents. It is the moment when Tony feels the presence of the past in the present. According to Hutcheon: That border between past event and present praxis is where Historiographic metafiction self-consciously locates itself. [...] Past was real, but it is lost or at least displaced, only to be reinstated as the referent of language, the relic or trace of the real. (1995: 146)

Mediating between past and present, Tony continues his narration. During the narration in the second part, however, the frequency of the questions raised about Tony’s reliability increases. At one point, he admits that when he first met Margaret he did a “slightly odd thing” as he “wrote Veronica out of [his] life story (69).” When he believes that their relationship has been settled he reveals the truth: The odder part was that it was easy to give this version of my history because that’s what I’d been telling myself anyway. I viewed my time with Veronica as a failure—her contempt, my humiliation—and expunged it from the record. I had kept no letters, and only a single photograph, which I hadn’t looked at in ages. (69)

It is apparent, then, that Tony applies his “damage theory” to Veronica by aiming to repress those memories which give harm. Tony does not tell lies only to Margaret, or to the reader, but also to himself. However, the past he desires to omit haunts him; for he receives a letter indicating that he has been left £500 and two “documents” by Mrs. Ford, Veronica’s mother. One of the documents is Mrs. Ford’s letter to him explaining the motive of her will. The other document is Adrian’s diary now in the possession of Veronica and his unyielding search for the full document, Adrian’s diary starts. He explains he is determined in his search because: “The diary was evidence; it was—it might be—corroboration. It might disrupt the banal reiterations of memory. It might jump-start something— though I had no idea what (77).” After a long labour, he receives not the original but a photocopied fragment from the diary which relates Adrian’s intellectual exercise concerning accumulation and loss in life and which ends with the sentence: “So, for instance, if Tony... (86).” The revealed document increases tension rather than bringing any solutions. Tony does not give up and asks for more and Veronica, who is most unwilling to

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share the diary, provides Tony again with a photocopied document which turns out to be the letter written by Tony years before to Adrian and Veronica in response to their affair: Dear Adrian—or rather, Dear Adrian and Veronica (hello, Bitch, and welcome to this letter), Well you certainly deserve one another and I wish you much joy. I hope you get so involved that the mutual damage will be permanent. I hope you regret the day I introduced you. And I hope that when you break up, as you inevitably will—I give you six months, which your shared pride will extend to a year, all the better for fucking you up, says I—you are left with a lifetime of bitterness that will poison your subsequent relationships. Part of me hopes you’ll have a child, because I’m a great believer in time’s revenge, yea unto the next generation and the next. See Great Art. But revenge must be on the right people, i.e. you two (and you’re not great art, just a cartoonist’s doodle). So I don’t wish you that. It would be unjust to inflict on some innocent foetus the prospect of discovering that it was the fruit of your loins, if you’ll excuse the poeticism. So keep rolling the Durex onto his spindly cock, Veronica. Or perhaps you haven’t let him go that far yet? (95-6)

The unexpected and unpredictable content of the letter shocks the reader as well as Tony, who is revealed to have been telling lies and inventing a past. He explains that “when we are young, we invent different futures for ourselves; when we are old, we invent different pasts for others (80).” What Tony does is also to invent a past for himself. Confronted by the documents, Tony loads fresh meanings onto the photo that shows Alex, Collin, Adrian and Veronica together; this is another historical document. For the first time, he perceives in the photo the moment when Adrian and Veronica began to get closer to each other. Towards the end of the novel, Veronica takes Tony to meet a group of disabled people which includes a man named Adrian. To the disappointment of Tony – who at first believed Adrian to be Veronica’s son – the disabled man is revealed to be Veronica’s brother, her mother’s son. Tony works out that Adrian and Veronica’s mother had an affair which led to the birth of the disabled Adrian. However, Tony’s working out of past events still feels incomplete and unstable since the reader is not given any clue concerning the identity of the real father. What remains are the questions which may have no answers but may bring up another questions as suggested by the last sentence of the novel. “There is accumulation. There is responsibility. And beyond these, there is unrest. There is great unrest. (163)”

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At one point in the novel Tony suggests that “the history that happens underneath our noses ought to be the clearest, and yet it’s the most deliquescent (60).” Common sense dictates that being an eyewitness to certain events makes one credible enough to have confidence, at least in a court of law. Is the memory of the eyewitness reliable? For Tony, memory becomes “a thing of shreds and patches” which resembles the black box of aeroplanes. “If nothing goes wrong, the tape erases itself. So if you do crash, it’s obvious why you did; if you don’t, then the log of your journey is much less clear (115).” Tony, then, becomes the ultimate embodiment of the unreliable narrator of historiographic metafiction. He is highly selfconscious as to his own limitations and his subjective interpretation of the past. He stresses several times that “this is [his] reading now of what happened then (41).” Time modifies thought, changes understanding, and always brings up fresh insights, and these in turn undermine the possibility of establishing a reliable narrator. Functioning as if it were an essay on attaining and then relating historical knowledge, The Sense of an Ending proposes that it will become increasingly possible to deny to the novel any kind of reliable narrator.

Works Cited Barnes, Julian. The Sense of An Ending, London: Vintage, 2012. Booth, Wayne C. The Rhetoric of Fiction, Univ. Of Chicago Press, 1961. Hutcheon, Linda. A Poetics of Postmodernism, London: Routledge, 1995. —. The Politics of Postmodernism, New York: Taylor and Francis, 2002. Lodge, David. The Art of Fiction. London: Penguin Books, 1992. Olson, Greta. “Reconsidering Unreliability: Fallible and Untrustworthy Narrators”, Narrative 11.1 (2003) 93-109. Ranke, Leopold Von, The Theory and Practice of History, Ed. Georg G. Iggers, Routledge New York 2011

CHAPTER SEVEN HOW FLEXIBLE IS THE MORAL CODE OF A BUSINESSMAN? ANTHONY TROLLOPE AND THE WAY WE LIVE NOW CARLA FUSCO

Making money is a dirty, but necessary matter. Trade has been always despised both by society and by literary men since the Middle Ages. Similarly, tradesmen were considered vicious and even able to corrupt people with money and divert them from their upstanding activities, such as working and praying. The materialist world was, indeed, always represented as irreconcilable with the spiritual one. Later, a commercial and more “reputable” activity was established in 1694: the Bank of England. However, it was during the startling expansion of British economy, thanks to the exploitation of colonies spread all over the world and the industrial development unrest, if business became a crucial aspect of everyday life. The contempt for the business world persisted only among intellectuals, while a rising social class, the middle one, also supported by politics, considered it as the fundamental process for making social and economic headway. Disorientation becomes the correct key word to describe people’s unease towards new technology and condemnation of workers’ conditions by writers. The role of novelists reaches its climax in the Victorian Age: the age was a business age and the writers were well aware of this transformation: it was the material of their fiction and they saw themselves increasingly as part of it(Pollard 70).

Nevertheless artists’ involvement in social conscience follows two dichotomic routes, on one side they felt in charge to denounce the invasion of transport and industry, the rise of slums in the outskirts of big cities

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which became the emblem of human degradation, on the other side they found an escape idealising the medieval era and its natural order. The former especially fought against minor working, appalled by a great amount of children deprived of all instruction and all enjoyment. The latter developed a strong nostalgia for the preindustrial period especially remarking the negative transformation of the countryside caused by railway frenzy. Moreover, this controversial age of transition was deeply pervaded by Darwinism, namely by new, shocking and unacceptable awareness that the animal world as well as the human one was ruled by the natural selection. The principle: “survival of the fittest” worms every aspect of the Victorian society leading to the creation of its frame of mind (Houghton). However, though that period was varied, complex and very rich in literature, one needs to distinguish at least two fundamental stages to better investigate the evolution and changes of this epoch. An early stage mainly characterised by a pervasive enthusiasm and pride for the achievement of the British Empire, and a later one in which the sense of dissatisfaction and rebellion prevail. The latter also includes the so-called “domestic novels”, generally set in a “bourgeois” environment, which aimed at highlighting the hypocrisy and cynicism of the greedy Victorian Age. The authors of these novels: addressed the whole of the literary public, and if they interpreted that public in almost wholly working class terms, their intuition was right, for their working class readers also aspired to middle-class status (Allen 53).

Anthony Trollope is one of the best representatives of this genre. Toward the end of his life, in 1875, he published the novel: The Way We Live Now, a harsh and pitiless view of the world of business. Through an omniscient and disenchanted narration, Trollope builds a thrilling satire around the figure of a tycoon whose rise and fall in a “dog-eat-dog” world becomes the paradigm of an entire society deprived of any ethic values by now. Trollope’s story was inspired by actual facts concerning the Interoceanic Railway in Honduras set up by a blatant financier named: Charles Lefevre, as well as the Transcontinental Memphis-Pacific Railway Company promoted by General Fremont in New York. As an attentive chronicler, Trollope, used this material to frame the Melmotte scheme. Augustus Melmotte is indeed the notorious, wealthy businessman, protagonist of the novel, whose grand plan was to start a railway of 2,000 miles from Salt Lake City to Vera Cruz in Mexico. The whole matter turns to be a full fiction, but a very lucrative one. The fraud is based on the ability to create an illusion among those people driven by the desire to

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gain prosperity in a business-oriented society. According to Robert A. Brawer: “long-term profitable growth, a real enough goal for management, depends on capturing the minds of consumers, so that they will buy your product, even at a premium, rather than another brand offering similar functional benefits” (4).

Melmotte has indeed a special skill to grasp people’s mind which is based on the construction of his personal image. This image is so successful to be able to manipulate people’s perception, but: “the perception is the reality” (4). Melmotte belongs to the rising social class, fluid and manifold, which revolutionises the British establishment. Late Victorian age is indeed a complex and changeable period in which all physical and metaphorical landmarks are rethought as well as values and principles. Consequently, a new vision of the world wants to replace the old one alongside a new concept of the truth that can be empirically conceived through social experience. The entrance of Melmotte in the Londoner high society is preceded by many rumours about his past and his origins. His personal story is characterised by continuous movements from a country to another and remains shadowed by ambiguity till the end. His mysterious background draws the attention of the people around him and arouses much curiosity. Especially his Jewish origins may be also an obstacle, as underlined in the text: “Nobody knows what Mr Melmotte is” (Trollope 495) and he has “risen no one knew whence” (643). “But as it was suspected by many, and was now being whispered to the world at large, that Melmotte had been born a Jew, this assurance would perhaps have been too strong. “Do nothing of the kind” said Mr Beauchamp Beauclerk. “If anyone asks you a question at any meeting, say that you are a Protestant” (425). As a matter of fact, hints of anti-Semitism pervade his environment nourishing suspects against the protagonist. Melmotte knows to be in the spotlight of a society ready to get rid of him, but he is determined to conquer it and he knows that the only means to do it is through money. He is metaphorically on a stage where he needs to be cunning enough and behave in accordance with people's expectations. Melmotte's face is a device to introduce himself as a wealthy and powerful businessman. Everything turns out to be a matter of communication, as Ugo Volli states: "la comunicazione è intorno a noi ma innanzitutto dentro di noi"1 (Volli 23). Therefore it becomes necessary to reach a compromise 1

“Communication is around us, but it’s above all inside ourselves” (the translation is mine).

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between the private ego and the public ego to show to the audience. Appearance does not necessarily means falsity, but adaptability to social conventions. The insightful narrator shows two different people’s perspectives toward Melmotte, the intimate disdain and the external praise: Melmotte (...) was a large man, with bushy whiskers and rough thick hair, with heavy eyebrows, and a wonderful look of power about his mouth and chin. This was so strong as to redeem his face from vulgarity; but the countenance and appearance of the man were on the whole unpleasant, and, I may say, untrustworthy. He looked as though he were purse-proud and bully (Trollope 27).

The description of his physical appearance finds likelihood with his feelings revealing his real nature. The portrait of this prototype of selfmade man betrays all the facial features of a villain, as later on analysed by the Lombrosian Theory. The latter argues that born criminals, possessing atavistic characteristics, resemble their primitive ancestors, and therefore exhibit more primitive physical and mental traits. Lombroso states: “All these characteristics pointed to one conclusion, the atavistic origin of the criminal, who reproduces physical, psychic, and functional qualities of remote ancestors” (Lombroso-Ferrero 8).

There is a sort of negative predestination in Mr Melmotte’s face as a fatal anticipation of his paradigmatic story. He is a swindler and a hero in the meantime since he is not worse than the others who surround him: Melmotte was (...) certainly a man to repel you by his presence unless attracted to him by some internal consideration. He was magnificent in his expenditure, powerful in his doings, successful in his business, and the world around him therefore was not repelled (75).

Melmotte is aware that securing his place in that society implies to show off all his wealth and let people believe to be part of it. We face an axiological code which contemplates mundane rites. The climax of this social strategy occurs during the ball at his house which organization takes twelve months: The large house on the south side of Grosvenor Square was all ablaze by ten o’clock. The broad veranda had been turned into a conservatory, had been covered with boards contrived to look like trellis-work, was heated

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Melmotte’s luxury dwelling is so transformed into an Eden garden where exotic plants and hot air contribute to create a sensuous atmosphere and enchant guests on purpose. Consequently, in this spell everybody realises how: [W]onderful are the ways of trade! If one can only get the tip of one’s little finger into the right pie, what noble morsels, what rich esculents, will sick to it as it is extracted (84)!

However, Melmotte’s social climbing cannot be complete without his attendance at Lord Alfred’s club. The latter, as penniless aristocrat unwillingly has to share some spare time with Melmotte who holds him hostage by paying his debts and, in return, seizes the opportunity to finally buy his way into the élite: Melmotte was very anxious to get into Lord Alfred’s club, The Peripatetics. It was pleasant to see the grace with which he lost his money, and the sweet intimacy with which he called his lordship Alfred. Lord Alfred had a remnant of feeling left and would have liked to kick him. But there were his poor boys and those bills in Melmotte’s safe. And then Melmotte lost his points so regularly, and paid his bets with such absolute good humour (31)!

According to Yuri Lotman’s primary modelling system, we could define The Peripatetics a sort of semiosphere, that is a semiotic space or an artificial structure which is the result of historical and social processes where the communication is produced. The semiosphere is always circumscribed by the space that surrounds it, which is extrasystemic or belonging to another semiotic sphere: therefore it must show a form of homogeneity and individuality or semiotic personality that is characteristic of a group, a collective term. In this sense, a key concept is the border, but a permeable one. The function of the border of the semiosphere, like any membrane or film, is therefore to limit the penetration, filter and transform what is external into internal. In cases where the cultural space acquires a territorial nature, the border takes on a spatial meaning by itself. The Peripatetics is therefore a microcosm full of signs to decode in order to

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access and comprehend the alterity of a world still partly alien to the protagonist: [H]e was not eloquent; but the gentlemen who heard him remembered that he was the great Augustus Melmotte, that he might probably make them all rich men, and they cheered him to the echo (84).

In any act of communication occurs an actantial, spatial and temporal débrayage (Gremais) or an act of defusing and disambiguation. Melmotte’s lack of eloquence is a sign of his impenetrability, his method to control the environment and give him more authority. Actually the economic power is traditionally held by people who look detached and cold, so he has to behave in accordance with that collective imaginary. Yet, being a prominent figure often means being alone and his way to success leads him, instead, to self-destruction. His failure is announced from the very beginning, Melmotte knows he is doing something risky, wrong and unnecessary. He is already very rich so why does he decide to organize this big fraud? Because this challenge excites him and makes him earn praise, affection, respect and success for a while, as reported by Joseph Badaracco: “there is a kind of success that is indistinguishable from panic”2 (126). Anthony Trollope’s caustic wit sounds like a condemnation against the corruption and anxiety of his contemporaneity. During his last day, Melmotte defeated, is allowed death in the sitting room of his house with a bottle of brandy: Nor was he so drunk then as to give rise to any suspicion in the mind of the servant. He was habitually left there at night, and the servant as usual went to his bed. But at nine o’clock on the following morning the maid-servant found him dead upon the floor. Drunk as he had been, — more drunk as he probably became during the night, — still he was able to deliver himself from the indignities and penalties to which the law might have subjected him by a dose of prussic acid (319).

The end of Melmotte seems to be the right conclusion of his misdeeds like in a morality play in which the good win and the bad are doomed to perish. However, as Angus Easson observes: “Trollope identifies as a new ‘money age’ — where financial trading is not to promote a product but to promote the generation of money that sticks to those who know a good thing and how to manipulate it; fortunes are to be made, not by the railway, but by floating railway shares” (Pollard 89). 2

The quotation is by the painter Edward Degas.

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After Melmotte’s death other people replace him so that the story assumes the dimension of a prophecy, anticipating nowadays unscrupulousness and a new way of thinking business that still makes the novel astonishingly modern.

Works Cited Allen, W. The English Novel. Harmondsworth, Penguin. 1991. Badaracco, J.L. Questions of Character. Illuminating the Heart of Leadership through Literature. Boston, Harvard Business School Press. 2006. Brawer, R.A. Fiction of Business. New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1998. Gremais, J.A. Sémiotique. Dictionaire raisonné de la theorie du language. Parigi, Hachette, 1979. Houghton, W. E. The Victorian Frame of Mind 1830-1870. New Haven and London, Yale University Press. 1985. Lombroso-Ferrero, G. Criminal man: according to the classification of Cesare Lombroso. Montchair NJ, Patterson Smith Publishing Co. 2010. Lotman, Y. “O Semiosfere” Sémiotiké. Signs Systems Studies. 1984. Pollard, A. The Representation of Business in English Literature. Indianapolis, Amagi, 2009. Trollope, A. The Way We Live Now. London, Wordsworth Editions, 1995. Volli, U. Manuale di semiotica. Milano, Laterza 2003.

CHAPTER EIGHT SOPHIA DøLEK KANTAR

This essay is an analysis of the complex psychology of class identity in the eighteenth century in one of Charlotte Lennox's less appreciated novels: Sophia, published in 1762. The implications of middle class identity and its implicit or explicit social and sexual mandates on women are strong undercurrents in all of Lennox's novels and in the novel as a genre. Is class inherited or can it be made? A struggling writer like Lennox, her life and mind divided amongst the margins of different social classes, and cultures (English and American) reflects exquisitely the pains of "not belonging" in her novels which probably haunted her through her whole life, and gave her work its own unique perspective. To maintain middle class status back in Charlotte Lennox’s time, you needed an annual income of at least 50 pounds, and a novelist would have to write and publish ten novels a year to make that sort of money (Turner 116). Lennox's corpus of nineteen works include six novels, three plays, one book of poetry, a study of Shakespeare's plays, and seven translations of historical and literary works from French. She was probably only in her early twenties when she published her first novels: Harriot Stuart, and The Female Quixote. Long lasting interest in The Female Quixote can be said to have overshadowed the rest of Lennox's work. Although Lennox had tried her hand at writing in several different genres, it was still hard for her to make a living as a writer. She had to find ways to publish her books at a time when commerce was gradually replacing patronage in the production and distribution of books in England. Capitalism first flourished in England and Marx based his analysis of class on English society. However, he died before he could write a full definition of the concept. The word "class" entered English language for the first time in the seventeenth century, and it gradually replaced the more common words like "order" and "station." In Raymond Williams' view "middle class was a self-conscious interposition between persons of rank

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and the common people" (63). As such, it is more appropriate to a hierarchical view of society since it naturally makes the distinction between "high" and "low" more prominent. Viewed from Williams' perspective, Lennox was writing just about when social classes were about to take their relatively fixed names, which coincided with the Industrial Revolution in Europe. Gary Day (9) reserves the term “status” for social groupings, whereas he takes "class" as a term that refers to the economic aspect of those groupings. Despite this view, it is possible to say that certain expectations related to "status" and "culture" are inherent in our conceptual definitions of "high" bourgeois classes and "low" working classes. Our expectations related to "status" and "culture" are inseparable from our classifications of classes as economic groupings. The novel had to reconcile bourgeois capitalism and aristocratic feudalism. In other terms, it had to find a way to make the ruthless morality of money meet the elitist expectations of traditional culture. Wahrman (1995) contends that "middle class" is a rather ambiguous term, which may mean "wealthy merchants" or "lower gentry," that is untitled gentleman. It is a "coveted territory" desired by artisans, journeymen, petty officials and others. The word "gentry" has its own ambiguous domain of meaning: in the continent it implies noble birth, while in Britain it is associated with the ownership of large landholdings. Fielding (vii), who talks about a higher and lower gentry, divides the English nation into three subclasses of the Nobility, the Gentry, and the Commonality. Interestingly, "the commonality" in Fielding's classification seem to form the base of the middle class which we have come to associate with the rise of the novel as a genre: It is the "commonality," the ones whose conditions had been "low and mean" since the earliest ages, the ones who were considered like "cattle belonging to their masters," the ones who ploughed the land, carried and recarried the Dung of their Lord and spread it upon his land were undergoing a huge change in their "customs, manners and habits" with the gradual introduction of trade into the society. As the fortune of the commons changed into wealth, Fielding (xxxi-xxxii) argues, by degrees they became more and more independent of their superiors. Part of the cultural makeup of the middle classes is clearly based on the cultural heritage of the working classes. As an imagined construct, middle class can be said to imply a petite bourgeois "no place" where you are either saved or damned depending on your financial assets in the eighteenth century. It definitely implies claim to a certain mode of manners, culture, and lifestyle. A great majority of the rising middle classes had pretensions to gentility, which aroused territorial

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defence mechanisms in those who thought of themselves as the higher classes in the eighteenth century society. They wanted to defend their financial power and cultural privileges against the threat of philistine merchant classes. Not only conservatives, but also liberal, and even radical authors of Lennox's time protested against the training of tradesmen's daughters to act like ladies (Hudson 8). The novelists still had to side with the feudal hierarchies of the aristocratic order since, perhaps, their survival in the publishing market was not entirely independent of their assistance or approval. As Hudson (574) puts forward “the novel did not aim to promote values individualism, progress, freedom, equality, and so forth in opposition to an entrenched aristocratic and conformist ideology, but highly valued ideals of the old order, which it emulated.” Thus it helped to stabilize English society rather than transform it. The novel as a genre, it seems, had a difficult task at hand. On the one hand, it had to warn the aristocrats against lustful men and greedy women of the would be middle classes consisting of an open threat to their traditional values, and on the other hand, it had to instruct the nonaristocrats about their own greed for genteel splendour sold in exchange for unscrupulous virtue and flexible morality. So, the perfect marriage, no matter how impossible it seemed, appeared to be one between money and morality. Would it be possible for a low born man or woman marry a member of the "opposite class" and climb the social ladder in the eighteenth century? Mary Astell, who published her Reflection upon Marriage in 1730 contends: "But suppose a Man does not Marry for Money, tho' for one that does not, perhaps there are thousands that do." In the fairy tales and in the romances the character deserving to be a prince or princess is normally the one who already belongs to a noble family and may not know it. Class in this sense is inherited, it cannot be made. Several different plots circle around the theme of restoring the political power to its rightful aristocratic owner. The novel takes up a similar stance against the nobility and goes to great lengths to incorporate new low born heroes and heroines into the new plots without offending the aristocratic order. As Hudson (23) puts forward, no base-born heroine or servant jumps up the social ladder in the eighteenth century novel after Pamela. It looks like Richardson's novel may be more about Mr. B's failure as a typical gentleman than Pamela's success as a typical servant. In her Desire and Domestic Fiction Nancy Armstrong calls the emergence of a new class of women in the novel "rise of the domestic woman" who is characterized by the qualities of her mind rather than her title or status. "Her fine person made me a lover; but it was her mind that made me a husband" (493) says Mr. B. about Pamela. Men, Armstrong

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claims, compensate their aristocratic bearing in the face of educated and virtuous women, and moral norms give domestic women the upper hand over their aristocratic counterparts. Lennox's heroine Sophia is like a fairy tale princess who waits to be restored to her rightful place of financial welfare and moral superiority: I have not the vanity … to imagine that a man of rank and fortune can seriously resolve to marry an indigent young woman like me; and although I am humble enough to go to service, I am too proud to listen to the addresses of any man who, from his superiority of fortune, thinks he has a right to keep me in doubt of his intentions, or, in a mean dependence upon a resolution which he has not perhaps regard enough for me to make (6667).

Economic and class superiority give the male hero the right to dispense his sexuality as a gift to expectant lower class women. It is mentioned in The Connoisseur (A London weekly published in1755) that "the kept mistress is a constant part of the retinue of fine gentleman, and is indeed as indispensable a part of his equipage as French valet-de-chambre or a fourwheeled post-chaise” (qtd. in Forsyth 8). While for Pamela and Clarissa their sexual virtue is under physical threat by the male aggressors, what is at stake for Sophia is her reputation and character. Sophia balances her compromised financial situation by a womanly pride. She inwardly knows that being a working class woman will give her more freedom and honour than being a high class prostitute. Like her heroine Sophia, Lennox had a hard time to find a way to survive in the margins of the middle class. After her father, who was a captain and a government official had died, she and her mother had to put up a struggle to make a living. Like Sophia, she had to enter into the service of genteel women. Her marriage to a Scottish man with a claim to an aristocratic blood line did not help much, because his formal application to the House of Lords to reclaim his title was refused on the grounds of his bastard birth. To sum up, Lennox found herself a "classless" woman in the literary world run by aristocratic and protocapitalist men. She, like many other novelists of the time, depicted complex psychological and social reflections of the clash between different social classes from her own in between status. Although Sophia belongs to an upper middle class family, she feels and acts more like a woman beyond the definitions of class related expectations, especially when compared to her sister Harriot. This is signalled even through her skin colour: Sophia's complexion is less fair than Harriot. Like Shakespeare's dark lady, who is "not born fair" but "no

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beauty lack," Sophia embodies forms of a particular sort of beauty. Lennox describes it as "an invisible and indescribable power to please and attract." While Harriot's "polite" education leads her to waste her time in dress, company, and gay amusements, Sophia devotes all her time to reading. But reading what? Not romance novels of course. Sophia's reliable guide in the path to intellectual and moral excellence is "a good old gentleman," a family friend, Mr. Herbert. He is probably the persona of Dr. Johnson who helped Lennox a great deal through her tough ordeals in the publishing world. Dr. Johnson taught Lennox was superior to other female writers like Carter, More and Burney. It is suggested that he must have felt an affinity with a struggling writer like Lennox, since he himself belonged to a family of an impoverished bookseller. In the novel, Mr Herbert gives Sophia "just the right books" to improve her morals and understanding. Through the persona of Mr. Herbert Lennox creates a world where upper and lower classes meet on the level of pious morality, which is supposed to perforate the rigid economic and social borders of class. Sophia Darnley is introduced to the ruthlessness of early capitalism at the very beginning of the novel. After their father's death, all of Darnleys' valuable possessions are seized by the creditors. The only way out for young Darnley women seems to be entering into the service of a so called "lady of quality," which is a fancy way of saying that the two girls would become domestic servants of some sort. Probably the largest class of working people living in English society between 1780 and 1840 were domestic servants. Right through the end of nineteenth century they constituted one of the largest occupational categories in the society and the majority of them were women (Steedman, 41). The prospect of working for a woman who would be their social equal seems to be unacceptable to Sophia's mother and sister; they even take it as an insult upon themselves. While Harriot thinks that poverty is the most shameful thing in the world, Sophia accepts her situation with pious resignation. She willingly accepts the offer. From that moment on, the novel turns out to be about her premodern identity crisis aggravated by her non-coincidence with the expectations of any of the social classes around her. She does not feel herself totally comfortable either in the city as a genteel woman or in the country as an ex genteel woman when she is placed in the house of Mr. Lawson, a country curate to flee Sir Charles who, she believes, seeks her dishonour. Stripped of the financial class privileges she once used to enjoy, Sophia is despised even by the country gentry who do not think her worthy of their social standing.

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Throughout her stay in the country Sophia acts as an intermediary between Mr Lawson’s daughter Dolly and her lover William. In this relationship love must conquer all of the materialistic class differences between country people. William is the son of a rich farmer and he is educated in the best schools in London: “there is not a young squire in all this country who has half his learning, or knows how to behave himself so genteelly as he does” (157). The hardest part for Sophia is to overcome the pride and prejudices of William’s rich aunt Mrs. Gibbons who threatens to disinherit him if he marries a “homespun farmer’s daughter” like Dolly. Sophia, who is despised by a rich woman from the country is readily accepted by a gentlewoman as a would be match for his nephew. Lennox shows us that although Sophia can survive very well in a country setting, she is worthy of a higher standing than her current position. Under such difficult circumstances for Sophia, Sir Charles Stanley, a young baronet of a large estate, appears only to make things more difficult than they already are. His characterization by Lennox (20) is rather stunning: "a man of the strictest honour and unblemished integrity," "subdues chastity and ensnares innocence." Gallantry, as the narrator states "comprehends the worst kind of fraud, cruelty, and injustice". How could entirely deplorable qualities of a womanizer be reconciled with "honour" and "integrity" in Sir Charles' character? As Quint (108) puts forward, "If throughout its history the novel is palpably hostile to aristocracy-and particularly to the aristocratic libertine, it is also fascinated by the very sexual freedom in which the aristocrat indulges." Although Sir Charles poses an open threat to chastity and innocence in general, our heroine cannot stand his irresistible charm, and falls in love with him. The “custom, prejudice, and insolence of fortune” (44) however, will give Sir Charles the habitual right to try to corrupt Sophia’s virtue. Habit indeed for him is “an insurmountable aversion to marriage” (83). Upon seeing Sophia, Sir Charles immediately turns his attention away from Harriot, who seems to be a sure bet for him all along. Mr Herbert is concerned that Harriot’s much awaited marriage proposal from Charles would never arrive. Are Sir Charles’ intentions honourable, or dishonourable? This question is not answered properly until the very end of the novel. Sir Charles, who is "too successful in his attempts upon beauty" (21) is spellbound in the presence of Sophia, such is the power of her wit and “treasures of the soul.” From that moment on, Sophia plays the part of Cinderella to her insensitive mother and conceited sister. Although they do not feel any affinity with her sympathies for the life in the country, and keep despising her choices, Sophia never veers from the role of dutiful daughter and selfless sister. Harriot, on the other hand, refuses to give up

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the appearances of gentility and she is still surrounded by men, who know that she cannot refuse them easily on account of her compromised financial status: “Her poverty made their approaches easy” (20). To win Sophia's heart, Sir Charles brings her not fashionable trifles as the courtly love tradition of conquest decreed, but books and pamphlets. Sophia may be one of the first female characters in history who exchanges her heart for books in English, French and Italian "all elegantly bound, with proper cases for their reception" (35). In the Compleat English Gentleman a conventional tract written in 1728-29, addressed to the genteel youth, Defoe (258) claims that gentleman-like behaviour can only be obtained through personal merit, liberal education, discipline, and instruction. He believes that it cannot be attained via one's parents or money only. Class manners in this sense are made, they cannot be inherited. Lennox seems to agree with Defoe in that a woman also needs education and instruction to be worthy of financial and emotional security. Even in the country, it is possible to raise oneself to the level of “decency of manners and propriety of behaviour” (143) through “genteel education.” Unlike Sophia, her sister Harriot chooses not education but sexual charm not to fall down the social ladder and finds herself in a socially unacceptable situation as a rich man’s mistress. Like a colonial subject, Sophia proves to be a project of success, when she is guided by "piety, virtue" and male reasoning. All through the two volumes of the novel, Mr Herbert tries to read the mind of Sir Charles to give a true account of it to Sophia, who finds this suspense “humiliating” even in the very beginning of the novel. However, Sophia and the reader are left in suspense until the very end. Interestingly, only when Sir Charles agrees to bestow financial favours on Sophia, can Mr. Herbert be certain of his honourable intentions. Honour seems to be associated with Sir Charles' willingness to part with a portion of his wealth. First he gives a house and three hundred pounds a year as a gift to Sophia which throws her mind in further confusion. Money without an accompanying marriage proposal always means “a latent design” of some sort. She refuses it. When Sir Charles hears that Mr. Herbert is looking for a job for Sophia, whose silence and solitude in the country “nourishes her love than to destroy it” (141) , he decides to tell her about his feelings. He seems to feel uneasy not because of the prospect of her becoming a “working class” woman, but because he would not want to suffer her absence. Here, Lennox's portrayal of Sir Charles undisturbed by the idea of falling in love with a woman, despite and beyond his original intentions, who would work in service, consolidates Lennox's larger aim of making upper and lower classes more accessible to one other socially, culturally and morally.

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The novel ends not with a marriage ceremony but with a documentation of financial arrangements Sir Charles makes to share a part of his wealth with people around Sophia. It even gets rid of Harriot by marrying her off to an officer with the title of a captain and sending them both to “one of the colonies” (233) by Sir Charles’ help. While Lennox recounts a long winding romantic love story for the general public in the foreground, she gives us such realistic details about the psychological and social struggles of women of the time who have always been used for upper class entertainment and lower class work force. Nevertheless, she repeats the familiar adage for all women through Mr Herbert’s words: “acknowledge the hand of Providence, which thinks fit to reward you even in this world, for your steady adherence to virtue” (224-225).

Works Cited Armstrong, Nancy. Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel. New York: Oxford UP, 1987 Astell, Mary. Reflections upon Marriage. Ed. Patricia Springborg. Political Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996. Day, Gary. Class. London: Routledge, 2001. Defoe, Daniel. The Compleat English Gentleman. London: David Nutt, 1890. Fielding, Henry. An Enquiry into the Causes of the Late Increase of Robbers. London: Printed for A. Miller, 1751. Forsyth, William. The Novels and Novelists of the Eighteenth Century. Illustration of the Manners and the Morals of the Age. London: D. Appleton & Company, 1871. Hudson, Nicholas. "Social Rank, 'The Rise of the Novel' and Whig Histories of the Eighteenth Century Fiction." Eighteenth Century Fiction 17.4 (2005): 1-36. Lennox, Charlotte. Sophia. 2 Vols. London: James Fletcher, 1762. Turner, Cheryl. Living by the Pen: Women writers in the Eighteenth Century. London: Routledge, 1992. Quint, David. "Noble Passions: Aristocracy and the Novel." Comparative Literature 62.2 (2010): 103-121. Richardson, Samuel. Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded. Ed. Peter Sabor. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985. Steedman, Carolyn. “A Boiling Copper and Some Arsenic: Servants, Childcare and Class Consciousness in Late Eighteenth-Century England. Critical ;;Inquiry 34 (2007): 36:77.

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Wahrman, Dror. Imagining the Middle Class: The Political Representation of Class in Great Britain c. 1780-1840. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995. Walker, Eric. "Charlotte Lennox and Collier Sisters." Studies in Philology XCV.3 (1998): 320-332. Williams, Raymond. Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. New York: Oxford U P, 1976.

CHAPTER NINE A VINDICATION OF THE LIFE OF A WOMAN: CLAIRE CLAIRMONT’S ITALY ELISABETTA MARINO

Most scholars and biographers who have focused their attention on the Shelley circle have frequently portrayed Claire Clairmont (Mary Shelley’s stepsister, her travelling companion to France and Italy, as well as Lord Byron’s infamous mistress, and the unfortunate mother of his child Allegra) as an inconvenient, intrusive and, occasionally, even insidious presence, casting her disturbing shadow over the happiness of Percy Shelley and his accomplished wife. Miranda Seymour has openly revealed Claire’s morbid infatuation for the young poet (Seymour 120), whose “series of flirtations with other women” (46), in the euphemistic words of Katherine C. Hill-Miller, also included Claire, even in times when Percy should have been more considerate and supportive with Mary, given the rapidly succeeding deaths of their beloved offspring. Conversely, after little William passed away in Rome (in June 1819), he selfishly contemplated the idea of setting off with Claire to the Middle East (Gordon 430), thus discarding the burden of his responsibilities towards his grieving spouse, who had grown estranged from him. Claire Clairmont was even rumoured to be the real mother of Elena Adelaide Shelley, the mysterious “Neapolitan charge” (Seymour 227) whose identity has not been ascertained yet. Registered by Percy as his and Mary’s daughter (on February 27, 1819), according to the couple’s maidservant, Elise Duvillard, the little girl was actually the fruit of Claire’s illicit liaison with the poet. 1 “Ever-present Claire” (Carlson 96) intruded even in Percy Shelley’s artistic life, serving as his muse at least on two occasions: in the

1

More likely, Percy Shelley believed that adopting a little orphan would help Mary to overcome the loss of her daughter Clara Everina, who died in Venice, on September 24, 1818 (Marino 23).

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1817 poem entitled “To Constantia, Singing”, 2 celebrating her enticing charms and musical talent (Kingston Stocking 1968, ix), and in Epipsychidion (1821), where Mary was featured as “the cold chaste Moon” (line 281) which “warms but not illuminates” (line 285), while flamboyant Claire appeared as a dazzling Comet, “beautiful and fierce” (line 368),3 “alternating attraction and repulsion” (line 371). Identifying Claire with a “parasitic type of manqué individual”, Muriel Spark (49) has compellingly highlighted the threat supposedly posed to Mary’s creativeness and mental stability by the toxic intimacy with her jealous stepsister. The writer herself offered several justifications for the scholar’s assertion; on May 4, 1836, for example, she thus expressed her harsh resentment, in a letter to her friend Edward Trelawny: “Claire always harps on my desertion of her–as if I could desert one I never clung to–we were never friends […] she poisoned my life when young […] my idea of Heaven was a world without Claire” (Gittings and Manton 167). Furthermore, one of the first biographical accounts of the author, Life and Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley by Florence A. Marshall (1889),4 summarized Claire’s whole existence with the following, disparaging words which, as Gittings and Manton have elucidated (242), have been blindly repeated in many critical volumes until the middle of the twentieth century: “a stumbling block first, then a bugbear to Byron; a curse, which he persistently treated as a blessing, to Shelley, a thorn in the side of Mary and of everyone who was ever responsible for her” (Marshall 142). Despite what has been argued so far, this paper sets out to vindicate the life of Claire Clairmont, by voicing her own words, recorded in her journals, in her copious correspondence, and in her thought-provoking – albeit scant – literary production. As it will be shown, far from being a mere parasite, preying on the lives of her more eminent companions, Claire Clairmont deserves to be acknowledged as one of the great Romantics5 since, until her very death (she was born in 1798 and passed away in 1879, at the height of the Victorian Age), she never betrayed their 2 As Marion Kingston Stocking has elucidated, Byron’s “Stanzas for Music” was probably addressed to Claire (1968, ix). 3 For a thorough study on the identification of Claire with the comet, see John Harrington Smith, “Shelley and Claire Clairmont” (788-90). In Epipsychidion Emilia Viviani was represented as the Sun. 4 The biographer drew information from Lady Shelley (Percy Florence’s wife), who was notoriously hostile to Claire. 5 As Kingston Stocking has sadly remarked, “were it not for her relationship with Byron and Shelley her journals probably would not have been preserved, much less published” (1968, viii).

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ideals: she always nurtured dreams of independence (for both herself and the people who had fallen under the yoke of tyranny and oppression), and she was by no means shy in fostering the cause of women’s emancipation. Even though she also travelled extensively to Vienna, Moscow, Paris (just to name a few of the places where she lived and worked, mostly as a governess), this essay will focus on her Italian experience, given the wellknown importance (from a personal and artistic point of view) attached to the “Paradise of exiles” 6 by those belonging to the Shelley circle. Strikingly enough, however, Italy apparently played a much more significant and consistent role in Claire’s existence: she spent three prolonged periods in the peninsula, above all in Tuscany (from 1818 to 1822, from 1831 to 1836, from 1860 till the end of her days).7 Besides, most of her political and pedagogical ideas as well as her entire literary corpus were conceived there, and were somehow entwined with the fate of the country. The following analysis of Claire Clairmont’s output will be divided into two sections: private writings and works for publication.

Claire Clairmont’s Journals and Correspondence Together with her numerous letters, Claire’s six fragmentary Journals (whose entries cover the time-span between 1814 and 1827) contribute to cast light on several, noteworthy elements regarding her perception of Italy. Like the Shelley’s, she was certainly sensitive to the exquisite beauty of the landscape, described as an enchanting and perfect fusion of nature and human craft: visiting the surroundings of Bologna, she remarked that “the travelling in Italy seem[ed] like riding perpetually through pleasuregrounds, where ever the greatest art ha[d] been employed to give an air to nature. The weather was delightful; a full sun in a cloudless blue sky looking down upon the scene of green below” (Grylls 94-95). From the top of the Cathedral in Milan she could enjoy a breath-taking view of the city; besides, the monumental church seemed to partake “of the nature of hair & heaven. The carved pinnacles whiter than snow r[ose] into the cloud. The dazzling white of the marble and the immensity of the work impress[ed] one with the belief of the aid of some supernatural power” (Kingston Stocking 1968, 90). The Coliseum in Rome resembled “a mountain; its arches and recesses appear[ed] as so many caves, and here & 6

P.B. Shelley, “Julian and Maddalo”, line 57. Claire Clairmont died a Roman Catholic and she was buried near Florence in a monumental graveyard, the Camposanto della Misericordia di Santa Maria (Antella). 7

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there […] grassy platforms, with a scattered fruit or thorn tree in blossom” (100). Yet, unlike Percy Shelley, Claire did not believe that there were two irreconcilable Italies, as the poet wrote to Thomas Love Peacock in December 1822: There are two Italies–one composed of the green earth and transparent sea, and the mighty ruins of ancient time, and aerial mountains, and the warm and radiant atmosphere which is interfused through all things. The other consists of the Italians of the present day, their works and ways. The one is the most sublime and lovely contemplation that can be conceived by the imagination of man; the other is the most degraded, disgusting, and odious (Ingpen 649).

In both Claire’s Journals and her correspondence, there is no trace of scorn and contempt for the inhabitants of the peninsula, nor did she linger on the negative features traditionally forming the so-called national character of the Italians (namely, their proverbial laziness, their moral degradation and utter submissiveness, much lamented by Percy). Conversely, she eagerly associated herself with Italian families and personalities: she took music, singing, and dance lessons from Italian teachers, she frequently went to the opera house, and reacted with enthusiasm to the performances of Tommaso Sgricci, the famous improvvisatore. She was fluent in Italian and, while living in Rome in 1819, she regularly participated in the conversazioni, the literary soirées hosted by the distinguished archaeologist Marianna Candidi Dionigi which gave her the opportunity to observe, with a certain embarrassment, the appalling behaviour of some of her compatriots. As Claire noticed, due to their thorough ignorance of the foreign language, the “unfortunate Englishmen […] after having crossed their legs & said nothing the whole Evening, rose all up at once, made their bows & filed off-” (Kingston Stocking 1968, 103). In a letter to Mary Shelley written in Florence and dated November 6, 1835, she once more manifested her open partiality to the Italian people, an attitude also shared by her stepsister who, after her return to England in 1823 following her husband’s drowning, regarded herself as an Anglo-Italian8: “I am a great admirer of Italians and yet I pity english [sic] married to them; their views of life, their tastes never coincide. […] I agree with the Italians-I cannot bear the english [sic] temperament, their fastidiousness, their perpetual peaking and pining over 8

Compare her essays entitled Recollections of Italy (1824), and The English in Italy (1826).

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every little trifle as if it were an important disaster drives me mad” (Kingston Stocking 1995, 333). The pages of Claire’s Journals reveal her genuine interest and profound commitment to the Italian cause; far from displaying a superficial understanding of the revolutionary movements in Naples in 1820-21, she perceptively underlined the responsibility of the Spanish rebellions at the beginning of 1820 in triggering the revolts in Naples, thus adopting a European perspective: Report of the Revolution at Naples; the people assembled round the palace demanding a Constitution; the King ordered his troops to fire & disperse the crowd, they refused, and he has now promised a Constitution. The head of them is the Duke of Campo Chiaro. This is glorious & is produced by the Revolution in Spain. (Kingston Stocking 1968, 156)

Over the weeks, Claire assiduously recorded in her entries the progress of the Revolution, the much-awaited return of the exiled who, joined by ordinary citizens, forced the King to sign the Constitution.9 She described the patriotic passion of Sgricci, who “improvisava upon the future independence of Italy”10 (190), and copied a captivating “Inno di Guerra [Battle Hymn] by a Neapolitan”, who encouraged his countrymen to bare their blades and fall, rather than enduring the shame of fetters11 (213-14). As months passed by, Claire also regretted the violent means employed by the Carbonari to carry out their just purposes: “assassinations were frightfully common, and […] anarchy and massacre were hourly expected to succeed”12 (196). She followed with trepidation the advancement of the Austrian troops and she sadly mentioned their victory near Rieti (215), as well as the distressing, final defeat of the revolutionary army, commented upon with a lapidary sentence: “The Austrians entered Naples 23rd of March. Every thing there is quiet” (218). As Gittings and Manton have elucidated, looking beyond the stereotypical portrayal of Claire Clairmont as an intrusive presence, she always took pride in her “lonely, roving life” (154). A self-sufficient lady, she even chose not to tie the knot (a bold decision in her times), 9

July 25, 1820; September 2, 1820. December 1, 1820. 11 March 7, 1821. 12 December 15, 1820. It should not pass unnoticed that Claire also read Saggio storico sulla rivoluzione di Napoli (1800) by Vincenzo Cuoco, and Dell’Istoria civile del regno di Napoli (1723) by Pietro Giannone, in order to better understand contemporary historical events in a more rounded context (see pp. 146, 148, 150, 171, 180, 185). 10

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notwithstanding her disreputable past and the numerous marriage proposals she had received.13 As she wrote in her Journals, on October 29, 1820, in order to be protected against disappointments, it was advisable in her opinion to think of oneself “as a stranger and & traveller, on the earth, to whom none of the many affairs of this world, belong[ed], and who ha[d] no permanent township on the globe”14 (Kingston Stocking 1968, 180). During her first sojourn in Italy, Claire became even more independent: she learned how to swim and studied German, a language which would certainly prove useful when, some years later, she accepted a post as a governess in Vienna. Very few details can be added to the well-known, controversial story of her daughter Allegra, whom she entrusted to the cares of Lord Byron, hoping to secure for her a life of luxury and better opportunities.15 What should not pass unnoticed, however, is the real reason that impelled her to react so forcefully against his decision to put their child in a convent near Ravenna: “an education known to be contemptible” (Kingston Stocking 1995, 163), as she bitterly pointed out in a letter to her former lover, written on March 24, 1821. Claire deplored the “ignorance & profligacy of the Italian women, all pupils of Convents. They are bad wives & most unnatural mothers, licentious & ignorant they are the dishonour & unhappiness of society” (163). On the contrary, she suggested that the little girl should be placed, at her own expense, in one of the best English boarding schools. Her appeal remained unanswered; nonetheless her unfaltering faith in the reformative power of education and its positive impact on the wider community prompted Claire Clairmont to embrace her life-long mission as a teacher and governess. As she wrote to Mary Shelley in June 1835, “I think I can with certainty affirm all the pupils I have ever had will be violent defenders of the Rights of Women. I have taken great pains to sow the seeds of that doctrine wherever I could” (323). Claire actually seems to be the true heir to the legacy of Mary Wollstonecraft. After the death of William Godwin (in 1836), Mary Shelley slowly retreated into conservatism. When Trelawny asked her to support the cause of women’s emancipation she shunned his request with no regrets (Gittings and Manton 171); moreover, in the pages of her Journal, she thus observed: “since I lost Shelley I have no wish to ally myself with the Radicals – they are full of repulsion to me” (Feldman and 13

She rejected Thomas Love Peacock in 1818 (Gittings and Manton, 53) and Henry Reveley (Mrs. Gisborne’s son) in 1820 (54). 14 October 29, 1820. 15 For a full account of Allegra’s story, compare Gittings and Manton 19-65 and Grylls 53-150.

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Scott-Kilvert 555). Quite the opposite, in her letters to Mary Shelley, Claire expressed the most daring and innovative ideas, as when (in September 1834) she praised the children born out of the wedlock as “the offspring of freedom and love, of Beauty and Strength in their most exalted aspect, when the beastly world is banished far and two hearts beat with mutual and unselfish devotion” (Kingston Stocking 1995, 315). In another letter, in March 1836, Claire even tried to persuade her renowned stepsister, weary of her life of toil and hardship, to fully acknowledge her own potential as a role model for women, and “exert [her] powers [so that she] could give the men a most immense drubbing” (342). Quoting Claire’s animated words, “[I] am always panting to see women distinguishing themselves in literature and [I] believe there has not been or ever will be one so calculated as yourself, to raise our sex” (342). Even on this occasion, however, her plea fell upon deaf ears.

Claire Clairmont as a Professional Writer Claire Clairmont belonged to a family of outstandingly talented writers; hence, she was well aware of both the responsibilities this connection implied, and the criticism she would have drawn to herself, had her literary attempts proved unsuccessful. As she resentfully remarked to Jane Williams Hogg, in a letter written in Pisa, in 1833, “in our family if you cannot write an epic poem or a novel that by its originality knocks all the other novels on the head, you are a despicable creature not worth acknowledging” (295). Nevertheless, as early as 1814, Claire attempted to write a narrative entitled “The Ideot”, planned, in the words of Miranda Seymour, “as a Wollestonecraftian tale of a sweet and noble girl who follows her own impulses rather than society’s laws” (112). Gittings and Manton mention an unfinished story that she began in Geneva, during the famous gathering at Villa Diodati (38). It is likely that Claire also assisted William Godwin in composing his novel entitled Cloudlessly (1830), by furnishing him with vivid descriptions of Vienna, Russia, and Italy, actually featured in the volume (Kingston Stocking 1968, 416). While in Italy, however, Claire Clairmont discovered the profession of writing, planning a series of literary endeavours that would secure her a decent and relatively easy income, given the growing interest in the peninsula on the part of the British readership. According to her Journals, from April 4 until the beginning of August 1820, she wrote a travelogue, Letters from Italy, which unfortunately has not survived. Nonetheless, its tentative table of contents is recorded at the beginning of the third journal:

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On the country of Italy. On the Manners & Customs including those of the Country & those of the town. On the Pictures & Statues. On the Music and the State of the Opera. (98)

In February 1820 she also conceived Hints for Don Juan, probably a satire, or a series of amusing and pungent caricatures of Lord Byron.16 The volume is now lost, but Claire’s sharp sense of humour can be fully appreciated reading the “Caricatures for Albé” included in the entry written on November 8, 1820. The last one, concerning his death, is particularly witty, albeit rather caustic: He dead extended on his bed, covered all but his breast, which many wigged doctors are cutting open to find out (as one may be saying) what was the extraordinary disease of which this great man died – His heart laid bare, they find an immense capital I grown on its surface – and which had begun to pierce the breast. (184)

Apart from a still unidentified article on Naples mentioned in Claire’s correspondence to Mary, 17 the only surviving story which, as Bradford Booth has demonstrated, can be unquestionably ascribed to the pen of Claire Clairmont is “The Pole”, published (for marketing reasons) under the name of “the Author of Frankenstein” in both The Court Magazine (1832) and The English Annual (1836). In a letter to her stepsister, dated March 1832, Claire asked her to correct her unfinished tale, and to write its conclusion, since her long working hours as a governess prevented her from devoting much time to any creative activity. As she underlined, “the truth is I never should think of writing knowing well my incapacity for it, but I want to gain money. What would one not do for that since it is the only key to freedom” (Kingston Stocking 1995, 287). The story is set in Campania, and is focused on four main characters: Ladislas, a charming Pole, a delightful Polish girl called Idalie, and her two step-siblings (born of an Italian mother and a Polish father), namely the clever and adventurous Marietta, and the violent and treacherous Giorgio. Due to a political plot, Giorgio is commissioned to murder the Pole who, in the 16

Claire often complained about Mary Shelley’s noble and dignified portrayals of Lord Byron in her volumes (for example in The Last Man, Lodore or Falkner). Referring to Falkner, she wrote to her stepsister: “I shall be curious to see if the hero of your new novel will be another Beautified Byron” (Kingston Stocking 1995, 341). 17 Compare Kingston Stocking 1995, 293 and 294n.

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meantime, falls in love with Idalie. With the help of sagacious Marietta, the two lovers succeed in escaping, while brutal Giorgio, who had always been abusive with his sister, is eventually killed. In order to increase the sales, “The Pole” is rich in attractive landscape descriptions as well as in the stereotypical portrayals of the Italian people the British readers were acquainted with and craved for (even though, as already shown, Claire was thoroughly unprejudiced towards them). Hence, the Italian characters are dark and good-looking, but they belong to “a tedious race” (Robinson 348), they are “unprincipled” (354) and lazy, constantly “teasing for alms” (348). As Lisa Leslie has elucidated, the tale is overtly autobiographical and it echoes the way Claire “chose to remember” (71) and to re-write the story of her life, turning it into an uncomplicated plot with a happyending: Shelley/Lasislas and Mary/Idalie can freely enjoy each other’s company; Claire/Marietta, while helping the couple, rids herself of her tyrannical brother/lover; Byron/Giorgio is finally punished with death for his misdeeds. Towards the end of Claire’s existence, Trelawny asked her to consider writing a book on the lives of both Shelley and Byron, since she was one of the last of their generation to be still alive. “You would not wonder”, she replied, “that at 77 years old, a literary task is almost impossible to me. However I will try” (Kingston Stocking 1995, 626). Her last piece of writing was not found until 2010, when Daisy Hay discovered a fragment 18 of it, concealed among the papers of the Pforzheimer Collection. With a savagery unknown to her youthful days, she demolished the memory and the reputation of both authors, showing a resentment that time had not managed to appease: “Under the influence of the doctrine and belief of free love I saw the two first poets of England […] become monsters of lying, meanness, cruelty and treachery – under the influence of free love Lord B became a human tiger” (Hay 308). Maybe the multi-stranded story of the Shelley circle is not completed yet, but certainly Claire Clairmont, the great, unacknowledged Romantic survivor, contributed to write important pages of it.

Works Cited Booth, Bradford A. “The Pole: a Story by Claire Clairmont?” English Literary History 5/1, (Mar., 1938): 67-70.

18 In Hay’s opinion, the fragment belongs to Claire’s unfinished autobiography, including important details on the lives of the two poets (307).

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Carlson, Julie A. England’s First Family of Writers, Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin, Mary Shelley. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. Feldman, Paula R. and Diana Scott-Kilvert. The Journals of Mary Shelley. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987. Gittings, Robert and Jo Manton. Claire Clairmont and the Shelleys. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. Gordon, Lyndall. Vindication, a Life of Mary Wollstonecraft. London: Virago Press, 2005. Grylls, R. Glynn. Claire Clairmont, Mother of Byron’s Allegra. London: John Murray, 1939. Harrington Smith, John. “Shelley and Claire Clairmont.” Publications of the Modern Language Association 54/3, (Sep., 1939): 785-814. Hay, Daisy. Young Romantics. London: Bloomsbury, 2010. Hill-Miller, Katherine C. Mary Shelley, William Godwin, and the FatherDaughter Relationship. London: Associated University Press, 1995. Ingpen, Roger, ed. The Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Containing Materials never before Collected. Vol. II, London: G. Bell and Sons, LTD, 1914. Kingston Stocking, Marion. The Clairmont Correspondence. Voll. I-II, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995. —. The Journals of Claire Clairmont 1814-1827. Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press, 1968. Leslie, Lisa. “The Fact that is in Fiction: Autobiography in Claire Clairmont’s ‘The Pole’”, The Keats-Shelley Review 20, (2006): 69-88. Marino, Elisabetta. Mary Shelley e l’Italia, il viaggio, il Risorgimento, la questione femminile. Firenze: Le Lettere, 2011. Marshall, Florence A. The Life and Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Vol. II, New York: Haskell House Publishers Ltd., 1889. Robinson, Charles E., ed. Mary Shelley. Collected Tales and Stories with Original Engravings. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976. Seymour, Miranda. Mary Shelley. New York: Grove Press, 2000. Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “Julian and Maddalo.” In John Keats and P.B. Shelley, J. Keats and P.B. Shelley, the Complete Poetical Works, 20925. New York: The Modern Library, 1939. —. Epipsychidion, London: C&J Ollier, 1821. Spark, Muriel. Mary Shelley. London: Constable, 1988.

CHAPTER TEN FLAUBERT’S PARROT AND THE SENSE OF AN ENDING: TWO POSTMODERN NOVELS CONSTRUCTED ON TRUTH, MEMORY AND HISTORY ELVAN KARAMAN

In the postmodern period, reason and science have lost their superior and dominant positions after an ideological formation and they are no longer the main reference points. Hence, truth is no longer a concept which is only attained by the means of reason and science. Other alternative ways have emerged to pursue the truth, so the concept of certain truth has transformed into a multiplicity of truths. Similarly, the reference points are transformed into human beings themselves, so there are as many truths as the number of people on the earth (Menteúe 25). Such thinking has inevitably revolutionised the ways people evaluate and define memory and the academic field of history, which operate with the claim of possessing the truth. Julian Barnes is one of the authors who are identified as postmodern and who reflect postmodernism’s most pronounced idea of relativity and plurality of truth. He has constructed his two novels Flaubert’s Parrot and The Sense of an Ending on the three concepts of postmodernism; truth, memory and history. Hence, these concepts are put into question and their subjectivity, unreliability and unattainability are apparently declared by Barnes in these two novels. Firstly, truth and reason had been the concepts which existed at the centre not only for the search of knowledge but also for the debate in such fields as science, history and philosophy since the ancient times (Atilla 16). However, the second half of the twentieth century was a breaking point for the steadfast position of these two concepts. As Aylin Atilla points out,

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In the twentieth century, philosophical postmodernism attempted to propose a critique of the model of truth and rationality which arose from the eighteenth century Enlightenment in which rationality was seen as a neutral and historical issue. (16)

Thus, the concepts of reason and truth have been challenged by postmodern philosophers and this challenge has been the main reason behind a number of following changes. “Though there are many forms of Postmodernism,”, Patricia Waugh argues, “they all express the sense that our inherited forms of knowledge and representation are undergoing some fundamental shift: modernity may be coming to an end, strangled by its own logic” (Introduction 5). This shift from modernism to postmodernism has also brought the shift from the centrality of reason and truth to rejection of these two terms. Hence, in Waugh’s words, “We have witnessed the terror produced through the instrumental modes of universal reason [...] and discovered that we no longer want ‘truth’ and we do not even require ‘truth-effect’” (Introduction 5). Rejecting the central position of reason and truth, postmodern philosophers first deconstruct “the idea of achieving an absolute truth” and emphasise that “there are different approaches to reality and truth” (Atilla 17). Hence, the realisation of the different approaches to truth automatically brings the view of its plurality. As reason is no more the only determinant of every kind of knowledge or concept, it is not surprising that truth becomes multiplied. Hutcheon notes that “The eighteenth century concern for lies and falsity becomes a postmodern concern for the multiplicity and dispersion of truth(s), truth(s) relative to the specificity of place and culture” (108). The multiplicity of truth is stressed not only by postmodern philosophers but also by postmodern writers such as John Fowles, Angus Wilson, A. S. Byatt and Angela Carter along with the contemporary novelists such as Peter Ackroyd and Julian Barnes. In Hutcheon’s words, “Postmodern novels like Flaubert’s Parrot, Famous Last Words, and A Maggot openly assert that there are only truths in the plural, and never one Truth” (109). Thus, Flaubert’s Parrot is the first novel which will be examined from this perspective. Barnes has mainly constructed his postmodern novel on the research for a certain truth. He makes his protagonist Geoffrey Braithwaite search for two kinds of truths like a detective throughout the novel. First, he is in search of Flaubert’s true parrot which had sat on his desk while he was writing his story Un Coeur Simple in 1877. His quest for Flaubert’s parrot begins as soon as he realises that Loulou, the stuffed parrot, which the French writer borrowed before writing his story, exists in two separate Flaubert museums (Nicol 116). He seems to be determined to discover the true parrot till the end of the novel. As Atilla also suggests,

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“Flaubert’s parrot, a minor detail in his life, has much importance for Braithwaite. He even makes a trip to France in search of it” (163). However, Braithwaite soon realises that it is so hard to discover the truth and Barnes also highlights the relativity of truth, which is accepted as one of the main claims of postmodernism, by the quest of Braithwaite. He researches for the truth for two years, but he ironically moves away from it by each step. At last, he learns from a Flaubert scholar that both museums took the parrot they have from the Museum of National History, where Flaubert borrowed Loulou out of fifty parrots. As a result, in Atilla’s words, Ironically, by the end of the novel, the number of “real” birds has multiplied to fifty; and the deeper Braithwaite plunges into the matter, the more confused and irritated he becomes. He finds out that there will be as many true parrots as long as he searches for it. (163)

Hence, Barnes has created one of the most excellent postmodern novels which effectively underline the relativity and multiplicity of truth. Moreover, the second truth Braithwaite searches for is the death of his wife, who had love affairs during their marriage. Thus, Braithwaite’s obsession with Flaubert turns out to be “a displacement of his real search for the reason of his wife’s death” (Atilla 159). Yet, he likewise cannot attain the truth behind his wife’s suicide. As Atilla observes, “Neither of the past truths is recoverable, both are elusive and blurred” (159). As a consequence, Barnes highlights the relativity and multiplicity of truth in his novel in two separate spheres of Braithwaite’s life, academic and private one. The other novel which will be examined by the perspective of the relativity and plurality of truth is The Sense of an Ending. The protagonist Tony Webster is a retired man who tries to pursue a truth in the past like Braithwaite. While thinking that he has grasped the truth in life and after having lived in peaceful ignorance for more than twenty years, Webster is suddenly disturbed by an inheritance of five hundred dollars and a diary belonging to his dead friend Adrian Finn. Thus, Barnes questions the existence of an absolute truth and teaches both the reader and Webster a lesson about its relativity in this novel. Thus, Webster searches for the truth for a long time, like Braithwaite. Barnes also plays cat and mouse with him for more than the half of the novel and ironically Webster believes many times that he has attained the truth. In this respect, the novelist obviously mocks the idea of pursuing a certain truth and underlines its relativity and plurality. First, a number of questions emerge in Webster’s mind after he reads his ex-girlfriend Veronica’s mother’s

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letter, which marks the beginning of his search for the truth in Adrian’s suicide and the truth with his mysterious son. For example, although he does not realise that Adrian is his dead friend’s son when he first sees him, he later claims that “There was no contradiction – I simply saw it in his face. [...] This was Adrian’s son. I didn’t need a birth certificate or DNA test – I saw it and felt it” (The Sense of an Ending 137). However, Barnes highlights by these sentences that there is not a certain truth, but there are only interpretations. In Hutcheon’s words, postmodernism “questions the very bases of any certainty (history, subjectivity, reference) and of any standards of judgment” (57). Furthermore, Webster has a wrong assumption about the mother of Adrian’s son. He assumes that his mother is his ex-girlfriend Veronica. This assumption goes on till the end of the novel and he ironically cannot discover the truth even though he assumes many times that he has discovered it. This is also another means of proving the non-existence of a certain truth and its plurality for Barnes. He declares the stupidity of the modernist thought of the existence of an absolute truth. He mocks both his protagonist and anyone who still believes that there is an absolute truth about everything on the earth. The novelist only finalises the attempts of Webster to learn the truth in the end and makes him learn a multiplicity of truths. Both Webster and the reader realise that human beings try to attain a number of certain truths throughout their lives. However, they only clutch at straws, because there is no absolute truth on the earth, but there is always a multiplicity of truths. Secondly, memory is another concept which is put into question by postmodern theorists and writers after the 1960s. As Kerwin Lee Klein observes, “‘Memory’ is the new critical conjunction of history and theory” (qtd. in Bixler 126). The interest of postmodernism in the concept of memory is not surprising as postmodernism rethinks and returns back to both memory and history. However, this rethinking is not performed as a means of nostalgia. On the contrary, postmodern theorists return back to history and memory so as to evaluate and question the accepted truths and events in the past (Hutcheon 4). In this sense, memory is also one of the significant concepts on which postmodern theorists study. Jacqueline E. Bixler suggests that Memory and its representations are currently part of a much larger critical debate spurred by the postmodern obsession with historical revisionism and marginal testimonies but also by the nightmarish events of the twentieth century-the Holocaust, the Vietnam War, [...] to mention just a few. (125-26)

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Hence, the traumatic experiences throughout various wars in the history of the world and the periods when people are oppressed physically and psychologically have caused a necessity to revisit memory and the past with a critical eye. Making possible the remembrance of these traumatic events by returning back to memory, postmodernism enables everyone to realise that none of the past events and memories of people are objective and certainly true. Everyone has their own memory and the remembered events or people in memory may change over time. Therefore, postmodernism argues that memory is subjective, unreliable and fragile as the events in memory are subject to be forgotten and reshaped over time. In Flaubert’s Parrot, Barnes places memory at a crucial point of the novel and he ingeniously questions this concept along with its reliability and attainability. The protagonist has problems with the past events connected with his dead wife. For instance, Braithwaite stresses the unreliability of memory at the beginning of the novel. He maintains that “Memories came out of hiding, but not emotions; not even the memories of emotions” (Flaubert’s Parrot 14). He complains of not attaining the memories of emotions, because he wants to attain his memories about his wife even though they are very painful for him. Thus, his obsession with these memories continues throughout the novel, but he can only mention the existence of these memories at the seventh chapter. It is clear that to mention and to face them are so hard for him, so he always postpones revealing them. For example, he sarcastically criticises the memoirs of Mauriac as he does not tell himself by using his memory, but only mentions the plays he has watched or the books he has read. In fact, this is also what Braithwaite does, because he also escapes from his memories by searching for Flaubert’s life. In Atilla’s words, “Actually, this search is a displacement of his real search for the reason of his wife’s death” (159). It is apparent that he always thinks about his memories about his wife Ellen indeed while he is mentioning his search for Flaubert at last. He both faces and reveals his secret memories one by one. He, for instance, suddenly notes that “No I didn’t kill my wife. [...] First you find out that she’s dead; then a while later, I say that I never killed a single patient. Aha, who did you kill, then? The question no doubt appears logical” (Flaubert’s Parrot 97). While he is mentioning his performance in his job, he in fact wishes to highlight that he has not killed his wife. Through the end of the novel he finally makes clear that he loved Ellen, but she deceived him as “she could not feel fulfilled herself” psychologically (Patraúcu 210). Therefore, his memories of Ellen and his feelings related to them are never singular and rationally consistent; rather they compete and conflict with one another, never surrendering to a coherent, objectively designed whole.

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In The Sense of an Ending, Barnes explicitly declares the unreliability and subjectivity of memory again by the sentences and emphasis of the protagonist Webster. Especially, in the first part of the novel, he seriously questions memory and its attainability after a great amount of time has passed. In this part, Webster returns back to his adolescence and youth and underlines that he is able to remember neither every event nor every emotion related to the events in the past. For example, in the beginning, he notes that “[W]hat you end up remembering isn’t always the same as what you have witnessed” (The Sense of an Ending 3). Barnes also emphasises that time changes memories of human beings, so memory is not an objective concept. Webster, for instance, goes on highlighting the impossibility of attaining his memories and maintains that “If I can’t be sure of the actual events any more, I can at least be true to the impressions those facts left. That’s the best I can manage” (The Sense of an Ending 4). In addition, time transforms memory in parallel with people’s psychological responses to past events. Thus, people cannot depend on memory for past events and emotions, as postmodernist theorists also stress. It is obvious that Barnes highlight the unattainability of all past events in memory. In Pierre Nora’s words, “Memory is life [...] It remains in permanent evolution, open to the dialectic of remembering and forgetting [...], vulnerable to manipulation and appropriation” (qtd. in Bixler 127). Hence, Webster cannot attain the significant past events or emotions in his memory during his journey to his adolescence and youth. As a result, Barnes highlights in both novels that memory is subjective and unattainable, because it is subject to the distortions of emotions and time. Finally, history is one of the concepts whose objectivity and reliability were not discussed during the modern period. However, with the emergence of the postmodern movement, history became a matter of scrutiny and enquiry. As Hutcheon points out, “[M]odernism’s “nightmare of history” is precisely what postmodernism has chosen to face straight on. Artist, audience, critic none is allowed to stand outside history, or even wish to do so” (88). First, postmodern theorists argue that history is one of the constructs of human beings, so it cannot be objective in contrast to the assumptions continuing for centuries (16). Moreover, they observe that people can only know historical events through documental archives, but these documents are also not objective as they are constructed by human beings again. As Hutcheon expounds, [B]oth genres [history and literature] unavoidably construct as they textualize that past. The “real” referent of their language once existed; it is only accessible to us today in textualized form: documents, eye-witness

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As Bran Nicol also emphasises, human beings “cannot access” history directly as all they have are “textual documents” (117). In this respect, postmodern writers revisit history as they do not accept it to be certainly objective and reliable any more. They believe that the accepted truths of history need to be rethought and questioned as people who recorded both documents and history itself were most probably biased throughout history. “The postmodern reply to the modern”, as Umberto Eco utters, “consists of recognizing that the past [...] must be revisited: but with irony, not innocently” (qtd. in Hutcheon 90). Hence, postmodern theorists and novelists believe that they need to question and revisit history and they unsurprisingly begin to deconstruct it as Oscar Wilde also maintains in the nineteenth century, “The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it” (qtd. in Hutcheon 96). Historiographic metafiction, for example, has emerged as one of the means of questioning and rewriting history in the postmodern period. It mainly aims to “re-write or represent the past in fiction and in history to open it up to the present and to prevent it from being conclusive” (110). Likewise, it falsifies some certain known historical details in order to emphasise the possible failures of official history (Atilla 87). Therefore, it emphasises as a genre of postmodern period that it is not possible to attain the historical truth as the documental archives are also constructed by human beings in an inevitably subjective way. Thus, in Flaubert’s Parrot, Barnes questions the objectivity and reliability of history by underlining the subjectivity and unreliability of both history and documental archives on which history depends. Moreover, he observes that history and documents are only human constructs, so historical truth is not probable to attain (Roberts 26). Likewise, Flaubert’s Parrot is a historiographic metafiction and Barnes achieves ingeniously underlining the subjective and unreliable structure of history by writing in this genre. In Bedggood’s words, The compounding of postmodern historiographic theory with postmodern literary techniques gives rise, in authors such as Swift and Barnes, to greater focus on the contingency of historical records and interpretation of events; to emphasis on the constructedness of history as a discourse or text; to an opening-up of history to include multiple perspectives on events; to an acknowledgement of different sorts of ‘records’ as having historical relevance. (203-4)

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In this sense, Barnes mainly aims to stress that it is impossible to attain the historical truth by his protagonist’s quest to discover Flaubert’s parrot. For example, Braithwaite asks “How do we seize the past?” many times throughout the novel. In Atilla’s words, “Is it by asking questions, by tracing the facts or by collecting evidence? Ironically, the desire to know the past brings nothing but frustration to Braithwaite” (159). Similarly, the existence of two candidates for the true parrot is already a proof of the unreliability of the historical data or objects. People are apparently subject to manipulate history according to their own interests as the two different museums do. Furthermore, Barnes highlights the unreliability of documental archives, as they are nothing more than paper which was written by some people who never saw or knew the French writer personally. As Nicol highlights, “[There are] limits to our attempts to know the past. We cannot access it directly – all we have textual documents which divert us from the real object or event as much as direct us towards it” (117). Braithwaite does not give up searching for the truth till the end of the novel and collects data like a detective, though. However, the data he collects does not help him to reach the historical truth. For instance, he maintains that How can we know such trivial, crucial details? We can study files for decades, but every so often we are tempted to throw up our hands and declare that history is merely another literary genre: the past is autobiographical fiction pretending to be a parliamentary report. (Flaubert’s Parrot 101)

Despite his former resolve, he eventually realises that there is no truth in historical records, so his search ends in failure. In The Sense of an Ending, Barnes similarly emphasises the subjectivity of history and textual documents as well as the unattainability of historical truth again by the personal history of Webster. Like Braithwaite, who excavates history, Webster burrows his personal history to discover the reason of Adrian’s suicide and his son’s mother. Barnes questions history at the very beginning of the novel in the high school class of Webster with the students’ definitions of history. For example, he highlights the subjectivity of historians by Adrian Finn’s spectacular question and views on it: “That’s one of the central problems of history, isn’t it, sir? The question of subjective versus objective interpretation, the fact that we need to know the history of the historian in order to understand the version that is being put in front of us’” (The Sense of an Ending 12). Barnes also underlines how memory and documentation are combined to make up history, by especially the definition of Adrian Finn:

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“‘History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation’” (The Sense of an Ending 17). Moreover, Barnes reflects the unreliability and subjectivity of textual documents by the attitude of Webster who tried to get rid of the memory of Veronica by getting rid of the documents connected with her. Thus, the existence of historical documents is always under danger and history is on a knife-edge situation as documents which history depends on may either be destroyed or manipulated and biased. Likewise, even if these documents for the historical truth exist somewhere, it is usually not easy to attain them. Barnes emphasises this reality by the quest of Webster to attain Adrian’s diary even though it is inherited to him. This diary is a document for him to reveal the past truths, but he unsurprisingly cannot receive the historical truth in it and gives up at last. Moreover, Barnes emphasises that even to have the document also does not mean anything if the person is not true and the document is open to the interpretation of people reading it in the present. For example, Veronica gives a page out of the diary, including the information answering his questions about Adrian, but Webster ironically cannot comprehend what it means until Veronica tells him. At last, he learns that Veronica is not the mother of son Adrian, but his sister. However, he cannot learn why Adrian committed suicide and it is never possible to learn it forever. Therefore, Webster also learns that documents are not enough to discover and unearth the past truth, because they are subjective and unreliable. In short, Julian Barnes is a prominent and leading postmodern writer who shaped British postmodernism with his novels in the 1980s (Groes and Childs Introduction 2). Flaubert’s Parrot, which is accepted as his masterpiece by most critics and readers, and The Sense of an Ending, the winner of the Man Booker Prize in 2011, are two of his ingeniously created novels. He has constructed these two wide-known novels on the three significant concepts of postmodernism; truth, memory and history. He first puts into question these concepts by the views, actions and researches of his protagonists throughout the novels. As a consequence, he effectively proves that truth, memory and history, which were the indisputable concepts of modern period, are not objective, reliable and attainable unlike the claims of modernism.

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Works Cited Atilla, Aylin. Historiography and the English Novel. øzmir: Ege University Press, 2008. Barnes, Julian. Flaubert’s Parrot. London: Vintage, 2009. —. The Sense of an Ending. London: Jonathan Cape, 2011. Bedggood, Daniel. “(Re)constituted Pasts: Postmodern Historicism in the Novels of Graham Swift and Julian Barnes”. The Contemporary British Novel. Eds. James Acheson and Sarah C. E. Ross. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005. Bixler, Jacqueline E. “Re-Membering the Past: Memory-Theatre and Tlatelolco”. Latin American Research Review. Vol. 37, No. 2 (2002), pp. 119-35. 23 May 2012 http://www.jstor.org/stable/2692151 Groes, Sebastian and Peter Childs. Introduction: Julian Barnes and the Wisdom of Uncertainty. Julian Barnes: Contemporary Critical Perspectives. London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2011. pp. 1-10. Hutcheon, Linda. A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. London: Routledge, 1988. Menteúe, Oya Batum. “Bitmemiú Bir Tartúma: Post-Modernizm”. Bir Düúün Yolculu÷u II: “Babil’den Sonra” - Edebiyat, Sanat, Çeviri ve Eleútiri Üzerine Türkçe ve øngilizce Yazlar. Ankara: Bilgesel, 2009. pp. 23-8. Nicol, Bran. The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodern Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Patraúcu, Ecaterina. “Flaubert’s Parrot and the Masks of Identity: Between Postmodernism and the “New Humanism””. Masques. Bucureúti: Universitatea Spiru Haret, 2011. pp. 208-16. Roberts, Ryan. “Inventing a Way to the Truth: Life and Fiction in Julian Barnes’s Flaubert’s Parrot”. Julian Barnes: Contemporary Critical Perspectives. Eds. Sebastian Groes and Peter Childs. London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2011. pp. 24-36. Waugh, Patricia. Introduction. Postmodern: A Reader. London: Arnold, 1992. pp. 1-10.

CHAPTER ELEVEN THE REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN GHOSH’S SEA OF POPPIES FATMA KALPAKLI

In this paper, the image of women in Amitav Ghosh’s novel, namely Sea of Poppies (2008) will be studied. Pramor K. Nayar, in the preface to Contemporary Indian Writers in English, calls Ghosh “one of the most significant voices in Indian and world literature,” observing that “[f]rom the Partition to colonial science to colonialism, Ghosh is interested in the ways in which the violence of history, geography and politics alter lives” (Hawley x). In relation to that, in Sea of Poppies the most prominent problem faced by women seems to be sexual abuse, which involves both physical and psychological violence and how their lives alter afterwards. Another feature of Ghosh’s writings is that “[h]e is fond of occasionally suggesting “alternate” histories - by which [we] do not mean “what if ?” scenarios, but rather a reinterpretation or re-emphasising of things that actually did take place but were not deemed significant enough for posterity’s notice. Sometimes, this means viewing history “from below” – as recorded by non-Europeans, for example – rather than imperial heights” (Hawley 59). Thus, in our novel, he tells alternate histories of women in poppy ships and becomes their voice. Omendra Kumar Singh in his article expresses that “Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies (2008) focuses on one female girmitiya [an indentured labourer] named Deeti1,” (47). She gets married to an impotent opiumaddict and eventually is impregnated by his brother. Hence, her mother-inlaw 2 refers to Deeti as ‘Draupati’ who bears the children of brothers (Malathi 5). The noteworthy point is that her mother-in-law collaborates .

1

a high caste widow from Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh, who elopes with an untouchable (Singh 47) 2 This case also supports the claim of some feminists that there is no sisterhood among women.

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with her younger son in his rape attempt by drugging Deeti. Eventually, Deeti loses her virginity to her brother-in-law, called Chandan Singh. In doing so, the mother-in-law manages to cover the impotency of her elder son and the younger son manages to gratify his sexual desires and his sense of power or authority over Deeti. In reference to rape, Thomas Gregor in his article “Male Dominance and Sexual Coercion” states that “sexual coercion and rape are the mechanisms by which men punish women” (480). By sexual coercion, he means the access to female sexual services through threats, intimidation, or force and this can be seen in the following words uttered by Chandan Singh In Sea of Poppies: “You know very well how your daughter was conceived - why pretend? You know that you would be childless today if not for me” (Ghosh 144). Having obtained an oppressive power over Deeti and “…on the pretext of visiting his brother, Chandan Singh took to invading her home with increasing frequency” (Ghosh 144). Thus, he continues to abuse her constantly and the motives for rape is still a disputed issue, but “[i]n contemporary feminist thinking on the subject, rape is seen as a politically motivated form of assault designed to degrade and brutalize women. Hence rape is said to be a ‘pseudosexual act’ motivated by hostility and the desire to keep women subordinate to men. Hence, we are told that the rapist is not expressing a sexual need, but rather his need to feel powerful – to dominate and control in a sexual context” (Ehrhardt & Sandler, 17). This event traumatised Deeti and she cannot reveal it to anyone. She tries to overcome “rape trauma syndrome” -as mentioned in clinical literature- (Gregor 485) all alone, by herself. As time goes by, Deeti’s husband, elder brother dies and she faces a tough decision: the question of whether she should continue her life or commit sati in accordance with Hindu customs and beliefs. Surprisingly enough, she seems to be ready for jumping into flames and is about to choose sati consciously, she does not illustrate any fears of flames in the novel, “Of all her concerns, perhaps the least pressing was that of being consumed by the cremation fire: a few mouthfuls of opium, she knew, would render her insensible to the pain” (Ghosh 146). Richard Shweder introduces the unknown facts in his course called “Cultural Psychology” about the tradition of sati in India and explains that most of the widows want to practise sati in order not be excluded by their friends and to gain fame and honour in their community after their death, thinking that isolation in their community is something more horrible than to die in the fire. Thus, when British authorities prohibit the practise sati, in fact they do not make things easier for widows, but on the contrary

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harder considering the fact that they have to lead miserable lives by breaking the social norms and rejecting to practise their traditions. Therefore, it is still a disputable issue whether British law gives more rights to the Indian women or restrict their freedom by forbidding sati and by preventing them to gain honour and respect in their community. When Indian women disobey the social rules and fail to meet the expectations of their society, then they begin to suffer from the feeling of shame or in other words from loss of face among their contemporaries. In order to understand the sufferings of Indian women, we should first understand the feeling of shame and it is defined as “the wish to remain loveable, and the fear that if truly known, one will be found lacking” (qtd. in Shweder 1114). Thus, “a person feels shame… when they are made to feel degraded, dirty, or impure by the attention of others, which can happen in many ways” (qtd.in Shweder 1114). Taking all the information given so far into account, then the choice to die or commit sati seems to have more advantages than to live and this might be understood better if you are familiar with the Indian movie called Water, which gives an insight into the lives of widows in India. If you are a widow, you are deprived of many things in your life to make sure that you should not enjoy life after your husband’s death. For instance, even trivial things like eating sweet food or dessert is forbidden for widows. Not surprisingly, Deeti’s brother-in-law also admits that “[t]o have a sati in the family will make [them] famous. [They] will build a temple for [Deeti] and grow rich on the offerings” (Ghosh 145). Malathi and Prema in their article entitled “Portrayal of Women in the Selected Novels of Amitav Ghosh” suggest that “[n]o one helps her at the death bed of her husband. She takes precautious steps to thwart her daughter’s future to be at stake. After his death Deeti is socially despised to commit sati because of the persistence of tradition by the society” (5). As the social pressure to commit sati increases on her, so does her submissiveness to ethics of Indian community, though unwillingly. This is clearly shown in the passage below: “It was not as if she could promise her daughter a better life by staying alive as the mistress and ‘keep’ of a man of no account, like Chandan Singh… When looked at in this way, it seemed to Deeti that to go on living would be nothing more than selfishness – she could only be an impediment to her daughter’s happiness” (Ghosh 145-146). Malathi and Prema further explain that “[t]he basic teaching imparted to every woman in a patriarchal traditional society is to commit sati in the funeral pyre of her husband. Some accept sati voluntarily while some are forced. Deeti does not mount the funeral pyre of her husband, unlike the

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traditional ladies to commit sati. But she is victimized to commit sati by her family” (5). To escape criticism and shame, she decides to conform to the Indian traditions. That is understandable, considering that “shame is the deeply felt and highly motivating experience of the fear of being judged defective. It is the anxious experience of either the real or anticipated loss of status, affection or self-regard that results from knowing that one is vulnerable to the disapproving gaze or negative judgment of others. It is a terror that touches the mind, the body, and the soul precisely because one is aware that one might be seen to have come up short in relationship to some shared and uncontested ideal that defines what it means to be a good, worthy, admirable, attractive, or competent person, given one’s status or position in society” (Shweder 1115).

In other words, one’s name and fame is still very important as it was in ancient Greece and “one’s loss of face” (Shweder 1115) might be much more horrible than to die. Thus, people are “vulnerable to the disapproving gaze” (Shweder 1115) of others and want to preserve their status in their close circles. Throughout the novel, the theme of sexual abuse and rape occur very frequently and it is also illustrated that black women slaves are perceived as objects of sexual gratification and as something disposable and as an extension of this attitude, we learn that another character’s, Zachary’s mother is raped by her master (Ghosh 280) and Deeti was not the only rape victim in Sea of Poppies. In addition to them, Paulette, a creole woman, an orphaned daughter of a French botanist was abused by her benefactor called Mr Burnham (Ghosh 276). In the name of educating Paulette, Mr Burnham does not hesitate to enforce his fantasies on her such as whip-beating. Paulette says that “[Mr Burnham] said my spiritual education would not progress otherwise “Strike!” he cried, “smite me with thine hand!” (Ghosh 277). Later on, during the sea journey, we see the subedar, Bhyro Singh abusing Deeti explicitly: “He ran a finger up her neck and tweaked her ear-lobe: Don’t you know, he said, that I’m the one who’s in charge of your allotments?” (Ghosh 437). Also, a female character named Munia cannot say “no” to her boyfriend out of the fear of public exposure and eventually had a son out of wedlock, as it is expressed in the following words: “She had enjoyed the secrecy and the romance and even the fondling, until the night when he forced himself on her: after that for fear of public exposure, she had continued to do his bidding” (Ghosh 226). So far, we see that in Ghosh’s novel, women do not have any power over their bodies. They are available for the sexual services to men and

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they cannot decide whether they will live or die. In other words, women’s bodies are directed by men’s decisions and desires. In addition to all these things, from time to time, they are secluded from their community due to the unreasonable assumptions. For example, at the time of their menses, they are perceived as dirty and disgusting. Ghosh gives a reference to that cultural belief, which was also observed in medieval Europe, which was the seclusion of women during their menstruation. This cultural observation reveals the belief that women at the time of their period are considered as dirty and may bring bad luck to their community and thus are sent out of their home to a secluded place: “It so happened that it was Munia’s time of the month, so she was sleeping away from others, out in the fields…” (Ghosh 226). As a result of those superstitious beliefs, women were secluded during their menstruation in Sea of Poppies. In regard to these assumptions in his study, Gregor adds that “[a]t the time of her first menses she is secluded and takes medicines to staunch the flow of contaminating blood. Each month she must throw away food or water that the blood may have magically polluted. Men who are sick or ritually vulnerable will have to leave her house to avoid the contamination. A […] woman is therefore regarded as dangerous, sexually alluring, and yet at the same time, faintly ridiculous” (Gregor 484). In other words, these “hygienic practices and precautions associate feminine sexuality with danger” (Gregor 479). A biological symptom which shows that a woman is healthy and fertile, is misinterpreted and perceived as dirty in most of the patriarchal societies. Interestingly enough, Seda Diker in her book3 informs us that there were times, when women were given special care in some places called “moon-houses” through massages and services at the times of their menses in matriarchal societies (34). However, with the transition to the patriarchy, things have changed and women become the second classcitizens and servers, not the served ones. Another interesting point given in the novel is that there is a relationship between the costumes of women and honour. In the Indian case, it seems that veil represents honour of a woman, and extensionally her family’s honour as well. In Sea of Poppies, there are many passages which emphasize this kind of relationship between veil or purdah and honour:

3

See Seda Diker’s Book entitled Actually Men Never Desert: Forgotten Secrets of Femininity. (Aslnda Giden Erkek Yoktur: Diúi Olmann Unutulan Srlar). østanbul: Destek Yaynevi, 2011. Pg. 34

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The covers had dropped from her ever-veiled face, and [Malati] had torn open the bindings of her braids so that her hair lay on her shoulders like a dark shroud of grief… it was as if the uncovering of her face stripped the veil from his own manhood, leaving [Neel, her husband] naked and exposed to the gloating pity of the world, to a shame that could never be overcome. (Ghosh 159)

Thus, dropping veil is associated with exposing her husband’s genitals to the public eye, which might be a very shameful experience for a person. A woman’s costumes and even her simple, trivial actions are seen in relation to her husband as she does not have an identity by herself. To put it another way, a woman becomes an extension of her husband, like an arm or a leg. Another illustration of this attitude may also be seen when Malati, a woman character says to her husband that “[i]t wasn’t for my own sake that I kept purdah – it was because you and your family wanted it. And it means nothing now: we have nothing to preserve and nothing to lose” (Ghosh 248). Contrary to the Indian way of thinking depicted in the scene above, in Anglo-American culture, purdah has very negative connotations as it is stated by Richard Shweder. He expresses that …a veiled face, physical withdrawal from the scene, and modesty are associated in the minds of contemporary middle-class Anglo-Americans with concepts such as meek, timid, bashful, mousy, sheepish, shrinking, embarrassed, self-deprecating, not ego enhanced, humiliated, degraded, weak. This is not true in [Indian] Oriya Brahman households, at least not in the temple town of Bhubaneswar. Among Oriya Brahmans, lajya elicits a quite different set of associations: unpretentious, unobstrusive, reserved, self-restrained, humble, proper, civilized, self-effacing, not brazen, decent, elegant, delicate, undefiled, unsullied, powerful, virtuous, good. (Shweder 1125)

In other words, veil, a veiled face is associated with honour, shyness and thus being a virtuous person in India. As paralel to these cultural beliefs, in the novel the relationship between covering up and shame is also shown in the dialogue between Deeti and Munia below: Chastened, Kalua and the other men stepped into the boat and reached up to help the women down, one by one. Munia hung back and waited until there was only one pair of hands that was unoccupied – the boatman’s. When she made her jump, he caught her neatly, by the waist, and deposited her gently in the boat: but in the process, somehow, Munia’s ghungta slipped – whether by accident or design Deeti could not tell – and there

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Here, the fear of losing one’s status in the society is revealed by Deeti’s concerns about other people’s thoughts and when she utters the words, “Don’t you have any shame? Cover up at once!” (Ghosh 257). However, for Munia ethics of autonomy, rather than ethics of community (see Shweder’s article, “Toward a Deep Cultural Psychology of Shame”) has the priority in her life and defends herself by declaring that it is not a crime and follows her own urges and acts as she likes. As opposed to her Deeti, being “as the senior married woman of the group, it was her duty to enforce the proprities” (Ghosh 257) and accordingly follows ethics of community and becomes the voice of the Indian society and social norms during their stay in the ship called Ibis (which is a former slave ship4). The protagonist of the novel, “Deeti is shown to be a leader in the making” (Singh 52) by acting like big sister and by reminding the ethics of community to the other females in the ship. In relation to purdah, Thomas Gregor in his essay “Male Dominance and Sexual Coercion” states that In contemporary cultures, the institutions that perpetuate gender inequality are varied… The first, in its purest form, is that of the seclusion of women or ‘purdah,’ which is characteristic of the circum-Mediterranean area and the Near East [and in some parts of India], in which women are restricted by codes of sexual modesty. The mechanisms of purdah include veiling, chaperonage, proof of virginity at marriage, and in extreme cases clitoridectomy and infibulation. So effective is women’s exclusion from 4

In An Antique Land, slavery is mentioned as a kind of “career-opening” (259-60) (Hawley 89) and similarly, in our novel Ibis, opium ship may open new ways to our female characters such as Paulette, who wants to travel around the world like an adventurer and likewise, Deeti assumes a new name and life there.

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the public life of their communities in such cultures that as political actors they are virtually ‘nonpersons’. (Gregor 478)

Consequently, the female crew in Ibis have still a long way to go to gain their rights and to have equal rights with the male crew there. Yet, Ghosh is optimistic about women issues 5 and in the first book of his trilogy, he draws his female characters in the making and most probably, at the end of his trilogy we will find fully developed, self-reliant female characters. Who knows what the future holds for our female characters in the next two sequel to Sea of Poppies.

Works Cited Diker, Seda. Actually Men Never Desert: Forgotten Secrets of Femininity. (Aslnda Giden Erkek Yoktur: Diúi Olmann Unutulan Srlar). østanbul: Destek Yaynevi, 2011. Ehrhardt, Julie K. & Bernice R. Sandler. Campus Gang Rape: Party Games? Project of the a Status and Education of Women. Washington DC: Association of American Colleges, 1985. Gregor, Thomas. “Male Dominance and Sexual Coercion”, Cultural Psychology. Ed. James W. Stigler. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1990. 477-495. Hawley, John C. Contemporary Indian Writers in English. Delhi: Foundation Books, 2005. Malathi and Prema. “Portrayal of Women in the Selected Novels of Amitav Ghosh”, http://www.tjellls.com/article/308_malathi.pdf. 1 March 2013. Shweder, Richard. “Toward a Deep Cultural Psychology of Shame”, Social Research.Vol.70, No.4 Winter 2003. 1109-1130. —. “Cultural Psychology Course Notes”. The University of Chicago. Autumn 2010. Singh, Omendra Kumar. “Reinventing Caste: Indian Diaspora in Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies”, Asiatic. Vol.6, No.1, June 2012. 47-58.

5

However, the novel ends optimistically with the news of Deeti’s pregnancy, “[h]ow strange it was to feel the presence of a body inside her, lurching in time to her own movements: it was as if her belly were the sea, and the child a vessel, sailing towards its own destiny” (Ghosh 424). In other words, when the ship Ibis starts to sail on the ocean, women’s voyage within starts as well. Thus, baby might be taken as a symbol of hope and a new chapter in Deeti’s and her husband’s life.

CHAPTER TWELVE DISCOURSE OF MASCULINITY IN THE DESCENDANTS FERYAL ÇUBUKÇU

Masculinity is not stable but fluid, a sign means that masculinity is not static but it changes by virtue of interactions in space and time. In ancient Greece same sex virility was seen as masculinity if one was the sexual penetrator. Or a dandy was considered as acceptable type of masculinity. It is sometimes thought that “gender is a continuum with masculinity at one end and femininity at the other and that human beings oscillate from moment to moment between the two gender poles on that continuum” (Reeser 2010, 45). A man might have some masculinity in playing softball but less in the evening while he is helping his wife or cooking for his family. The excess of postmodernism takes masculinity towards a moderate approach and such an approach operates in a relation that is not necessarily simple or antithetical. Masculinity is not simply produced biologically or naturally. There are so many sources that influence today’s boys/men and it is very difficult to isolate a single source. Masculinity is not totally contained within the male body. Many institutions have been interested in it, that is why we have a military version of masculinity, the business world, the corporations, media where we can see different forms of masculinity. Images related to advertising are particularly important in this context, for example a Calvin Klein underwear ad featuring David Beckham may suggest and depict a certain image of masculinity with great force, which might not be direct representations of actual or frequent masculinity but symbolic images that pave the way for diverse interpretation. Images can be turned into myths such as The Odyssey or Iliad of which elements are considered to represent a universal masculinity that links all men. Male superheroes such as superman, spiderman, and batman could be considered mythological figures in this sense. Another way in which masculinity is propagated as ideology is discourse. A growing feminist discourse and gay discourse

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“provokes a masculinity crisis as they transform cultural ideologies of masculinity into something that does not yet conform to individual experiences” (Reeser 2010, 27). Some including Reeser say that feminism in the 1970s and 1980s precipitated a crisis in masculinity and some believe that the visibility of male homosexuality has put heterosexual masculinity into crisis. “Where there is power, there is resistance”, says Foucault ( 1979, 95), that is why it can be claimed that masculinity has not been in a crisis but trying to resist the other discourses of gay and feminism. Discourses that privilege masculinity reject or destabilize the norm, an event. According to Badinter (1995, 9) and Kimmel (1986, 127), there have been two crises in masculinity, such as in France and England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and in Europe and the USA at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Such crises have occurred in countries where there have been great ideological, economic or social upheavals precipitating changes in social values especially greater freedoms for women. The first crisis in the twentieth century involved the questioning of the marriage institution and the demand for dignity, education and equality. This led to an inversion of roles involving the emergence of new feminised men who adopted similar behaviours. The second crisis was when a new type of woman emerged who demanded greater participation in life and equal pay for equal work. This led to a masculine anxiety as well for men who felt threatened by this new woman. This crisis of masculinity was temporarily resolved by the two world wars which served as an outlet and a test of manliness for many men (Bander 1995, 20). The third crisis coincides with the 1990s and on when the sissy gene is accepted to exist by medical and sociological authorities and gay marriages are permitted in many parts of the world. The novel, The Descendants, written by Kaui Hart Hemmings, is narrated in such a bold way that readers are drawn to the lush, panoramic backdrop of Hawaii. Hemmings’ novel is a stunning debut about an unconventional family forced to come together and recreate its own legacy. Matthew King was once considered one of the most fortunate men in Hawaii. His missionary ancestors who came to the islands were financially and culturally progressive—one even married a Hawaiian princess, making Matt a royal descendant and one of the state’s largest landowners. Now his luck has changed. His two daughters are out of control—ten-year-old Scottie has a smart-ass attitude and a desperate need for attention, and seventeen year-old Alex, a former model, is a recovering drug addict. His thrill seeking and high maintenance wife, Joanie, lies in a coma after a boat

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Chapter Twelve racing accident, and will soon be taken off life support. The King family can hardly picture life without their charismatic mother, but, as they come to terms with this tragedy, their sadness is mixed with a sense of freedom that shames them—and spurs them into surprising actions. Before honouring Joanie’s living will, Matt must gather her friends and family to say their final goodbyes, a difficult situation made worse by the sudden discovery that there is one person who hasn’t been told—the man with whom Joanie had been having an affair—quite possibly the one man she ever truly loved. Forced to examine what he owes not only to the living but to the dead, Matt takes to the road with his daughters to find his wife’s lover, on a memorable journey which leads to both painful revelations and unforeseen humour and growth. www.kauiharthemmings.com

It is possible to apply to this book the Reeser’s model, a tripartite one where masculinity is defined as in relation to gender and sexuality. He suggests that masculinity can be defined through opposition with its others especially women and gay/other men but here especially his wife Joanie and her boyfriend. The fact that Matt feels insulted and shocked at learning from his eldest daughter that his wife has had a secret affair can only be explained with his feeling of not masculine enough compared to his wife’s boyfriend. Even his wife is stronger and more enduring than he is. While Matt is busy with working and trying to enjoy his wealth and selling his ancestors’ land, she joins the boat races, leads a risky life and acts as a full time mother. The gap between his muscular image and his psyche constitutes a sort of masculinity which can be defined by the dialogic relation between man and discourse or image of the maleness in his mind. He feels demasculinized at some points such as when he meets his wife’s boyfriend outside and unable to say anything to his face except for nodding and greeting him. In the end he finally finds the courage to go to his place to talk about his wife’s being taken off life support with his eldest daughter. While Alex, his eldest daughter, keeps his wife busy, he talks to him and gives the news. His remasculinizing himself is achieved through his teenager daughter’s assistance and company. It is clear he has been suffering because he imagines himself unmanly under the influence of his cultural context. The tension between the culturally defined maleness and his imagined self defines what he thinks of himself in terms of masculinity. The important thing about masculinity is the male body. From the beginning male bodies which have been socially and historically constructed as naturally different from female bodies have been constructed as the standard for measuring and evaluating other bodies and this constitutes a part of masculinity as well. It is possible to trace back the muscular ideal to the ancient Greece. In his book The Image of Man,

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George Mosse (1996) claims that the construction of modern masculinity, involving an emphasis on the physical body, was closely linked with the older aristocratic ideas of masculinity, medieval ideas such as chivalry and honour which “ in the modern age, meant not only moral but also general toughness. Physical skill and dexterity had always been prized as necessary to defend one’s honour” (19). The new society is believed to look at the entire male body as an example of virility, strength and courage expressed through the proper posture. Since the nineteenth century, more and more, masculinity was defined in terms of vigour, competitiveness, bodily strength and assertiveness (Petersen 1998, 47). Organized sports, schools and colleges took on a particular significance in nurturing those qualities seen as “manly”. It was during this time that the nature of the mind and its relationship to the body began to be dated. One could strengthen the will by strengthening the body. Here rather than the male body of Matt, his eye gets the focus of the novel as it reflects the outer world. Although he runs regularly to keep fit and even never misses his jogging by the seaside when he tries to locate his wife’s boyfriend. He finds Joanie’s boyfriend in one of his cousins’ rented houses. The male eye penetrates the outside world and especially women; however, his eye is only on his work and daughters. However, for a while his eye rests on the wife of the lover of Joanie by kissing her vehemently after divulging Joanie’s case to her husband. The fact that Matt’s partially naked body is not visible as a representation in the novel shows that the simple revealing of the body is not enough to denote objectification. In one scene where Matt learns from his elder daughter Alex that his wife has been cheating on him for the past two years, he rushed to the street to reach the end of the street to find the best friend of his wife to get the double check, it is worth seeing him running in the half slippers, far away from the image of masculinity. Unlike the traditional way where man functions as gazer and woman as object, which permeates culture, the novel shows woman as gazer and man as the object of fixation where the roles of women are attributed to men, making the woman , Matt’s wife invisible, on the verge of death tied to a life sustaining machine. Matt constructs his identity by appropriating what seems antithetical to masculinity, adopts the traits attributed to women and mothers, by taking daughters home, helping them sort out their problem with their friends at school, by cooking and feeding them, by teaching them good manners and kind expressions, by taking care of them and by sharing the night TV sessions with them on the couch. This shows that a man can be both masculine and feminine at the same time. However, he is far from feminized. In the face of potential

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masculinity crisis, seen at the end of novel, he asserts his masculinity being a better parent than a woman. Another important feature of masculinity is reason (Petersen 1998). The connection between masculinity and rationality and the opposition of masculinity and emotionality are central themes defining masculinity. The privileging of the mind over the body, rational control and the domination of nature are closely seen with masculinity. In The Descendants, there are so many scenes where Matt shows himself vulnerable to emotional traumas, gets angry at his wife and daughters, trying to pursue the secret lover. Instead of mother functioning as the child’s primary caregiver, socializer and the father’s being a secondary object, we have the roles reversed. Such non gender specific ways make Matt both endearing and loveable in the eyes of female readers. Male nurturance refutes the cultural notion that fathers are inept and uninterested in interacting with children and reimburses that unexceptional men provide primary care for the kids and elderly. Despite getting harsh treatment in the hands of his father-inlaw, Matt, tolerates him and shows great sympathy for him and never says anything to hurt him about his wife’s infidelity and always depicts a picture of her as an ideal wife. The idea that women have stronger moral choices and voices is denied here by giving a male character a strong and moral voice. Matt’s natural attachment and empathy make him more suited to care and to be concerned with the others’ needs. Gilligan (1993, xx) assumes a gender-specific rationality by claiming that the differences between women and men centre on a tendency for women and men to make different relational errors-for men to think if they know themselves, they will also know women and for women to think if they know others, they will come to know themselves. Thus men and women collude in not voicing women’s experiences and build relationships around a silence that is maintained by men’s not knowing their disconnection from women and women’s not knowing their dissociation from themselves. However, in the novel, Matt dexterously deconstructs this thread by getting to know the others rather than focusing on himself and centralizing his thoughts on his life, expectations and needs. Elizabeth, on the other hand, is the one who is too self-absorbed and adamant to know the others. Freud seems to suggest that the essence of masculinity is libido associated with sexual energy, initiative, drive and aggression, what is called activity as opposed to passivity (MacInnen 1998, 86). Masculinity is considered to distinguish at least three uses in a biological, psychological and sociological sense. Every individual displays a mixture of the character traits belonging to his own and to the opposite sex, and he shows a combination of activity and passivity whether or not these last

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character traits tally with his biological ones (Freud 1962). The question of why females and males ever choose to abandon their polymorphous perversity and establish their gender in the first place is answered through an integration of these biological, psychological and sociological ways. However, “psychology and sociology need to understand each other by saying that the self is something that can never be perfectly socialized, that in part lies beyond the public, that, in other words, contains an unconscious” (MacInnen 1998, 148). As Foucault’s concept of practices of the self suggests, identity is never simply imposed on subjects but involves a process of self-constitution within specific sociocultural contexts. Different contexts provide different degrees of freedom for the individual to act. As Moore (1994) holds, there exist competing and potentially contradictory discourses on gender and sexuality rather than a single discourse. Postmodernity may have created particular ideals of masculine embodiment and subjectivity but it also has produced oppositional discourses. Essentialism and reductionism about the roles of gender are not easily applied in today’s literary texts such as The Descendants. Critics try to adhere to the principles of behaviouristic and individualistic features in the texts, however, they have failed to recognise the complexity of interconnections between different dualisms such as nature/culture, mind/body, individual/society, and such dualisms are historically and culturally contingent. Many people now look forward to the emergence of new or reconceptualised models of identity that permit a wider range of sexual and personal possibilities that is implied by the sex/gender system. Petersen (1998, 130) believes “change cannot be expected to occur in the short term. With the new millennium, it is possible to witness and reflect upon the normative ideals of masculine identity and to consider whether new ways of being might be encouraged or not and whether such news ways will persist or not”.

Works Cited Badinter, Elizabeth. On Mascular Identity: NY: Columbia University Press, 1995. Edwards, Tim. Cultures of Masculinity. NY:. Routledge, 2006. Freud, Sigmund. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. NY: Basic Books, 1962. Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1979.

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Gilligan, Carol. In a Different Voice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982. Hearn, Jeff. “Man as Managers” in David Collinson, Jeff Hearn. Linstead, S., Grafton Small, R. and Jeffcutt, P. (eds) Critical Perspectives on Men, Masculinities, and Managements, 167-185, London: Sage, 1996. Hemming, Kaui Hart. The Descendants. London: Vintage Books, 2012 Hare-Mustin , Rachel Can We Demystify Theory? Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 24, 1, (2004): 14-29 Kimmel, Michael. “The Contemporary Crisis of Masculinity in Historical Perspective”, in H. Brod (ed),. The Making of Masculinities, 121-153. Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1987 Lowry, Richard. “Domestic Interiors: Boyhood Nostalgia And Affective Labour In The Gilded Age”. In J. Pfister & N. Schnog, (Eds.), Inventing the psychological: Toward a cultural history of emotional life in America, 110-132. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997 MacInnen, John. The End of Masculinity. London: Open University Press, 1998. Moore, Henrietta. A Passion for Difference. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994 Mosse, George. The Image of Man. NY: Oxford University, 1996. Petersen, Alan. Unmasking the Masculine. London: Sage, 1998. Reeser, Todd. Masculinities in Theory. Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. www.kauiharthemmings.com retrieved on October 9, 2012.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN THE GROTESQUE LAUGHTER IN JAMES JOYCE’S ULYSSES GAMZE YALÇIN

This paper aims to elucidate James Joyce’s Ulysses in the light of Bakhtinian perspective of Grotesque laughter. Throughout the centuries laughter has preserved its place as one of the most discussed topics. Various theories have been written on laughter and many important figures discussed laughter in their works. Discussions generally polarize around two different perspectives. While on the one side, there are figures such as Plato, Aristotle, Spencer, Hobbes and Ludovici who embraced negative approach and supported Plato’s utterance that laughter is the matter of lower people who are self-ignorant, and it causes people to lose their rational faculties as well as makes them irresponsible, on the other side , there are figures such as Reich, Hippocrates, Democritus and Rabelais who celebrated positive approach and endorsed the views that laughter has a healing power, and it defeats fear and distinguishes man from the beast because it is the highest spiritual privilege with which man is endowed. This second perspective which is also reinforced by Bakhtin, reached the zenith with Rabelais. Rabelais not only rejected all negative aspects of laughter but also linked laughter with birth, renewal, fertility, abundance, food and drink and people’s earthly immortality of future things and presented it as an expression of freedom, joy, double face of life, rejuvenation and life circle. This different perspective to laughter is described as grotesque realism and grotesque laughter by Bakhtin. James Joyce is one of the most prominent authors who made use of elements of grotesque laughter in his work Ulysses in an efficient way. Joyce created his own world where everything is debased and distorted. By doing this Joyce, like Rabelais, intended to liberate people from all interior and exterior censorships, saved them from “thousands of year’s fear of the sacred of prohibitions of the past power” and presented “the world in its gayest and most sober aspects.”

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Mikhail Bakhtin defined the essential features of the grotesque realism and grotesque laughter in his work Rabelais and His World. Bakhtin showed Rabelais and his books Gargantua and Pantagruel as the prominent examples of the grotesque realism and the grotesque laughter, because in his works, Rabelais defended laughter against all negative features that are attributed to it. He emphasized the universal character of laughter and its positive, rejuvenating, healing power. Rabelais, at the beginning of his book Gargantua, clearly expresses the reason of his positive attitude towards laughter with his sentence “Better to write about laughter than tears, for laughter is inherent to man." Thus, according to Bakhtin, Rabelais represents the high point of the summit in the history of laughter. However, in order to evaluate Bakhtin and Rabelais' positive perception of laughter, firstly it is important to analyse the negative approaches to laughter as well as the place of laughter in the historical process. Although laughter is inseparable part of human life, throughout the ages it has not been valued by most of the philosophers and literary men. On the contrary, laughter is generally considered as a negative concept that addresses the lower people in life and lower genre in literature. The reflection of this negative perception of laughter can be traced back to the works of the ancient age philosophers, Plato and Aristotle. Plato in his works Republic and The Laws indicated that laughter emanates from the self-ignorance, human evil and folly and causes people to lose the control of their rational faculties. Thus, this morally damaging attitude, in an ideal state should be censored and tightly controlled. Furthermore Plato advanced his claims signifying that it is harmful even to portray laughter in literature. Especially “the persons of worth must not be represented as overcome by laughter" because this presentation debases them. Aristotle also in his works Poetics and Rhetoric reinforced Plato's perception of laughter. In his works he signified that laughter is a form of derision, and it is scorn and antisocial. He also stated that too much laughter makes one nonserious and ethically damaged. However he defended the idea that laughter can be permitted if it serves as a social guide which prevents people from performing laughable and immoral deeds. In contrast to Plato and Aristotle's perceptions of laughter, in the middle ages, according to Bakhtin, there was a more positive attitude towards laughter. As Bakhtin pointed out, laughter in the middle ages was outside of all official spheres and it penetrated into the highest class and churches. Although Christianity forbade laughter and found it as a deed of Satan, in the middle ages many feasts started to be celebrated by religious people too. Feasts of fools, Christmas laughter, Easter laughter, parodia

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sacra, festa stultorum, were some of these feasts that were officially celebrated by church. In these feasts rituals of church, saints and martyrs, old and new testaments were mocked and debased. By doing this Medieval laughter not only destroyed the taboos but also created a free zone to relieve from all imposed rules of the official life. In the renaissance, according to Bakhtin, laughter had deep philosophical meaning and emerged from the depths of folk culture. Laughter in this age entered the sphere of great literature with its vernacular language and lived its most popular process. Furthermore in this age, some playwrights justified the existence of comedy according to Plato and Aristotle's perceptions that comedy can serve a corrective function by rendering people to avoid the vices portrayed on the stage. In 17th century laughter lost its deep philosophical meaning and universality and referred to individual tastes and social life. In this century laughter was considered as lower and corrupted type because important things, history and persons representing it, cannot be comic. Therefore any literary text that includes laughter was labelled as low genre and even, it is said that comedy works in this century were the most responsible ones of puritan censorship and closure of the theatres. In 18th century, as Bakhtin states in his work Rabelais and His World, under the effect of 17th century's official and dogmatic tendencies, laughter lost its universal outlook and reduced to bare mockery. Other reasons of degradation of laughter were the degeneration of popular festive forms and the combination of lower bodily stratum to erotic frivolity and wantonness rather than fertility and rejuvenation. In the 19th century criticisms about laughter continued. In this age while George Vasey in his book A Philosophy of Laughter and Smiling claimed that laughter is morally objectionable and medically harmful because it involves harmful stimulation of muscles, Baudelaire in his essay "Of the Essence of Laughter, and Generally of the Comic in the Plastic Arts " presented laughter as satanic and "therefore profoundly human" He also stated that laughter is the result of man's idea of superiority, and emphasized the contradictory nature of laughter in the aspect of its being a sign of both greatness and wretchedness in relation to the human nature. Baudelaire furthermore claimed that through laughter humanity "acquires a potential for evil and understanding of evil..." In the 20th century laughter started to be evaluated as both negative and positive concepts. John Morreal in his work Taking Laughter Seriously argued that in this epoch, laughter, still, was not much respected by reporting Anthony Ludovici's point of view about laughter: "According to Ludovici...laughter is the act of an inferior person trying to

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maintain or achieve some status, but without expanding much effort to do so. A strong noble person would never be found laughing." As opposed to Ludovici and Morreal's ideas, in the 20th century there were figures who stressed the relieving and liberating power of the laughter. Sigmund Freud was one of the these figures, who in his work Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious argued that laughter is an expression of suppressed and forbidden feelings such as sex and hostility, and this expression provides a catharsis of nervous energy that is gathered as a result of suppression. For this reason, according to Freud, any taboo can be source of laughter. All these theories and criticisms about laughter highlight the inference that laughter, throughout the centuries, generally considered as wicked element of life and literature. Laughter, generally in the eyes of philosophers, critics and literary men, could not pass beyond to be an evil concept that debases, takes people away from the reality as well as rationality and damages ethically, physically and characteristically. Nevertheless among these negative approaches it is possible to see figures who mention the positive and relieving features of laughter. Grotesque laughter that is presented by Rabelais and supported by Bakhtin, is one of the positive approaches to laughter which, as opposed to the negative point of views, is not related to darkness, evil or inferiority. It is actually an expression of birth, renewal, fertility, abundance, freedom, joy and rejuvenation. Grotesque laughter opposes the idea that anything that is important cannot be comical. In the Grotesque laughter, there is not any event that cannot be comic, any reality that cannot be reversed or anyone that cannot be debased. Grotesque laughter turns the world upside down, and while doing this it does not present an individual taste of humour because laughter, according to Mikhail Bakhtin, is “as universal as seriousness... directed at the whole world, at history, at all societies, at ideology.” Furthermore laughter reflects unofficial truth of people and destroys the wall between official and unofficial. Going beyond all dogmas, ideologies and restrictions, grotesque laughter shows the life together with its serious and comic aspects, official and unofficial face and destroyed and renewed cycle. It destroys class consciousness, limitations and authority as well as it defeats fear. However, while doing this grotesque laughter does not totally exclude seriousness. It just opposes intolerant, dogmatic and official countenance of it. As Bakhtin also states that "...seriousness and laughter coexist and reflect each other." Moreover, grotesque laughter gives special importance to human body. This body is not something that consists of mere appearance, purified from all its defects or isolated and private existence. Grotesque body is an

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existence that is deformed, problematic, even dismembered, mutilated, unfinished and cosmic. It is continuously renewed by the world and renews the world itself. Grotesque body in this case represents the flux of life and world in a continuously rejuvenated and changing body. Besides, this representation emphasizes the elements of grotesque laughter, which are fertility, abundance, rejuvenation, healing and duality. In addition grotesque laughter takes folk culture as its source and makes marketplace its setting and by saving itself from all limitations of officiality establishes "its own world versus the official world, its own church versus the official church, its own state versus the official state” and supports freedom in every field of life. The reflection of this freedom can be seen from usage of language, eating, drinking to behaviours of characters. Festivals and carnivals are the best places where people can best feel this freedom. Grotesque laughter, which is also notable in James Joyce's Ulysses, can be realized through juxtaposing the elements of grotesque realism. Since grotesque realism is directly related to life cycle and various stages of it, laughter, reflects the true face of life. It does not detach its ties from popular festive forms and offer a monological point of view. On the contrary this laughter includes social criticism, emphasizes rebellion to old traditions, opposes all kinds of officiality which draws people among the walls of traditional dogmas, and represents rejuvenation, fertility, abundance and freedom against old. Incongruous world, which is built by grotesque realistic elements, showing different faces of life and presenting irrelevant elements together, is filled with healing, positive and rejuvenating laughter. Mikhail Bakhtin in his work Rabelais and His World stresses this feature of grotesque realism uttering that: The essence of the grotesque is precisely to present a contradictory and double faced fullness of life. Negation and destruction (death of the old) are included as an essential phase, inseparable from affirmation, from the birth of something new and better.

James Joyce’s Ulysses creates its own special world where everything has double meaning. Dualities in the novel such as behaviours of characters, grotesque body and language, both contribute to the carnivalistic atmosphere of the novel and provide grotesque laughter in its literary festival. As Bakhtin pointed out people have two lives; the official and carnivalistic life. “Two aspects of the world the serious and the laughing aspect coexist in their consciousness." The gap between characters’ lives and their actions, which is created by this coexistence, becomes one of the

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main sources of the grotesque laughter in Ulysses. In Joyce’s novel every character both has an official personality which he shows to the outer world and has an unofficial personality shaped by his unconscious world and unrestricted desires. These two personalities are the reflections of the life’s duality in a human body and character. In the novel the official and unofficial lives of characters, especially Bloom, Molly and Stephen's constitute a good instance of duality. While officially characters prefer to sustain serious life, which is "subjugated to a strict hierarchal order, full of terror, dogmatism, reverence and piety" unofficially in the light of their desires they lead a carnivalistic life, which is "free and unrestricted, full of ambivalent laughter, blasphemy, debasing and obscenities..." For instance Bloom is considered as a man of mind, but he is cuckolded and dethroned husband as well, or Stephen officially acts his role as a poet and as a teacher, but outside his official role he is the true performer of carnival life. Furthermore, Bloom and Molly's marriage is another example of duality in the novel. Their change of roles in their marriage creates grotesque laughter by distorting traditional gender roles. While Bloom deals with the deeds that are attributed to women by patriarchy such as cooking and cleaning, Molly is the one who swears, deceives her husband and owns the authority. Moreover both Bloom and Molly are fond of the satisfaction of their sexual desires as well as eating, drinking, enjoyment and feasts, which is a clear indication of their unofficial life. This twofold lives emphasize the fact that; Ulysses's characters are dual characters who embody conflicts in their souls and bodies. They are the characters who bring life and death together in their grotesque bodies, who replace the top with the bottom, who combines the front with the back, who live both youth and old age at the same time.

A different good instance of the existence of official and unofficial lives can be seen during Paddy Dignam’s funeral because funeral that is expected to be formal turns out to be a place of gaiety and unofficiality. In contrast to the mourning ambience of the outside world, gay atmosphere dominates the funeral coach, which takes Bloom and his friends to the cemetery. During their journey characters enjoy themselves talking about various unofficial subjects such as Reuben J.’s meanness, coffins that fall over the funeral trams, Gordon Bennett Cup and Paddy’s gay death. Their speech also does not have a formal identity. On the contrary it is the speech of market place which is full of curses, abuses and billingsgate. Moreover, the place where they are in does not have any difference from the marketplace because the funeral coach is full of crumbs and semen.

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Thus, funeral coach stands for a double faced grotesque realist symbol which highlights the destroyed and renewed countenance of life. Furthermore in a context that is expected to be serious and formal, Bloom’s imagining falling of Paddy’s coffin from the funeral coach and his thoughts about the dead body and injuries that it may have upon the imaginary accident is another grotesque instance that creates grotesque laughter: Bom! Upset. A coffin bumped out on to the road. Burst open. Paddy Dignam shot out and rolling over stiff in the dust in a brown habit too large for him. Red face: grey now. Mouth fallen open. Asking what's up now. Quite right to close it. Looks horrid open. Then the insides decompose quickly. Much better to close up all the orifices. Yes, also. With wax. The sphincter loose. Seal up all.

Bloom, through his dream, debases the holy from its high and spiritual position by turning it to the image of laughter. Through this debasement Joyce turns tabooed and distanced concepts inside out both showing first seeds of life, semen, in a funeral coach, and displaying the dead by removing it from the distanced plane. Thus Joyce removes the hierarchic ornament of the tabooed concept death and demolishes the distance between death and life. Joyce through this uncrowning does not endeavour to achieve a mere debasement but endeavours to emphasize the fact that all endings bears new beginnings. In James Joyce’s Ulysses, besides the unofficial attitudes of the characters, grotesque body also gains importance in order to stress both the gay as well as serious face of life and highlight the main elements of grotesque laughter such as abundance fertility and rejuvenation. Grotesque body with its incomplete, unfinished, cosmic nature and its continuous rejuvenation and its creating and building another body creates a dual existence through which shows the twofold process of the life. In James Joyce’s Ulysses, body is also reflected as unfinished and dual being. In the novel these features of the grotesque body are presented through the frequent emphasis on material upper and lower bodily stratums and other bodily functions such as defecation, urination, copulation, conception, birth, growth, eating and drinking. Joyce generally combines upper and lower bodily stratums because this combination according to Bakhtin shows the beginning and the end of life which are interwoven in a body. This combination creates unexpected and incongruous scenes, which triggers the grotesque laughter. One of the examples of the grotesque impact that Joyce cherishes by synthesizing the most contradictory elements is seen in Bloom’s telling his sexual intercourse with Molly.

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Bloom tells the scene as if it were activity of eating rather than a sexual affair. Ravished over her I lay, full lips full open, kissed her mouth. Yum. Softly she gave me in my mouth the seedcake warm and chewed. Mawkish pulp her mouth had mumbled sweet and sour with spittle. Joy: I ate it: joy. Young life, her lips that gave me pouting. Soft, warm, sticky gum jelly lips... Hot, tongued her. (Joyce, 167-168)

In this quotation the important thing is the topographic shift from top to bottom which is the combination of upper bodily stratum act, which is eating, with the lower bodily stratum act, which is sexuality. This shift shows the degradation, destruction and rebirth of the old and completed in a body. By doing this Joyce illustrates a dual body which both devours and fertilizes at the same time. Moreover laughter and the material bodily element play a degrading and regenerating role in grotesque realism. Another important instance of this debasement can be seen when Bloom uses newspaper as a swab. Joyce tells this scene; He liked to read at stool.. the king was in his cutting house…a squat on the cuckstool he folded out his paper turning its pages over on his bared knees…he allowed his bowels to ease themselves quietly as he read... He read on, seated calm above his own rising smell. He tore away half of the prize story sharply and wiped himself with it…”

Joyce in this part of the novel especially stresses bodily fluids. Through his defecation Bloom will fertilize the earth; that is why he considers himself as a king. Bloom’s consideration creates an incongruity in this part of the novel because while on the one hand, his lower bodily stratum activity (defecation) carries him to the throne of a king, on the other hand his use of the article on the newspaper as a swab dethrones the work of mind. Thus Bloom’s combining work of mind with the lower bodily stratum “the zone in which conception and new birth take place” invites reader to evaluate the object from a different aspect. Joyce degrades the newspaper which serves as a means of transmitting the official ideas of the established order. Moreover, in the novel along with the grotesque body, character’s speech and their use of the language also stress the elements of grotesque laughter. Free marketplace speech just as grotesque body bears an ambivalent nature which incorporates both abuse and praise at the same time. This speech with its intrinsic, universal and intimate nature degrades and dethrones the familiar and formal speech patterns. Thus it contributes

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to the free and fearless world of the grotesque laughter. Joyce’s characters not only through their free behaviours and dual bodies but also through their speech pass beyond the restrictions of imposed official truth. The speech of the characters is based on the usage of abusive language, insulting expressions and billingsgate. However these expressions do not present mere debasement but present twofold meaning both negates and renews at the same time. Throughout the novel it is possible to see many examples of free marketplace speech. Curses and blasphemies start from the very beginning of the novel. Buck Mulligan uses blasphemies, abuses and curses many times in order to degrade Stephen, Religion or the state. Addressing to Stephen he uses abusive expressions such as "fearful Jesuit", "jejune Jesuit", "dreadful bard" (6), he sustains his profanities in order to degrade Haines and his nationality saying "God, these bloody English. Bursting with money and indigestion". Furthermore Mulligan with ballad of joking Jesus, " I'm the queerest young fellow that ever you heard./ My mother's a jew, my father's a bird./ With Joseph the joiner I cannot agree, / So here's to disciples and Cavalry." and lines, "...I rose from the dead./ What's bred in the bone cannot fail me to fly/ And olivest breezy..." , which imply the defeat of death thanks to wine, debases and dethrones sublimated figures and religious seriousness. Mulligan not only degrades prophet Joseph by calling him as the joiner but also exalting the wine, the symbol of joy and gaiety, over the olive oil, which, for Bakhtin, symbolizes the dogmatic religious seriousness, destroys all official notions. Therewithal it is possible to witness abusive language different parts of the novel as well. For instance in the funeral coach when Bloom tells Simon Dedalus that he has seen his son Stephen, remembering his son's friendship with Buck Mulligan, Simon starts to indicate his considerations through billingsgate and addresses Mulligan as; ...the goulding faction, the drunken little cost drawer and Crissie, papa’s little lump of dung... that Mulligan is contaminated bloody doubledyed ruffian by all accounts… I won’t have her bastard of nephew ruin my son. A counterjumper’s son…

All these abuses and blasphemies in the novel not only show the independent atmosphere of the marketplace but also serve as a tool for degradation and debasement. However the main feature of this speech does not lie in abuses or curses but lies in the ambivalent nature of the speech. That is to say free market place speech does not merely consist of billingsgate and abuses, “while humiliating and mortifying they at the same time revive and renew.”

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According to Bakhtin grotesque laughter remains outside official ideologies, formal social relations, religious dogmas and state ceremonials because laughter is closely related with freedom, people's unofficial truth and the whole world. It is the expression of a new and free consciousness; it is the man's second nature. The only place where people can live the free spirit of laughter is the carnival place which emanates from the depth of folk culture. Folk culture actually inspires the humorous side of the carnival by highlighting universal character of laughter and bringing social consciousness of all people together. Furthermore carnival has its own laws, images and rituals. Hence carnival with its all these features prepares appropriate scene for laughter and presentation of double faced life by bringing different grotesque images together. Joyce’s Ulysses, from the beginning to the end, presents a carnival scene, but in the novel the best example of the relation of the carnival and laughter is seen in Circe episode. Circe episode celebrates the liberation from the imposed official truth and established order. The carnival place in this chapter stands for becoming, change and renewal. In this chapter Joyce turns everything upside down, destroys all conventional expectations and presents a concoction of all conscious and unconscious desires of characters. Bakhtin defines this true nature of laughter in his work and says that “laughter is essentially not an external but an interior form of truth. It cannot be transformed into seriousness without destroying and distorting the very contents of the truth which it unveils.” For this reason in the novel Joyce destroys all the truth and suspends all prohibitions, restrictions, hierarchal order and discourse that derive from the authority. One of the prominent examples of this distortion can be seen of Bloom’s transformation to a woman. By presenting his character as bisexual, Joyce not only shatters all the classical conventions but also offers a new perspective to life with his grotesque image. People’s learning Bloom’s bisexuality constitutes one of the comic scenes of the novel. Dr Mulligan “Dr Bloom is bisexually abnormal” and Dr Dixon adds that “Professor Bloom is a finished example of the new womanly man." , “he is about to have a baby” . Upon these findings Bloom gives birth to “eight male yellow and white children” who are handsome, powerful and intelligent. Blooms transformation into a woman not only achieves grotesque laughter but also reflects both male and female in a body, which illustrates the duality of life. Another feature of the carnival, besides its destruction and distortion of the truth in order to establish a new one, is the reversal of the all hierarchal order. In order to achieve this, Joyce dethrones and debases Bloom firstly by presenting him as a cuckolded husband, then transforming him into a

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woman. That is to say Joyce firstly turns Bloom into a carnival fool but later on promotes him to the rank of a carnival king by making him mayor of Dublin. Bloom’s being a mayor marks the pinnacle of the grotesque realism and grotesque laughter in the novel. In this chapter, after being declared as a mayor, Bloom takes an oath placing his hands over his testicles. This reversal of oath both degrades coronations and implies rebirth of the old impotent Bloom as a new powerful man. In his new position, Bloom’s first performance is to turn the city into a carnival place. Furthermore the key of the city is given to him although he has not got his own house’s key and he shows everyone that he is wearing green socks, which is the symbolic colour of Ireland. In addition the city is built “in the shape of a huge pork kidney, containing forty thousand rooms” and “the inhabitants are lodged in barrels and boxes, all marked in red with letters: L.B. several paupers fall from a ladder.” (Joyce, 458) Moreover Bloom who cannot get attention of his wife, immediately starts to attract attentions of other women. Firstly, his former wife is sent away for the reason that she is not appropriate for him, and Princess Selene is brought. Later on other women in the city commit suicide for Bloom in various ways. Thus Joyce continues Bloom’s promotion as a carnival king. This double faced grotesque promotion, which is generated through the reversal of official rituals, exaggeration and degradation, is illustrated in the novel; many most attractive and enthusiastic women also commit suicide by stabbing, drowning, drinking prussic acid, aconite, arsenic, opening their veins refusing food, casting themselves under steamrollers, from the top of nelson’s pillar, into the great vat of Guinness’s brewery, asphyxiating themselves by placing their heads in gas ovens, hanging themselves in stylish garters, leaping from windows of different storeys .

Joyce emphasizes negation and rejuvenation theme, which is the most important feature of the carnival and grotesque laughter, through debasing and promoting Bloom. In Circe episode Joyce skilfully portrays the double face of life, duality of the grotesque body, freedom of the carnival place and destruction of the all hierarchic, dogmatic authority. In conclusion, contrary to the negative concepts of laughter, grotesque realism prefers to consider laughter through a positive point of view which foregrounds regenerating, healing and liberating nature of laughter. Bakhtin believes in the fact that grotesque laughter makes men to look at the world from a different perspective. While the death and birth of the world are symbolized parodically and comically through grotesque body, excessive fondness of eating, drinking, sexuality, enjoyment, and incongruous behaviours; narrow seriousness of official truth is mocked by

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reversal, degradation, debasement and language. However mocking and parodying or satirizing do not aim to hurl the serious and official face of the world to the nonexistence but aim to recreate and renew it by mingling laughing aspect of the life. While doing this it does not exclude popular folk culture on the contrary laughter is itself fed from it. Thus carnival place takes life out of its usual formal and completed boundaries and enters the world of freedom where only regenerating, healing and fertilizing sound of laughter is heard. James Joyce also cannot stay indifferent to attraction of laughter. In his novel Ulysses, Joyce draws a distorted picture of grotesque realist world where is highly influenced by the characteristics of laughter. While Joyce on the one hand shows serious and laughing aspects of life through the presentation of grotesque behaviours of his characters, grotesque body and language, on the other hand by turning everything upside down and juxtaposing all incongruous elements, he endeavours to show free, unrestricted, unfinished, fertile and rejuvenating nature of the life. Briefly grotesque laughter in James Joyce’s Ulysses, through Mikhail Bakhtin’s utterance …purifies from dogmatism, from the intolerant and the petrified; it liberates from fanaticism and pedantry, from fear and intimidation, from didacticism, naiveté and illusion, from the single meaning, the single level, from sentimentality.

James Joyce not only creates a masterpiece which is the true reflection of life but also embraces a different attitude of laughter, which makes him unique among the other literary figures.

Works Cited Aristotle. Poetics. Trans. S.H. Butcher. New York: Cosimo Inc.,2008. —. Rhetoric. Ed. W.D. Ross. Trans. W. Rhys Roberts. New York: Cosimo Inc.,2010. Bakhtin, Mikhail M. Rabelais and His World. USA: Indiana University Press, 1984. —.The Problems of Dostoevsky Poetics. Ed. and Trans. Carly Emerson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984. Baudelaire, Charles. “The Essence Of Laughter And More Especially Of The Comic In Plastic Arts” in Baudelaire Selected Writings on Art and Artists. Trans. by P.E. Charvet. USA: The Cambridge University Press, 1981. Freud, Sigmund. The Joke And Its Relation To The Unconscious. Trans. Joyce Crick. England: Penguin Books, 2003.

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Joyce, James. Ulysses. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1922. Ludovici, M. Anthony. The Secret of Laughter. New York: Viking Press, 1933. Madran, Cumhur Ylmaz. Modern øngiliz Romannda Mikail Bakhtin. østanbul: Gündo÷an Yaynlar, 2012. Morreal, John. Taking Laughter Seriously. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983. Plato. The Republic. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1497/1497-h/1497h.htm (accessed May 15, 2013) —. Laws. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1750/1750-h/1750-h.htm (accessed May 15, 2013) Rabelais, François. Gargantua. østanbul: Türkiye øú Bankas Kültür Yaynlar, 2000. Vasey, George. The Philosophy of Laughter and Smiling. 2d ed. London: J. Burns, 1877.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN POLITICAL AND ETHICAL CONCERNS IN DAVID GREIG’S DUNSINANE AND JOHN MCGRATH’S THE CHEVIOT, THE STAG AND THE BLACK BLACK OIL GÜL KURTULUù

David Greig and John McGrath are the two prolific and prominent playwrights of the British stage in the twentieth-century. They share a common interest in Scottish history and language as reflected in the two plays, Dunsinane and The Cheviot, The Stag and The Black Black Oil. The former becomes a medium for the representation of the tyranny, terror and the evil practiced on the weak and the oppressed, and the latter becomes a concerted set of ideas on sustaining equality in close attachment to one’s language, culture and identity. Greig’s play is about the aftermath of events as depicted in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, McGrath’s play is about the apparent conflict between the capitalist power and the socialist view. Both texts proclaim the end of a reign pertaining to tyranny and the establishment of a new leadership. The purpose of this paper is to analyse and discuss the possibilities of political and ethical overtones as handled by the two playwrights. As the practitioners of ‘new writing’ and the representatives of the bold voice in major political and environmental transformations Greig and McGrath have their rightful place among those who ascribe great importance to dysregulated identities, hindered cultural imagination and marred social consciousness. Their plays serve as the manifestoes for dissolving the void between the conflicting powers and fostering global consciousness. David Greig’s play Dunsinane is a product of new writing and a modern continuation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Both plays deal with the history of Scotland which is changed by tyrant leaders, giving utmost importance to power, but not to morality or human lives. As Macbeth kills

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the Scottish King because of his desire for power, the English army is also involved in murdering Macbeth, called “tyrant” in Dunsinane. In both cases, there is attack on the one controlling his country. While the play Macbeth does not especially refer to the issue of military occupation, Dunsinane employs this theme as a universal subject, and reflects the negative sides of military occupation. Although Siward, who is portrayed as a man of good will but over time gets blinded by his belief in the goodness and necessity of his actions and role in Scotland, ironically emphasizes that the English occupation is to bring peace to Scotland, he himself turns into a violent occupier towards the end. Moreover, occupying another land for the sake of money and power, just as Malcolm (the Scottish king) and Egham (the English lieutenant) does, cannot be accepted as a humanitarian intervention, which is usually performed to save the natives from a tyrannical leader and low life standards. Egham is a man of liberal thinking and material interests, who has no real interest in war other than material gain while Malcolm is a tyrannical figure, who has gained the throne through war and killing the king so he follows the same policy to keep the throne in his hands. The first signs of brutality comes up on the subject of queen because if the queen is alive there will be a great deal of people who want her reign, not Malcolm’s. The thin line between helping someone and being blinded by good intentions to the degree of harming the object that is helped, and how this line was and is manipulated by those in power, are among the central themes of Greig’s Dunsinane. The play demonstrates and explores both sides – that is, both the occupier and the occupied – and, through the characters of Siward, Egham, Malcolm and Gruach, portrays competing pictures of authority. Besides, the soldiers’ feeling of dehumanization and alienation are the psychological results of military occupation in Scotland. The English commander Siward’s humanitarian character and positive approach to the English occupation of Scotland does not minimize the effect of violence that they perform there, which reminds of Britain’s and America’s presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. These occupations were called humanitarian interventions at the beginning, but throughout many years the British and American soldiers tyrannized both the military and civil people in these lands, because the initial goal turned into a profit oriented struggle. Berthold Schoene affirms that the play “problematizes Britain’s recent military role in Iraq and Afghanistan. As Greig’s play demonstrates, it is a fine line between humanitarian intervention and neoimperialist terror, with the latter inevitably prompting nationalist resistance which annihilates all hope for neighbourly conviviality in the

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near future”.1 This statement expresses the fact that there is no neighbourhood, but a strong enmity between England and Scotland because of the occupation. While Siward says, “It’s in England’s interest to have peace in Scotland”,2 apparently all the ways used in this occupation are bloody and power oriented, which shows that there is no confidence in the idea of living together in peace. Besides, the Scottish queen Gruach declines Siward’s claim about peace in Scotland, and she firmly states, “We had peace. Until you came along. Go home. Don’t waste any more of your English lives here. Go home before you’re driven home”.3 Gruach tells that Siward is just deceiving himself or misunderstanding the whole situation, because Siward with the English army is the one who has broken up the peace in Scotland. No peace can come out of chaos and force, imposed on another land without a good reason. Because, the actual reason is to form a new kingdom under the control of England, “to install Malcolm as king so as to secure England’s northern border”,4 which are the ambitions of an imperialist power. Although she is a fallen queen, Gruach tries to keep her authority over her people safe and to resist against the English. She uses the advantages of being a woman to counteract and to make the English soldiers break their own rules, so their resistance against her is also broken. She does not even hesitate to use her sexual charm and feminine privileges apart from her natural right to keep the crown in her family through her son, the legal heir. Although she tries to keep her image as a delicate but ruined and captured queen, in the end her actual intention and evil actions to get rid of the English are revealed. Even before the arrival of the English, Gruach has been the kind of a woman who would not hesitate to use her charm as a woman to get what she wants. She is also a very manipulative woman; she has even managed to convince her husband to kill the previous king to take the throne. When Siward asks her about that, she admits that she has been the one who asked her husband to kill the king and that he has done almost everything she has asked for so calmly that even Siward is surprised.

1

Berthold Schoene, “Scottish Theatre as World Theatre: the Plays of David Greig”, http://www.napier.ac.uk/randkt/rktcentres/claw/ESSE%20Conference%202012/Tit les-Abstracts-Papers/Pages/BertholdSchoene.aspx (Accessed March 27, 2013), 5. 2 David Greig, Dunsinane, (London: Faber and Faber, 2010), 34. 3 David Greig, Dunsinane, 34. 4 Ibid., 33.

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Later when Siward asks her to convince her son to renounce his claim to the throne, she refuses saying “My son is the king, it's not a matter which he has a choice. My son is my son. My son is the son of his father. My son's father is dead. My son is the king”.5 And indeed, she insists on living as a queen rather than a 'captured' queen. When her room has been emptied and her women have been taken away, she asks Siward to bring her belongings and women back. Siward cannot refuse her demands because “she may no longer be queen, but she is still a woman-and this is still her house and we are her guests in it”.6 Although Gruach pretends to be in grievance, she is still as affective and authoritative on her people as she has been before. When Siward tries to assure Malcolm that she is not supported by her chiefs anymore and she is not a threat to the English, Malcolm points out that “they're flies in her web. Nothing is spoken in Scotland without her knowing about it” (49). That is why Malcolm calls her a spider. Still, both Malcolm and Siward are aware that Gruach is “the only person in Scotland with the power to settle the quarrel”.7 Gruach is not only the most powerful and affective person in Scotland, she is also a mother. She even compromises her country's rules to make sure that her son is safe wherever he is. She probably wants her son to be alive and safe because he is too young to be a king, but he is still the only legal heir so seems to be the only chance for her to keep the throne and rule. She makes an agreement with Egham to let him make trade in her country in return for his assurance that her son will be kept safe by English: Egham: I want safe passage to market for my men to buy and sell goods. I want my convoys unmolested. Gruach: What do you offer me in return? Egham: What do you want? Gruach: Would you betray your own side? Egham: It depends on what do you mean by ‘betray’. Gruach: Malcolm’s men are looking for my son. I want him taken to safety with my people in Glen Lyon.8

In fact she again uses her authority over the Scottish people to do so by assuring Egham that they will not molest him when he is making trade. After assuring that her son will be safe, she again returns to work for her 5

Ibid., 34. Ibid., 47. 7 Ibid., 49. 8 Ibid., 54. 6

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primary aim to keep her place safe as a queen. She manages to seduce Siward and then proposes him reminding that if he marries her he can be the king of Scotland. Although Siward does not reply right away, he cannot deny that he has been emotionally and sexually captured by Gruach. The morning after the night he and Gruach spend together, he admits that he has been 'captured' by her sexuality asking “which of us is really the conqueror here and which of us the conquered?”9 Gruach suddenly forgets that she has proposed Siward to marry her and capture the throne when Siward brings out the idea that Malcolm and Gruach should get married so Malcolm would be the king without question and Gruach will stay as the queen as she wanted, and they both accept. Later, it turns out that Gruach has a plan to gather the English soldiers together in one place for the wedding and let her soldiers and people attack them, and Siward finally realizes that it has been a mistake to trust her from the beginning, and things start to get more and more violent. It is already revealed that Gruach has magic powers by which she is able to contact her soldiers, to give them orders, and keep them afoot. Her spell is so powerful that it can even control the weather, and brings storm and snow to the land, which causes the war to stop. Her son confesses this when he is found and captured by the English. Macduff translates Gruach’s son’s words: “My mother's women are witches. They cast spells. They use plants to make spells which we drink to give us secret powers... My mother has spells that will bring down this castle's walls. Tomorrow there will be a storm and my mother will bring it. Snow will come and she will bring it”. 10 So, it is very meaningful when Siward explains how a destructive woman Gruach is, he resembles her to winter when “a black cloud” appears and “sucks the life out the ground and leaves it frozen and hopeless”.11 Although Gruach seems to be a fallen queen, she is the most powerful character in Dunsinane. She legally holds the right and power to continue ruling the country, but her ways to re-grab the power are so complicated and wicked that she ends up in a violent war with Siward and the English. Throughout the play, she tries to use her femininity, her magical powers instead of legal requirements that she and her family still holds. Another leader figure, the English general in Scotland, Siward has a serious sense of responsibility. He loses a son in Scotland, he has an affair with Gruach, but he never lets his emotions take precedence over his duties and responsibilities. When Macduff tells Siward that Osborn, his 9

Ibid., 77. Ibid., 121 – 2. 11 Ibid., 135. 10

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son, has been killed, he only asks “Where’s the wound?” and “Can it be a mistake?”,12 and then he moves on. As the general of an army at war, he clearly understands that he has no time for mourning. In another scene, his belief in the war he has led his army to fight is indicated clearly in the questions he addresses Malcolm, who has deceived Siward about the situation in Scotland. “You told me the tyrant had lost the support of the chiefs”, 13 Siward starts his demand for clarification, and goes on to question Malcolm’s promise that the English army “[was] likely to see a swift and general acceptance of [Malcolm’s] rule and the chance to establish a new and peaceful order”.14 As is clearly indicated in his speech, Siward believed that he was acting according to the public will in Scotland, and that his actions were in the interest of the Scottish people. However, his discovery of the real situation and his realization that he has been deceived by Malcolm does not stop him from carrying on his duties as the commander of the English army. Even after he has found out about the rivalry between the clans and claims against Malcolm’s rule, Siward does not listen to what the people of Scotland want, and although his army causes destruction in the country, he continues to support the military occupation of Scotland in the name of humananitarian intervention and claims: “I have to clear away the past now. I have to uproot now and clear away all past claims and – That way there is a chance that we can establish a fair peace in Scotland in which every clan can flourish… New government can’t be built on top of old wounds”. 15 He does not understand that, just like the tyrant, his army has installed a king on the throne by murder, and that the presence of his army as an occupying force in Scotland will not contribute to the settlement of disputes and to the establishment of stability and peace. Siward’s idea of war is reminiscent of Kipling’s oxymoronic term “savage wars of peace”16 which he uses to describe imperialist wars that he believes are fought to serve the inferior people of the world as far as civilization is concerned. He tells Gruach that “It’s in England’s interest to have peace in Scotland”17 and disregards Gruach’s reminder that there was peace in Scotland prior to the arrival of the English. By extension, Siward’s logic can also be connected to neo-imperialist rhetoric that 12

Ibid., 26. Ibid., 27. 14 Ibid., 28. 15 Ibid., 33. 16 “The savage wars of peace” (l. 82). From “The White Man’s Burden” by R. Kipling. 17 David Greig, Dunsinane, 34. 13

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justifies wars by arguing that they are fought to bring peace and stability – examples to this are found in the Gulf Wars, the ongoing war in Afghanistan, and the military interventions in Libya, as well as the lack of similar action against the current government of Syria. Although a man of good intentions, Siward’s main problem is that he cannot understand the dynamics of Scotland and its conflicting clans; he is headstrong, and follows whatever he believes to be the right path, disregarding everything else. His headstrong attitude is what leads his cause to a dead end over time. At one point, Egham protests over Siward’s burning people alive, and Siward explains that “If we make a threat we have to follow it through”.18 He believes in his cause so much that he fails to understand his surroundings and in return his actions bring more destruction and harm. He explains to Egham that he has to be ruthless in his pursuit of peace, and does not understand it when Egham explains that the Scottish are fighting the English simply because they are an invading force in their country. In his ruthless pursuit, Siward is also criticized by Malcolm who thinks that the war is “progressing too strongly”,19 but he fails to give an ear to the warnings he receives. Because he is involved too much in his pursuit, he cannot have the clear vision of those who, like Egham, keep a distance from the conflict. Lost in the pursuit he strongly believes, Siward loses control and cannot see the outcomes of his actions. Interestingly, though, Siward is the most humanitarian leader among others, namely Egham, Malcolm and Gruach, who can listen to his feelings and think more humanely. To exemplify, Siward states, “Each boy who dies on whatever side, I feel it”,20 which shows that Siward cares about the pain on the Scottish side as well, and he tries to do his best to kill less people and to protect the queen. However, Emily Linnemann says, “In Dunsinane, we watch the destruction of a country through the good intentions of another great man”,21 which refers to Siward’s misunderstanding and transformation during the occupation, because he becomes more imperialistic, cruel as he cannot get any power, resolution and order. When Egham asks him about the Scottish men, Siward coldly says, he “burned them”22 alive, because they did not tell him the place that Gruach’s son who was the rightful heir to the throne was hiding. Siward could have just 18

Ibid., 94. Ibid., 106. 20 Ibid., 64. 21 Emily Linnemann, “"A Mistaken Understanding": Dunsinane and New Writing at the RSC.”, (The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation, 2010), http://www.borrowers.uga.edu/7159/toc, Accessed March 27, 2013. 22 David Greig, Dunsinane, 93. 19

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shot them, but instead he burned them alive, which shows what a military occupation can do to a good-intentioned man, and also shows the fact that this occupation in Scotland has nothing to do with humanitarian intervention just like Britain’s and America’s military occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, but these occupations in far lands must have been more troublesome and destructive for both sides due to the precise differences between languages and cultures. Being the leader of English forces in Scotland, Siward is supposed to have a strong authority. This fact is true until his encounter with Gruach, the queen of Scotland. His weakness towards Gruach makes him lose his authority because “The bed/ The tapestries/ The women/ It’s not what I’m used to”. 23 Siward, because he has some feelings for Gruach, loses the control of his emotions and actions, thus his authority. Siward calls Gruach an enemy who is “captivating” him (69). 24 In another scene, Siward cannot help asking Gruach: “You smiling and your women laughing at me. Which of us is really the conqueror here and which of us the conquered?”.25 Siward implies that he has now become the slave of Gruach because he cannot control his feelings for her. Gruach offers to marry Siward so that Scotland will be united but they cannot get married and Gruach turns out to use Siward for her cause. He becomes devastated after seeing Gruach’s betrayal and considers giving up all: “Maybe Egham is right. Maybe I should go home”.26 The most striking example of his lost authority is revealed by the boy soldier: “Siward – not if you were to see him- more like a beggar-/ A monk in his black robes and hood and me beside him”.27 The soldier likens him to a monk in black because he is grieving for his lost son and is vengeful because of Gruach’s betrayal. Despite his emotional discouragement, Siward tries to recover his lost authority every now and then. When Gruach proposes to marry him, he has his heart and authority to think of; therefore he becomes quite excited and proud. He cannot do anything but accept the offer. When Egham talks about leaving everything and go back, Siward tells him of: “You sound like you would prefer us to be defeated”.28 Siward proves that he is still a committed leader, who tries to recover his authority. His efforts will be of no use once he understands he cannot face all these hardships. Siward simply loses his faith and authority. 23

Ibid., 66. Ibid., 69. 25 Ibid., 77. 26 Ibid., 120. 27 Ibid., 128. 28 Ibid., 95. 24

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Siward, upon understanding Gruach’s betrayal to his affections, becomes quite a tyrant to make sure he wins: “That’s the world my power’s in and that’s the world I’ll fight in, and that’s the world in which I’ll win”.29 The reason for his sudden change in behaviours and manners is revealed in these lines: How calmly she walked towards them - these blood. Covered men-And whether their coming came of witchcraft or of treachery Or some combination of the two- as the great hall filled Up With fire and blood one thought filled the room like smoke. She knew- she knew- she knew30

The fact that Gruach betrays him causes his tyranny and Siward blames it on Gruach: “She is ruthless. So we have to be ruthless”.31 By saying that, Siward means that his tyranny comes from the growing feeling of vengeance. Siward firstly burns the Scottish soldiers alive in the hen they are hiding because they did not tell who the son of Gruach is (9293). Secondly, he kills the son of Gruach without showing him any mercy: “Siward finishes him off. The Scottish Boy dies”. 32 His tyranny, on the whole, is the outcome of Gruach’s betrayal and his understanding of the unending war in Scotland over the right to rule. Siward till the end of the play is portrayed as a well-mannered, just and a committed leader. His leadership qualities even enable him to consider the well-being of his soldiers. When Siward learns the intentions of Gruach, he loses his authority over his life and his soldiers. Gruach promises to marry him but they do not because Scottish clan leaders want Gruach to marry Malcolm to secure a long lasting peace. Besides, Gruach’s soldiers kill the soldiers of Siward, which marks the end of Siward’s good qualities. After these events and the fact that his son, Osborn, dies in the war, Siward becomes a tyrant, killing the Scottish soldiers and the son of Gruach without mercy. Siward tries to find the answer to his troubles with being a tyrant, from which he turns in the end, giving up on everything and he “turns and walks away/He walks into the snow/ He disappears”.33 The unending fight in Scotland and Scotland, on the whole, becomes a weight he cannot endure, making him the “foreign loser”.

29

Ibid., 112. Ibid., 87. 31 Ibid., 95. 32 Ibid., 123. 33 Ibid., 138. 30

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The greedy and corrupted characters such as Malcolm and Egham play active roles in the course of occupation as they make war for the sake of power and money no matter how many people die in both sides. If both the Scottish King Malcolm and the English lieutenant Egham had thought the best interests of both sides without war, violence and profit like Siward at the beginning, the goal of the occupation would be called humanitarian intervention rather than military occupation. However, these leaders are driven by the sense of controlling through destruction of whatever blocks their way to achieve their interests. Egham betrays his brothers by allying with Gruach for money, and Malcolm loses himself in the material gifts and pleasures, brought to him by the Scottish clan leaders. This echoes European countries as well as America’s interest in the oil reserves in the Middle East, which encouraged them to attack the countries there. As such, Egham fights in Scotland to gain some profits as he is following his father’s order, “There’s war in Scotland –go and win us some land and a manor house. Fifteen sacks of barley”.34 There is no care in these words about what a war makes to people, soldiers and countries, and the only concern is money although money or property, gained through an unjust war is bloody and contaminated, which shows that the play also interrogates the morality of humankind. Egham represents the material interest inherent in imperialist and neo-imperialist wars of peace. He has no interest in the ongoing war other than the material gain that may be derived from it. He explains to Boy Soldier that he never meant to fight, but became a soldier because of his father: I was supposed to be a monk But my father insisted – fight – There’s a war in Scotland – go and win us some land and a manor house. Fifteen sacks of barley.35

Egham, seems to inherit his father’s material interests, although he frequently protests over the conditions of war, and acts accordingly. At one point he explains the purpose of life as follows: Stay alive and be comfortable. Those are the purposes of life. And they’re also the two things that are hardest to do when you spend

34 35

Ibid., 42. Ibid., 42.

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your summer fighting a fucking war in Scotland.36

His want for monetary gain and physical comfort are his only drives, unlike Siward who believes in what he does. If Siward represents the blinding amount of goodwill and confidence that ruins the actions of those whose intentions are essentially good, then Egham, his double, represents another type of neo-imperialist, the one that joins the army for his own gain, and his intentions are essentially self-centred. “The Scots think we’re here to subdue them. It’s our job to prove them wrong”, Siward warns Egham, and goes on: “We’ll take no women and no gold and we’ll take not one beast more than we need. We will make them to trust us”. 37 However, Siward’s ideals clash with Egham’s desires and, since Egham has no respect for the cause of bringing peace to Scotland, Siward’s orders cannot prevent him from stealing and betraying for his own interests. He explains this to Gruach, saying: “Siward wants peace. / But I want money”,38 and makes it clear that his real interest lies in money, not in doing good. However, thanks to his lack of engagement, he understands the conflict better than Siward, and is the first to protest over Siward’s ruthless treatment of people. Similarly, Malcolm utters his aims about the fate of Scotland and its people by saying, “I will periodically and arbitrarily commit acts of violence against some or other of you- in order that I can maintain a more general order in the country. I will not dispose my mind to the improvement of the country or to the conditions of its ordinary people”.39 Here, Malcolm clearly states that he will use his power as he wishes, which is exactly the mentality of a military occupier who immediately assumes that the land is his own land, and there is no claim on the other side because the English power is superior to theirs and they have to accept that. These kinds of leaders or soldiers in a war can just accelerate the tension, chaos as they gain profit out of conflicts, so they just conduct a violent military occupation in Scotland. Given their drives and intentions, the headstrong English general and his materialist lieutenant are not only in opposition, but are also complementary to each other. As characters with conflicting intentions, they represent the two conflicting ends of imperialist and neo-imperialist wars: humanitarian intervention on one hand and military occupation and 36

Ibid., 43. Ibid., 44. 38 Ibid., 53. 39 Ibid., 80. 37

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material exploitation on the other. By placing these two characters in opposition to each other, Greig manages to reveal the conflicts of the “savage wars of peace” as Kipling called them and, by setting the events in the eleventh century Scotland, he makes it possible for the reader to arrive at an objective conclusion that is free from the bonds of class, nationhood, and so on. However, in this retrospective conclusion the reader finds a message for today, as well as for all time, and this message is that the line between military occupation and humanitarian intervention is very thin, very easy to go past and manipulate, and that people should realize this fact and beware the dangers of the imperialist ideal that survives to this day. Dunsinane points out the psychological effects of military occupation such as the sense of dehumanization and alienation. Regarding to that, Linnemann expresses, “It is a play that subtly highlights the various trials and tragedies that a military occupation can bring to its generals, soldiers and citizens”.40 Apart from Siward’s transition, we see a lot of cruelties and sufferings on the side of soldiers since this occupation causes them to be cold-blooded killers. To exemplify, after cutting the throat of a Scottish soldier, an English soldier wonders why this Scottish boy did not just surrender, but other soldier says, “he knew we’d kill him either way”.41 This shows the very violent attitude of the English soldiers. Although the Scottish soldiers do not have strong weapons unlike the English ones, there is no mercy for them. They will be killed even if they just leave themselves to the fate that England chooses for them, which again shows the ill treatment of military occupation. In another case, a soldier says, “it would be good if there was one here now”. 42 He refers to the Scottish women, and he regrets killing all of them since he cannot rape anyone to satisfy his sexual desire. This is a reference to the grim reality of the occupation in terms of women. Another soldier tries to hit a kid’s face in the mouth, because if he can, then he will touch the hen girl, 43 again showing how the soldiers play with human lives as now they are the ones who got the control over the land, because they are the occupiers. However, the hen girl’s shooting an English soldier and committing suicide show her resistance and her abhorrence of the idea that any bloody English soldier touches her. On the other hand, the English soldiers are filled with despair and alienation because of the distance from their 40 Linnemann, “"A Mistaken Understanding": Dunsinane and New Writing at the RSC,” 9. 41 David Greig, Dunsinane, 15. 42 Ibid., 20. 43 Ibid., 73.

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homelands and their witnessing violence, blood all the time. Moreover, the harsh conditions of Scotland’s landscape and nature affect their psychologies negatively, which also increases their hatred towards the Scottish people. Boy soldier says, “Stones and shitty water and the food’s shit. You wonder why we’re here”. 44 Eventually, military occupation begins to seem unreasonable to them as they can get nothing, but cold, hateful eyes and blood everywhere. The Hen Girl’s suicide becomes a symbol of political resistance of Scottish nation against English invasion. Her body becomes the incarnation of the land and Scottish nationality and the soldier’s desire to rape her can be interpreted, as the English desire to conquer Scotland and penetrate their culture against their will. In Dunsinane the theme of national resistance is handled not only as a conscious protest of Scottish people against the invasion of their country but as an unconscious desire to ostracize the soldiers and get rid of the English presence in Scotland, which has penetrated into the social behaviour of Scottish people ranging from the little children to the women and men. One of the English soldiers explains: “From clan to clan we’d march day on day And in every place we’d get sharp glances And we’d smile back- you know- for the children, Offer out our hands to them with nuts or something But always the children leaving out hands alone and Then always one child hiding behind some woman And the woman’s eyes burning at us”.45

It is possible to observe the national resistance of the local people against welcoming the soldiers as their saviour from the dictator or believing their so-called “good” intentions. Besides, at many points, they blame the Scottish people since they resist to them and prolong the course of occupation without peace, but it is quite ironic that the English soldiers cannot think that these people also are emotionally connected to their lands despite the fractions such as Moray and Alba within their country. Thus, the play Dunsinane touches on the issue of neo-imperialism in our postmodern world by taking the essence of his play from a Renaissance play Shakespeare’s Macbeth. There is the emphasis that humanity will never give up his claim for more power by persecuting less powerful ones. Besides, there will always be resistance in the opposite side, which makes violence, death inevitable. The Scottish Gruach declares that she will 44 45

Ibid., 59. Ibid., 39.

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instruct the ones after her “to take up arms and torment England again and again and again until the end of time”. 46 This signifies that a previous military occupation can bring an eternal enmity between two neighbors. Greig’s Dunsinane perfectly reflects the course and result of military occupation, and the impossibility of any humanitarian aid by imperial powers. The second playwright under discussion, John McGrath is English by origin but has strong Scottish ties and interest due to his Scottish wife. McGrath is a socialist writer writing for a socio-political cause, specifically for the heightening of the awareness of his audience about the effects of capitalism on Scottish history and people, and having a short time to finish writing his play, McGrath decides to present the play to public audiences as an ongoing process. His aim, as he explains in his foreword to the play, is to collect public opinion, especially from people who have experienced the events or the immediate effects of the events that he writes about, and to receive suggestions from experts and the like. In keeping with his aim to say what people of Scotland want to say, he presents his raw material to his audience as a work in progress and, in a way, lets the audience play a role in the creation of the play. Instead of speaking for the people of Scotland, he listens to them before writing about and for them. For example, he writes about the Clearances, the forced displacement of people from the Scottish Highlands in the 18th and 19th centuries as a result of enclosures, and about the oil boom and their effects on Scottish people; in order to draw a clear and truthful picture, he does more than just consulting history books, and listens to living history, to the people of Scotland. In order to appeal more to his audience, and to keep in touch with a history that has been preserved, though in part, thanks to the kind of traditional gatherings called ceilidhs, McGrath decides to give his work the form of this traditional entertainment. The play is fraught with songs and dance. The audience comes in accompanied by fiddle tunes; the company makes the audience sing along with them by holding up songsheets; and in the end, the audience joins the dances of the company and the show turns into a true ceilidh through which Scottish history is retold, and through which the hierarchies of the theatre, among actors and director as well as among actors and the audience, are broken down. Another unusual aspect of the show, and also another means of breaking down these hierarchies, is the stage used by the company. Most of the time, the play is not presented in proper theatre space, but rather on what McGrath 46

Ibid., 136.

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calls a "pop-up book" made of cardboard. Although they have had performances in halls, I think this pop-up book suits their project better, since it creates a sense of equality that is impossible to attain in a hall that is divided into stage and numbered seats. Such is the form of new writing employed by McGrath in contemporary British drama. McGrath in the foreword to the play further discusses the theatre's potentials of contributing to a social change by means of describing things with truth. As Salman Rushdie argues in his essay "Imaginary Homelands," McGrath's writing, though descriptive rather than necessarily argumentative or critical, becomes an instrument of political change.47 By describing a reality that is incompatible with the official version of reality, McGraths transforms the act of describing into a political act and, by involving the audience as well as his actors in the creation of his play, creates something that is truly social and communal, and that retells story, in the old Scottish bard's words, "with truth". As John McGrath explains in the foreword to The Cheviot, The Stag and The Black Black Oil Scottish Highlands has been exposed to the capitalist system’s exploitations and that changed landscape of the area and the people’s way of life. He says “The realities are created by the actions of a feudal system leaping red in tooth and claw into imperialist capitalist system, becoming more repressive, more violent as it does so”.48 It can be seen that the rise of capitalism affects the natural life in a negative way more and more. So it can be said that John McGrath and his group came together and share the same aim, which is to create social awareness in the local people about how the capitalist power is gradually destroying their culture and values. McGrath explains the affect of the play on the audience saying: “nearly all go away heightened in their awareness of what has been, and is being done to the people of Highlands, in the process capitalism”.49 The play is a success in terms of achieving its aim and making people conscious about the changes brought about by the foreign forces. The Scottish history can be seen as an important actor in the play, since the play talks about the three important stages in Scottish history, which can also be understood from the title. While The Cheviot represents the expulsion of the highland farmers from the land, which eventually put them in a position in which they find themselves serving the colonial powers, The 47 Salman Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991. (USA: Penguin, 1992). 48 John McGrath, The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black Black Oil. (London: Eyre Methuen Ltd, 1993). 49 John McGrath, The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black Black Oil, vi.

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Stag section of the title represents the reshaping of the Scottish culture. As it comes to The Black Black Oil part, it reflects the recent past when the American invasion of oil fields in Aberdeen took place. McGrath gathers some stories from all corners of Scotland, that clearly explicate how the Gaelic language had been suppressed, how the Dukes of Sutherland were hated for what they did when they discovered there was more profit in sheep than in people how their factors burnt the houses, drove the people to the sea-coast, herded them into boats for Canada. The realities of Highland life are very different and these are revealed in great detail to the audience. Giving people historical facts of Scotland in an entertaining and thoughtprovoking way, McGrath reflects the condition that Scottish society lives in and makes the public aware of what is going on around them and give them the self-confidence to think that they have the ability to unite again. The play simply has supported the idea that the highlands in Scotland were exploited by the wealthy and capitalist people without thinking about the residents of the highlands and by just giving importance to what the highlands might function as an economic platform. The play begins with the period when singing in the Gaelic language was forbidden. One of the first elements of the political propaganda occurs with the song named “These are my mountains” which clearly give the message to the capitalist people that the real owners of the highland are “coming home” (McGrath, 2) because they believe that the pleasures all the places in the world can maintain are less than those that the highlands could do. A play with socialist concern and anti-capitalist messages, The Cheviot, The Stag and the Black Black Oil is as much concerned with the destruction of Scottish culture and the Scottish people’s loss of identity as the economic relationships that cause these cultural problems. During the Clearances economic interests of the ruling class deprive people of their land; the English law alienates Scottish people from their own language, music, clothing, etc; when oil is found off the shores of Scotland people are once more made slaves to capitalism and lose their dignity, resources, and sense of identity through their strife to survive in a capitalist economy. As is typical of colonialist and/or capitalist rhetoric throughout history, this is all done in the name of bringing civilization, correcting the people, doing something for the benefit of all, etc. This rhetoric is frequently satirized and parodied: Your barbarous customs, though they may be old To civilized people hold horrors untold – What value a culture that cannot be sold The price of a culture is counted in gold.50 50

Ibid., 8.

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The song sung by Loch and Sellar indicates that these exploiters value nothing but money and deem everything that stands against them barbarous. In order to make profit the exploiters are ready to destroy anything and the Scottish culture and people are no exception. As the Old Man explains: “The technological innovation was there… The money was there. Unfortunately, the people were there, too. But the law of capitalism had to be obeyed.” 51 In order to make room for the profitable Cheviot sheep, soldiers are sent, houses are burnt, people are forced to migrate. People like Sellar can get away with doing anything they need for their own benefit because of inadequate lawyers, judges, and lack of judiciousness. The play is successful in bringing in characters, who successfully represent and embody the capitalist mind. The characters Loch and Sellar are the investors or more precisely ‘the stags’ who only care about things for their value. The poem they recite together is the greatest example of how much deep the capitalist thinking has been carved into their minds. The inclusion of such characters clearly shows that they function as the antagonists of the play and they are presented as such on purpose by McGrath as part of his propaganda, which is the mind of a capitalist, which thinks no more than the value of things and who think that everything has its price. The Cheviot, The Stag and the Black Black Oil is based on the injustice, inequalities and pains which were inflicted upon the Highlanders by the British Empire and the Scottish ruling, upper class. As a Young Highlander says “The women were great at making it all seem fine. But it was no easy time to be alive in … and the people were not too pleased about it.”52 The Young Highlander talks about the importance of the cheviot sheep in contrast to the mankind. In order to make more space for the sheep, the people were cleared off the land, which causes too much chaos, problems and cruelties in Scotland. The Highlanders were left starving, dying and migrating from their own lands. Loch confirms this cruel attitude with these words: “His lordship will have to remove these people at considerable extent.” 53 Clearly, the landlords push the Highlanders into misery deliberately and voluntarily. Justice never comes as it is also corrupted by the ruling class, since they have all the control in their hands, but no desire to provide the people with necessary dignity. In relation to that, Minister says, “some of you here today are so far from the fold, have so far neglected the dignity of your womanhood, that you have

51

Ibid., 14. Ibid., 3. 53 Ibid., 7. 52

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risen up to curse your masters, and violate the laws of the land”.54 It is ironic to see Mr Sellar who has left an old woman of 94 burns inside the house as she cannot move and she has no right to live any more. As opposed to that Minister accuses the women of violation of the laws although they are just protesting against inhuman and despotic attitudes of the higher class. Reader says, “Donald Sage, Kildonan, Sutherland. The whole inhabitants of Kildonan parish, nearly 2000 souls, were utterly rooted and burnt down,”55 reporting how many people died and how they died. The Industrial Revolution, the settlements of oil platforms and the Cheviot sheep for textile cause many violations of the rights of the Highlanders and corrupt the sense of justice in the country. The play elaborates on the topic of exploitation of the resources in the Highlands through the new chaotic, capitalist wave in the Highlands which consumes living people, too. People constitute an important part of source of power and the ruling class along with the British mperial aims highly decreases the proportion of the population. The lands, which have been used for agriculture many years, now turn into waste lands because of livestock. Fish is another important resource and some greedy lords are very interested in fishing out of profits. Natural resources are means of gaining money and regarding that Loch says, “the coast of Sutherland abounds with many different kinds of fish…”56 referring to the existence of many natural harbours to be used as fishing stations. McGrath gives a lot of space to English invasion of Scotland and cultural exchange in the play. English invasion comes together with the Industrial Revolution to Scotland, which leads many changes in the country. There is reference to the unity of England and Scotland, which brings changes such as capitalism and different ways of producing to the country in the Old Man’s words, “There is no doubt that a change had to come to the Highlands: the population was growing too fast for the old, in efficient methods of agriculture to keep everyone fed… This coincided with something else: English and Scottish capital was growing powerful and needed to expand.” 57 Immigration and capital’s gaining importance are explained in a critical way since the play is a cry for socialism, equality and the well-being of all citizens. Apparently, technological development comes to the country; however, it does not serve the humankind but destruct the humankind as it is in the hands of the

54

Ibid., 13. Ibid., 16. 56 Ibid., 7. 57 Ibid., 14. 55

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capitalists. Sellar describes the Highlanders as “a century behind”, 58 besides, during the trial of Mr. Sellar, Judge says, “Therefore, I would ask you (to jury) to ignore all the charges except two. One of these concerns the destruction of barns. In this case, Mr. Sellar has ignored a custom of the country.”59 Customs are being violated, changed by the new laws, and the judges does not suggest any penalty for that since this does not violate the law of the country, and the disappearance of customs, even Gaelic language does not matter too much to the higher class. Regarding that Sturdy Highlander says, “… the red Indians were reduced to the same estate as after our fathers after Culloden, defeated, hunted, treated like the scum of the earth their culture polluted and torn out with slow deliberation and their land no longer their own.” 60 Sturdy Highlander affirms the negative effects of the English invasion, which destructs the native culture and land with its own rules as it does with the Red Indians without pity. As for the expansionist policy of England, use of the Indian characters to reflect the importance of India as a colony ruled under the control of Anglo Saxons. The Indian Lord Selkirk describes the expansionist policy of Britain in his own way: “The people of the glens have become a redundant population. I favour their going where they have better prospect of happiness and prosperity so long as they are not lost to Britain.” 61 Lord Selkirk articulates on Britain’s haste and greed for lands and the impossibility of happiness and wealth if the place is the colony of Britain. Gent also says about the first Duke of Sutherland, “he tamed the torrent, fertilized the sand, / And joined a province to its parent land,”62 who acts with British rules and expectations that requires the oppression of the Scottish people as they are not viewed as valuable as Anglo-Saxons. The issue of imperialism is handled with references to the British imperialism along with some of their harsh impositions. Scotland has a long, painful history with the imperial power of Britain. The effects of imperialism could be the intensity of the migration in the country, factories, the production of raw materials such as wool and unemployment because of machines. Sturdy Highlander voices the violent actions of the imperialist power as he says, “The highland exploitation chain-reacted around the world; in Australia the aborigines were hunted like animal, all over Africa, black men were massacred and brought to heel. In America the plains were emptied of men and buffalo, and the seeds of the next 58

Ibid., 16. Ibid., 19. 60 Ibid., 29. 61 Ibid., 23. 62 Ibid., 20. 59

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century’s imperialist power were firmly planted.”63 Britain regards itself the superior power among the others, a view which gains it the title ‘Great Britain’ and the British Empire. Thus, it imperializes the lands and people because of this ideology. Queen Victoria is given voice to reveal the attitude of the imperialist England: “Though wide is our empire / Balmoral is best / Yes these are our mountains / and we are impressed.”64 McGrath draws the audience’s attention to the cruelties done by the government officers to the sheep and the people there as well. The sheep were left to death by the people coming from every corner of Europe and the people who stood against this cruelty and suffering was done cruelty by the police. The striking phenomenon is the fact that the ones who suffered most by this cruelty were women who were killed without mercy. McGrath by including these facts calls the Scottish to stand against the usurpers of the Highlands together. The last part of the play is concerned with the discovery of oil off the shores of Scotland, the arrival of multinational corporations, and the local capitalists’ alliance with them. Capitalist oil industry is, for the most part, represented by the humorous stereotype of a Texas businessman who is exploiting the natural resources of Scotland and giving the people nothing but corruption, poverty and pollution. Although times have changed the capitalist mentality and rhetoric remained the same. The outcomes will be even worse than the outcomes of the Clearances if no measures are taken against this capitalist exploitation. In conclusion, John McGrath narrates the audience the story of Scottish Highlands being usurped by the wealthy capitalist people. Those people do it step by step and they reach their aim, driving people out of their lands, exterminating the Cheviot sheep and turning the highlands into a black oil trade centre. McGrath calls the Scottish people to come together and stand against this unfair treatment as one. David Greig and John McGrath, the two prolific playwrights of the contemporary British drama voice their concerns for political and ethical practices in our world with innovative techniques and become great practitioners of ‘new writing.’ In Dunsinane and The Cheviot, The Stag and the Black Black Oil the dramatists have taken a step to defy the well-made plays of the predecessors. They create a modern structure, free of stereotypical patterns of character and plot-line formulations, in which conventional surface coherence and appearance of harmony, as well as time have lost their significance. Both plays are particularly related with the questions of 63 64

Ibid., 2. Ibid., 38.

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globalization and internationalization and more precisely how they impact at the level of the local and locale. The events of the last decade grip the imagination of the two leading Scottish playwrights, who draw the audience’s attention to the cruelties done by the oppressors in neoimperialist era. Greig and McGrath deliver the same message via their plays that despite the neo-imperialist attitude no matter how hard the invader tries to subdue the national identity of the target country there is still hope for the people to survive this international system by resisting and protesting it even when it means risking their lives for their nation.

Works Cited Billington, Michael. "Dunsinane." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, (2010). Accessed March 24, 2013. http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/davidgreig "David Greig Pushes beyond Macbeth with Dunsinane." Herald Scotland. Accessed March 24, 2013. http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts-ents/ stage-visual-arts/david-greig-pushes-beyond-macbeth-with-dunsinane1.1099317 Greig, David. Dunsinane. London: Faber and Faber, 2010. Innes, Christopher. Modern British Drama 1890-1990. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992. Kipling, Rudyard. “The White Man's Burden: A Poem.” In Complete Verse, pp-pp. London: Kyle Cathie, 1992. Linnemann, Emily. “"A Mistaken Understanding": Dunsinane and New Writing at the RSC.” The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation, (2010). Accessed on March 27, 2013. http://www.borrowers.uga.edu/7159/toc Linnemann, Emily. "Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation." Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation. Accessed on March 22, 2013. http://www.borrowers.uga.edu/782405/display McGrath, John. The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black Black Oil. London: Eyre Methuen Ltd, 1993. "Modern Drama." Project MUSE. Accessed March 24, 2013. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/mdr/ Rushdie, Salman. Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 19811991. USA: Penguin, 1992. Schoene, Berthold. “Scottish Theatre as World Theatre: the Plays of David Greig”. Accessed March 27, 2013.

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http://www.napier.ac.uk/randkt/rktcentres/claw/ESSE%20Conference %202012/Titles-Abstracts-Papers/Pages/BertholdSchoene.aspx. Silbert, Roxana. "National Theatre of Scotland". 2011. Accessed March 22 2013. http://www.nationaltheatrescotland.com/content/default.asp?page=s757 Zenzinger, Peter. "David Greig’s Scottish View of the New Europe: A Study of Three Plays" Literary Views on Post-Wall Europe, (2005): 261-282.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN IDENTITY CRISIS AND ONTOLOGICAL INSECURITY IN ANITA BROOKNER’S HOTEL DU LAC GÜLDEN YÜKSEL

20th century, an era of disintegration, has caused many differences in the lives of people because of technological developments, inventions, industrialization, wars, economic, political and social upheavals. Modern people who are shattered by the outcomes of these upheavals transpose themselves into disintegrated selves who suffer from ontological insecurity. Furthermore, “[t]he unity of spirit and matter fell apart, with the result that modern man1 finds himself uprooted and alienated in a desouled world.”2 Individuals who lose the balance between soul and matter become disintegrated and self-alienated. They have been metamorphosed into a different species that lost all their emotions, feelings and humanity. “The deepest problems of modern life derive from the claim of the individual to preserve the autonomy and individuality of his existence in the face of overwhelming social forces, of historical heritage, of external culture and of the technique of life.”3 Modern issues such as civilization, authority, control, oppression and chaos have so much affected lives of people that they struggle to preserve their autonomy and individuality under the pressure of social forces, cultural and historical heritage. People try to define their essence through the way they live and their choices since “…the existence of Da-sein precedes and commands its essence 1

Man is not a generic term in this article but it is a general term standing for human beings. 2 Carl Jung, The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious. Trans. R.F.C Hull (USA: Bollingen Series XX, Princeton University Press, 1981), 9. 3 Georg Simmel, “The Metropolis and Mental Life”. Man Alone: Alienation in Modern Society. Ed. Eric and Mary Josephson (USA: Copyright, 2004), 151.

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human reality in and through its very upsurge decides to define its own being by its ends.” 4 Da-sein that means entity is able to be an autonomous self by expressing its feelings, ideas, making its own choices and struggling against the external forces. However, modern people are not able to strive, choose, decide and take responsibility of their actions. Modern people despair and are captured by inner strife in affiliation to existential problems because of the loss of harmony between body and self, ontological splits, inner decay, pessimism and alienation. Furthermore, they are anxious due to uncertainties, conflicts, confusions and dilemmas in their lives. Hence, they have questioned their existential problems which disturb them. Sartre in his novel Nausea states the pathetic situation of modern people by highlighting their anxiety about their existence: “…My [Roquentin] existence began to worry me seriously. Was I not a simple spectre?”5 Modern people feel themselves as spectres since they do not comprehend their existence satisfactorily. They have lost meaningful relationships with the world and perceive it as an alien place because of the distortion between the world and the self and fragmented realities. The destruction of essential relationship with the universe creates many illusions, fragmentations and dilemmas that modern people have difficulty in comprehending. Life becomes a permanent threat to their existence. The fact that they do not feel themselves alive, real and autonomous causes identity crisis, the loss of real self and organic wholeness and being inactive in making decisions and choosing possibilities. They are nervous and anxious because of swift changes of outer and inner life. Hotel Du Lac tells the stories of people who are exiled from the society and sent to the hotel in order to change themselves. In the novel, Anita Brookner portrays the situation of modern people who are rootless in the universe and depicts identity crisis and ontological insecurity of people due to anxiety, loss of autonomy and authenticity. The oppression of the society and the inability of individuals to achieve their self-autonomy lead them to be directed by the authority. For instance; Edith, who is the major character of the novel, obeys what the society asks from her. On account of her prominent place in the society, she is respected and regarded as a wise, successful, good, perfect, an obedient, and never questioning householder type. She is the perfect idealized being according to demands, rules and values of the society. To that end, her life has been surrounded 4

Jean P. Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology (Routledge. 1969), 443. 5 Jean P. Sartre, Nausea (2007), 73. http://www.libgen.info/view.php?id=672330 (accessed June 10, 2013).

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by the concepts of should and taboos. “… [F]orget about the disgraceful creature you actually are; this is how you should be; and to be this idealized self is all that matters. You should be able to endure everything, to understand everything, to like everybody, to be always productive… Since they are inexorable, I call them “tyranny of the should.” 6 That people try to reach an idealized self by ignoring the real self creates identity crisis and widens the gap between the real self and the social mask. Edith is self-alienated and non-autonomous person who cannot succeed in negating her social self. It is obvious that past, biology, status, culture and the society shape individuals; however, what an autonomous self is supposed to do is that he/she does not have to adapt himself/herself to the standards and norms of the society that he/she was born in. He/she can negate and annihilate the framing situations by creating his/her own values, trying or choosing many possibilities in order to be sovereign and free individuals. However, Edith cannot achieve to be an autonomous being owing to her impotency to disobey the society. “… [T]here had once been a dinner party, which she [Edith] had urged herself to attend as a matter of social duty… she behaved well, as she knew as she was expected to behave: quietly, politely, venturing little.”7 Owing to her social duty, she goes to parties where she has to behave well in order to be accepted as a respected person. Society does not let her be an autonomous and authentic self. Edith suffers from identity crisis because of the oppression and demands of the society. It is apt to see her identity crisis through her pseudonym, Vanessa Wilde. Her pseudonym which is a contradictory name and surname illustrates her self-alienation and identity crisis. Vanessa means butterfly and cute 8 ; however, her surname signifies the wild side of Edith’s nature. Edith is fragmented into two identities. Vanessa reflects her social face that society respects. She is kind and cute because she behaves according to her superego which stops individual from doing the things that id wants him/her to do. However, when she pursues her wishes and desires, she acts according to her id. Her illegitimate relationship with David represents her id. She acts how she wants by ignoring the norms of the society. The fact that Edith is passive, submissive and wild shows the dilemmas in her identity. There is a big

6 Karen Horney, The Neurosis and Human Growth Struggle Towards SelfRealization. (New York: WW Norton Company, 1991), 59. 7 Anita Brookner, Hotel Du Lac (New York: Penguin Books, 1993), 85. 8 “Vanessa” Babynology. http://www.first-names meanings.com/names/nameNEVILLE.html (accessed March 23, 2013).

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gap between her real self and her social persona. Such a gap triggers identity crisis and the lack of self-autonomy. Edith is non-autonomous and accepts to be sent to exile by Penelope because of her illegitimate relationship with a married man, David. Penelope is like Clotho, the goddess of destiny and fate in Greek mythology since Penelope weaves the fate of Edith. Penelope’s name is “related to pene ‘thread on the bobbin’, from penos ‘web,’9 Thread is a phallic symbol which stands for the patriarchal discourse. Penelope spindles and transfers the patriarchal discourse into the life of Edith. Penelope meaning spindle loosener, forces Edith to stay away for a month until everyone decides that Edith is herself again. She weaves the fate of Edith who is not a strong character but a week one who obeys Penelope, the voice of the society. It is apt to say that public place intrudes on private space since Penelope decides what Edith should do and not do and sends her to exile, which leads ontological insecurity But it was home, or, rather, “home”, which had become inimical all at once, so that she had acquiesced…when her friends had suggested a short break, and had allowed herself to be driven to the airport by her friend and neighbour, Penelope Milne, who was prepared to forgive her only on condition that she disappeared for a decent length of time and came back older, wiser, and properly apologetic.10

The intrusion of the public sphere into private sphere hinders people to decide on their own and to become autonomous individuals. Home which stands for sincerity, memories, emotions, and attachment become inimical because of the interference of Edith’s friends who are the representatives of the society and public sphere. As Edith is not a strong character to disobey the decisions taken by the society, she accepts to go into exile, which triggers ontological insecurity and loss of autonomy. Exile signifies that modern individuals do not have ontological security. They cannot feel themselves safe at home and in the world since both private and public sphere do not create any security for them. For instance, when Edith is at the airport in order to go into her exile, Penelope leaves her alone for a short time. When Edith sees her reflection on the mirror, for a short while, she comes across with her inner self, and she is captured by ontological insecurity. She is out of time and place, and milling crowds create chaos 9

“Penelope” Online Etymology Dictionary. http:/www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=penelope=sea rchmode=none (accessed April 14, 2013). 10 Anita Brookner, Hotel Du Lac (New York: Penguin Books, 1993), 8

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for her. “I would stay away for a month until everyone decides that I am myself again. For a moment, I panicked and I am myself now…”11 The fact that Edith who is excluded from the society faces her real nature makes her panic as she ignored it so far. “In any event, she [Edith] was anxious to escape, for the room had become a prison, witness as it was to all her past misdemeanours, and she had no heart for the pleasantries she might be called upon to exchange with the Puseys, or with Monica, or indeed with Mr. Neville.”12 Edith, full of anxieties, does not feel belonging to somewhere since nowhere and no one create security for her. Although the hotel room is supposed to be a curative place, it is a prison for her. Furthermore, she does not want to spend her time with other people who are the representatives of the patriarchal society since the society sends her away from her home, which is her private sphere. Edith thought of her little house as if it had existed in another life, another dimension. She thought of it as something to which she might never return. …she was no longer the person who could sit up in bed in the early morning and let the sun warm her shoulders and the light make her impatient for the day begin. That sun, that light had faded, and she

faded with them. Now she was as grey as the season itself.13 The fact that the house is the symbol of individuation process and shaping identity with memories and experiences makes the house private sphere that an individual belongs to. “[I]n Jungian psychology, the house is important symbol. …What happens inside it, it happens within ourselves. We often are the houses.”14 The function of house for shaping identity stands for the self-archetype and self-realization. In E. M. Forster’s Howards End, Mrs. Wilcox is devoted to the past and memories since to lose ancestral past and ties is tantamount to dying for Mrs. Wilcox because people cannot deny their pasts which shape their personalities and individuation process. As a consequence, Mrs. Wilcox sees the house as a symbol of self, and she says; “Howards End was nearly pulled down once. It would have killed me.”15 There is a strong bond between the house and Mrs. Wilcox; if she loses Howards End, she will lose the sense of belonging to somewhere. House is a private sphere and a kind of shelter 11

Ibid., 10. Ibid., 136. 13 Ibid., 153. 14 Hans Biederman, Dictionary of Symbolism, Trans. James Hulbert (New York: Wordsworth Editions Ltd, 1992), 179. 15 E. M Forster, Howards End (New York: Bantam Dell, 2007), 89. 12

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both in terms of physical needs and spiritual needs. When an individual is in a quest, he/she needs a kind of shelter in this quest in order to feel himself/herself to belong to somewhere. If he/she cannot find peace in public sphere, he/she tries to find comfort in private life. However, in Hotel Du Lac, public place does not let Edith have a peaceful and private space. Public place intrudes into private space, and home which stands for self becomes inimical since she creates a false self complying with the values of the society. The intrusion of the public place into private sphere, lack of autonomous self, self-alienation and alienation from other people cause Edith to feel ontologically insecure. Lack of mother is another reason for Edith’s ontological insecurity. “I wish that I had had a mother… I think of her as my poor mother.”16 Edith sighs for her mother since “... separation from mother, breaking of dependence, and the establishment and maintenance of a consistently individuated senses of self remain difficult psychological issues…”17 Edith does not have a strong mother figure from whom she wants support, affection, confidence and protection. She writes Beneath Visiting Moon. Moon is the symbol of femininity and mother. It is possible to associate the name of the novel with Edith’s longing for her mother. Edith feels the lack of her mother in every aspect of her life. This lack pervades her life and makes her feel lonely, which creates traumatic situation for her. “…Edith felt purged by her grief, obedient and childlike, as she had on so many occasions, reaching back into the mists of childhood to that visit…with her mother. And, childishly anxious to please, she went forward, when the signal came, to join the Pusey’s at their table.”18 Edith wants to overcome the lack of mother with Mrs Pusey who functions as a mother figure. In order to have affection, she behaves obediently and childishly to please Mrs. Pusey and joins their table when Mrs. Pusey lets her share their peaceful atmosphere. There is a contradictory situation about mother and daughter relationship. While Edith suffers from the lack of mother, Jennifer suffers from the presence of her mother, which leads her to feel identity crisis as in mythical expression of this relationship. Myths and “fairy tales have functioned as a secret history of embattled female relationships- a history that we repress only at our own peril.”19 16

Anita Brookner, Hotel Du Lac (New York: Penguin Books, 1993), 104. Nancy Chodorow, Family Structure and Feminine Personality. Woman, Culture and Society. By Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo (USA: Stanford University Press, 1974), 58. 18 Anita Brookner, Hotel Du Lac (New York: Penguin Books, 1993), 62. 19 Phyliss Chesler, Woman’s Inhumanity to Woman (USA: Lawrence Hill Books, 2009), 167. 17

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Daughters suffer from engulfing and limiting mothers who do not let them go and perceive them as individuals. This engulfing relationship between mother and daughter refers to the mythical mother-daughter relationship between goddess Demeter and Persephone. “Some Demetrian mothers refuse to let their daughters go. They bind them with maternal envy, disapproval, anger, insecurity, depression; they remain merged together in embattled relationships.” 20 Mrs. Pusey is a Demetrian mother and representation of the engulfing relationship between mother and daughter in Hotel Du Lac. She engulfs and limits her daughter, Jennifer, and she always wants Jennifer by her side. She takes care of Jennifer by ordering tea for her and buying clothes for her, which is a way to control her daughter. Mrs. Pusey, a narcissist woman, does not want to let Jennifer go. Even if Jennifer will get married, Mrs. Pusey will not leave her. “… [O]ne thing I [Mrs. Pusey] will not do is lower my standards. I have always striven for the best. It is an instinct, I suppose. As my husband used to say, only the best is good enough. “Mummy” cried Jennifer hotly.”21 When Mrs. Pusey talks about being superior and narcissist, Jennifer cries. Mummy is a childish and an unusual expression used by a middle-aged woman, and it implies that Jennifer is not able to be an adult since she is under the shadow of her domineering mother. At the same time, it is a desperate cry for the purpose of silencing the mother since Jennifer is so much oppressed by her mother that she wants to get rid of her oppression and dominion. Jennifer suffers from identity crisis, and she wants to be herself and wants her mother to see her as an individual. Mummy, in this context, is used as a metaphor for silencing the woman since mummies are supposed to be silent and still. Mrs. Pusey interferes with her daughter, Jennifer’s life, so unceasingly that Jennifer wants to silence her mother to become an autonomous individual. “… The daughter leads a shadowexistence, often visibly sucked dry by her mother…” 22 Jennifer is a shadow figure under the reign of her mother, and she cannot be an autonomous Da-sein which means entity and being there. “Da-sein is always essentially its possibility, it can “choose” itself in its being, it can win itself, it can lose itself, or it can never and only “apparently” win itself.”23 Da-sein is related to authentic self that knows its existence by expressing its feelings, thoughts and emotions and is aware of its 20

Ibid., 187. Anita Brookner, Hotel Du Lac (New York: Penguin Books, 1993), 53. 22 Carl Jung, The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious. Trans. R.F.C Hull (USA: Bollingen Series XX, Princeton University Press, 1981), 89. 23 Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, Trans. Joan Stambaugh, (Albany: State University of New York Press,. 1996), 40. 21

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sovereignty, and thus, it is not controlled by other people. However, Jennifer cannot achieve to be autonomous unlike authentic self that changes and develops through possibilities. Jennifer and Edith are nonautonomous and self-effacing beings owing to oppression of the society and domineering figures like a possessive mother and despotic friends. Modern people have perceived the world as alien and decentered because of the distortion between the world and self. They have lost the unity and harmony between body and soul and also their meaningful relationships with the world, other people and self. Individuals suffer from ontological insecurity and anxiety, and “inner self thus develops an overall sense of inner impoverishment, which is expressed in complaints of the emptiness, deadness, coldness, dryness, impotence, desolation, worthlessness, of the inner life.” 24 The presence of anxiety and ontological insecurity pave the way for the ruined selves that suffer from deadness, impotence and alienation due to loss of meanings in their lives. “…With the real self in exile, so to speak, one becomes a condemned convict, despised and threatened with destruction.”25 The fact that the disintegrated false self is in exile in the modern world creates meaninglessness and anxiety. In the novel, Monica is a married woman and is sent to the hotel by her husband owing to her health problem. She has an eating problem and “her noble husband, in urgent need of an heir, has dispatched her here with instructions to get herself into working order…”26 Monica is another nonautonomous person like Edith. Monica does not come to the hotel with her own choice. She is forced and dispatched by her husband with instructions. Monica is aware of the fact that her husband who has utilitarian understanding wants her to be healthy to have an heir. She knows that she is an object for her husband, and “…she hates and fears her husband, but only because he has not protected her, and she sees herself condemned to loneliness and exile… Her fine hieratic face droops into sadness as she contemplates what she can see of her future.”27 Monica is a lonely and an unhappy woman suffering from ontological insecurity. Edith is a companion to Monica that is happy to share her ideas, loneliness and sadness. “… [Monica] says she feels safe with me [Edith].” 28 Monica creates a bond with Edith since Edith is alone like her. As Monica is able to share something with someone, she feels herself safe and alive for a 24

R.D Laing, The Divided Self (Penguin Books, 1969), 90. Karen Horney, The Neurosis and Human Growth Struggle Towards SelfRealization. (New York: WW Norton Company, 1991), 160. 26 Anita Brookner, Hotel Du Lac (New York: Penguin Books, 1993), 80. 27 Ibid., 81. 28 Ibid., 80. 25

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while. Also Edith wants to feel safe, and thus, she accepts Neville’s marriage proposal. She feels herself ontologically insecure because she is sent to hotel by the society, and she is not autonomous person. She suffers from lack of mother, and David whom she has trusted much does not call her. She is isolated. “Clearly, thought Edith, I am to be invisible until I agree to his [Neville] terms. And he is right. This is what it is like, and what it will always be like, if I don’t marry him. This is what he is letting me see.”29 She thinks that she will be an invisible woman in the society if she does not take support of a man. The name of Neville means new village.30 As Edith suffers from ontological insecurity, Neville functions as a new place that Edith wants to shelter. However, Neville cannot fulfill this role since he suffers from ontological insecurity, too. The fact that people are disintegrated, self-alienated and do not trust other people cause them to feel ontologically insecure. For instance; Neville who has been betrayed by his wife does not trust anyone and warns Edith when he offers her to marry. As betrayal is traumatic event for him, he does not let anyone interfere with his life emotionally. Neville says to Edith: “[Y]ou will not shame me, will not ridicule me, will not hurt my feelings. Do you realize how hard it is for a man to own up to being hurt in that way? I simply cannot afford to let it happen again.”31 Neville ignores emotions that will hurt him since he does not want to be disappointed again. However, to ignore the real self by suppressing it creates self-alienation and ontological insecurity. “...[P]sychological alienation, wherein a character becomes extremely solipsistic, or centred in on the self, is contingent with social alienation, a separation of self from society, and with a fragmentation or dissolution of self.” 32 Betrayal destroys all the values that Neville believes. He becomes a solipsist person because of the feeling of ontological insecurity that is triggered by the betrayal of his wife. He is a solipsist in order to protect himself from any other destruction towards his identity and psychology. In conclusion, modern people cannot be autonomous individuals who are able to create their own values, decide and choose their possibilities because of the oppressive power of the patriarchal ideology. It is related to social constructionism since people are socially formed, and they exist owing to their relation to shared beliefs about social values, morals and 29

Ibid., 178. “Neville”. First Names Meanings. http://www.first-namesmeanings.com/names /name-NEVILLE.html (accessed March 12, 2013). 31 Anita Brookner, Hotel Du Lac (New York: Penguin Books, 1993), 166. 32 Robyn Mccallum, Ideologies of Identity in Adolescent Fiction. (Taylor-Francis e-Library, 2002), 115. 30

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rules, traditions and culture that construct their social selves. They cannot attain autonomy and authenticity as they cannot negate these limiting and framing concepts. They are under the shadows of a domineering and narcissist mother, husband or friend, namely the representatives of the society that suppresses autonomous individuation process. The oppression of the society, self-estrangement, and ontological insecurity create disintegrated modern individuals who cannot comprehend their existence. Furthermore, they suffer from identity crisis since they are not sovereign individuals who make their own decisions and take their responsibilities. Hotel Du Lac portrays of these rootless and disintegrated characters suffering from psycho-social disorders which have been strengthened with identity crisis and ontological insecurity of the characters. The hotel becomes an important place manifesting people’s identity crisis, ontological insecurity and their impotency to be autonomous individuals.

Works Cited Brookner, Anita. Hotel Du Lac, New York: Penguin Books, 1993. Biederman, Hans. Dictionary of Symbolism, translated by. James Hulbert, New York: Wordsworth Editions Ltd, 1992. Chesler, Phyliss. Woman’s Inhumanity to Woman, USA: Lawrence Hill Books, 2009. Chodorow, Nancy. “Family Structure and Feminine Personality” Woman, Culture and Society, by Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo; USA: Stanford University Press, 1974. Forster, E. M. Howards End, New York: Bantam Dell, 2007. Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time, translated by. Joan Stambaugh, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996. Horney, Karen. The Neurosis and Human Growth Struggle Towards SelfRealization, New York: WW Norton Company, 1991. Jung, Carl G. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, translated by. R.F.C. Hull, 2nd ed. USA: Bollingen Series XX, Princeton University Press, 1981. Laing, R.D. The Divided Self, Penguin Books, 1969. Mccallum, Robyn. Ideologies of Identity in Adolescent Fiction, TaylorFrancis e- Library, 2002. “Neville” First Names Meanings. http://www.first-namesmeanings.com/names/name-NEVILLE.html “Penelope” Online Etymology Dictionary. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search= penelope=searchmode=none

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Sartre, Jean P. Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology, Routledge, 1969. —. Nausea, 2007. http://www.libgen.info/view.php?id=672330 Simmel, Georg. “The Metropolis and Mental Life” Man Alone: Alienation in Modern Society, edited by. Eric and Mary Josephson, USA: Copyriht, 2004. “Vanessa” Babynology, www.babynology.com/meaning-vanessa-f34.html

CHAPTER SIXTEEN SHAKESPEARE THE CRITIC: MAJOR ISSUES IN THE ELIZABETHAN THEATRE HøMMET UMUNÇ

In view of Shakespeare’s established reputation as a genius of drama for all ages, it may seem rather ambitious of me to present him also as a “critic”. In fact, nowhere in his plays does he formulate a theory of his art or embark upon an exegetical process to elucidate and discuss the meaning and aesthetic value of his work. Obviously, as Helen Gardner has stressed, “[a] critic’s function ... is to assist his readers to find the value which he believes the work to have” (7). Moreover, if one recalls Matthew Arnold’s argument in his essay “The Function of Criticism at the Present Time,” the critic has the responsibility with “a disinterested endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world, and thus to establish a current of fresh and true ideas” (256; cf. 246). Of course, Shakespeare was not a critic in this sense. Indeed, he was a critic in the sense that he had an extreme and very creative sensibility about his art and possessed a critical mind, which distinguished between good drama that immensely moved and possessed the theatre-going public of his time and bad drama that failed to achieve such an effect. As a playwright, he may have had a working knowledge of the generic theory about drama and thus attempted to demonstrate his theoretical awareness through his learned practice of the dramatic genres. In other words, to recall Coleridge, “Shakespeare becomes all things yet for ever remaining himself” (180; also qtd. in Grivelet 27). His intellectual versatility, unfathomable creativity, and artistic pragmatism undoubtedly enabled him to maintain a critical sensitivity whereby he perfectly integrated theory and practice through a pattern of artistry evolving through his dramatic career. He clearly had theoretical assumptions, which constituted the basis of his dramatic practice and were revealed in certain parts of his plays. In this regard, what the French Shakespearean Michel Grivelet has stated about understanding Shakespeare’s mind can be recalled:

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So this paper is an attempt to perceive what Shakespeare might have thought critically about the practice of drama in his time and also the problems that, for him, beset the Elizabethan theatre. Shakespeare was not a university-educated and theory-motivated playwright; he learned and developed his art over the years, not only as a playwright but also, more importantly, as a qualified and highly respected actor, through professional practice and intellectually constant selfimprovement. In fact, as Greenblatt has pointed out, “in the early 1590s […] he was first noted as a professional actor and playwright in London” (54). Like any Renaissance intellectual and man of letters, he was certainly aware of the traditional decorum of the literary genres, which, as originally formulated by Aristotle1 and believed to have been put into practice by Virgil,2 extended from epic and tragedy as the highest genres to comedy, satire, and pastoral as the lower genres. Indeed, in the early stages of his career as a playwright, he may have shared the same view in this regard with the University Wits, who included Christopher Marlowe, George Peele, Thomas Nashe, Robert Greene, Thomas Lodge, John Lyly, Thomas Watson and Thomas Kyd, although Kyd was not a university graduate but an important member of the group. Since they dominated the literary scene in Elizabethan London 3 and represented “a vibrant, restless intellectual culture” (Greenblatt, 199-200), Shakespeare was initially much influenced by them and, accordingly, must definitely have taken into consideration the norms of generic decorum in writing his early plays such as Titus Andronicus, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors, and 1, 2, 3 Henry VI. However, he must soon have 1

For Aristotle’s discussion of the generic decorum, see his Poetics, 11, 17-21, 23, 39 and 45-49. 2 Virgil’s Eclogues, Georgics and Aeneid were considered in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to be the best example of the generic hierarchy, and authors were urged to take this Vergilian example (exemplum Vergilianum) as their model. For a discussion and illustration of the Vergilian example of the three styles and, hence, generic decorum in the Renaissance, see Umunç, “Vergilius Örne÷i” 327-340. 3 For a summary of the University Wits and their personality, and Shakespeare’s close relationship and collaboration with them in his early career, see Greenblatt 198-225.

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discovered that plays written in imitation of the Senecan and Terentian models, privileging a bombastic rhetoric or a mere farcical mise-en-scène with no substantial action, would not only deprive him of creativity and fame but also lose his theatre company a lucrative market for entertainment. In other words, he must have felt that he needed to change his strategy of writing and develop his own style and form with generic hybridity that would draw audiences to his theatre and really thrill them. Therefore, one of the subtopics that Shakespeare recurrently brought to the fore in his plays was the state of drama as practised in his time. In several of his plays he kept on reiterating explicitly or implicitly a number of issues that concerned the Elizabethan theatre at large. Among the issues that were highlighted and indeed criticized were the strictures of the generic decorum, pragmatics of stage performance, players’ underprivileged status and their social and economic grievances, the composition of the audience, the hostile and censorious attitude of city authorities and fundamentalist puritans towards the theatre, the question of the setting on the stage, casting and players’ competition for parts, the insidious rivalry among playwrights as well as theatre companies, and similar other cases. Indeed, by focusing on some of these issues seriously as can be seen in Hamlet or jestingly in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, or by touching on some other issues in passing in other plays, Shakespeare demonstrated his serious concern with the state of the Elizabethan theatre and presented an important critique of it. In this regard, besides being a creative playwright, he was also the playwright who, different from his contemporaries, displayed in his plays a critical sense about the drama of his time. It is mainly in Hamlet and, to some extent and with a parodic touch, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, together with some flimsy and passing references in other plays, that one witnesses Shakespeare’s critique of drama as practised by his contemporaries and is informed of the problems of the Elizabethan theatre. Especially in Hamlet, Shakespeare breaks, as it were, the pattern of the main action and, within the context of Hamlet’s meeting with the players, inserts a kind of critical vignette in which he both raises the question of generic hybridity and also voices his criticism of the contemporary practice of drama on stage (II.ii.314-541). The vignette begins with an exaggerated catalogue of dramatic forms that Polonius, while announcing the players’ arrival at the court, pedantically recites to Hamlet: “The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comicalhistorical-pastoral, scene individable, or poem unlimited.”(Hamlet, II.ii.392-396)

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Although Polonius’s dramatic pedantry as such may be dismissed as frivolous and inane, thematically it indicates the idea of generic hybridity that Shakespeare came to adopt, later in his career, for his own practice of drama. However, he was aware of the fact that there was a very strong tradition of generic decorum among the University Wits and that they vehemently opposed and censured any kind of generic hybridity. This was of course a tradition that mainly derived from Horace’s Ars Poetica, 4 which was obviously known to any university-educated intellectual and author in Elizabethan England. Indeed, back in the 1580 Sir Philip Sidney had explicitly upheld the Horatian principle of the separation of the genres and expressed his objection to any kind of generic hybridity by declaring that “But besides these grosse absurdities [i.e. violation of the unities of character, time and place], how all their Playes bee neither right Tragedies, nor right Comedies, mingling Kinges and Clownes, not because the matter so carrieth it, but thrust in the Clowne by head and shoulders to play a part in maiesticall matters, with neither decencie nor discretion: so as neither the admiration and Commiseration, nor the right sportfulnesse is by their mongrell Tragicomedie obtained” (sig. Ir-v).

For Sidney, “an exact moddell” of perfect tragedy was the early Elizabethan academic play Gorboduc, written by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville and first performed in 1562 before Queen Elizabeth. Sidney’s admiration of the play, despite its violation of the unity of place and time (sig.[H4r]), was based on the fact that it had been written in full conformity to the Senecan practice of the genre, and followed the Horatian precept of dulce et utile: “It is full of stately speeches, and wel sounding phrases, clyming to the height of Seneca his style, and […] full of notable morallitie, which it dooth most delightfully teach, and so obtaine the verie ende of Poesie” (sig.[H4r]).

Also Sidney’s contemporary and critic George Puttenham had clearly delineated in the late 1580s the generic nature of comedy and tragedy and, thus, implied that, as dramatic forms, they were completely incompatible and irreconcilable:

4

As regards Horace’s distinction of the dramatic genres, see his Ars Poetica, 469 and 471.

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“There were also Poets that wrote onely for the stage; I meane playes and interludes, to receate [sic] the people with matters of disporte, and to that intent did set forth in shewes [and] pageants, accompanied with speach the common behauiours and maner [sic] of life of priuate persons, and such as were the meaner sort of men, and they were called Comicall Poets […]. Besides those Poets Comick there were other who serued also the stage, but medled not with so base matters: For they set forth the dolefull falles of infortunate & afflicted Princes, & were called Poets Tragicall” (20).

Yet, in the wake of his early dramatic writings, which fully conformed to the Senecan and Terentian practice of generic decorum, Shakespeare came to realize that this kind of academic drama was far from meeting the public demand for popular drama. He could see that, for instance, a tragedy, completely based on the Senecan model with its extensive rhetorical declamations, superfluous debates, extravagant poetical embellishments and frequency of what Ashley Thorndike has called “verbal fireworks” (vii), “inexplicable dumb shows” (Hamlet, III.ii.12), sudden reversals of circumstances, and revolting murder scenes, did not always appeal to all the audience that represented all walks of life. Moreover, given the fierce competition among the theatre companies for attracting large numbers of audiences to their theatres (Greenblatt 269), there was always an urgent need for plays that really electrified the spectators. As Andrew Gurr has pointed out, “in the commercial conditions of the time, […] all that was asked of the playwrights was to supply an entertainment industry” (18), which was in fact extremely vibrant and creative in Elizabethan London. Indeed, Greenblatt has put it, “the playing companies needed to please many different tastes” (256). Accordingly, the impresarios, playwrights and players of the companies were always obsessed with what Shakespeare terms in Hamlet “reputation and profit” (II.ii.329), which simply means the achievement of wide popularity and also the assurance of commercial benefits. Therefore, as Gurr has asserted, “new fashions [of play-writing] became increasingly a self-conscious development out of the familiar and popular species of established plays” (20). Consequently, play-writing was motivated by commercial interests and “increasingly became a lucrative business” (20). In this regard Marlowe was the most accomplished playwright who was affiliated with the Lord Admiral’s Men, a prestigious theatre company at the time. Obviously, as Greenblatt has argued, Shakespeare considered him to be a powerful rival: “Marlowe was the only one of the university wits whose talent Shakespeare might have seriously envied, whose aesthetic judgment he might have feared, whose admiration he might have earnestly wanted to

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Yet Marlowe was killed in a murder in May 1593 and did not live long to become a living challenge to Shakespeare as a dramatist. Despite Marlowe’s death, Shakespeare maintained his determined effort to excel him in reputation and creativity because, as Greenblatt has pointed out, “Shakespeare saw what was marvellous in Marlowe […], but he also seems to have disliked quite deeply something in Marlowe’s language and imagination” (269). So when he transferred in 1594 from Lord Strange’s Men to the Lord Chamberlain’s Men as an experienced actor and also as a creative playwright, 5 he was set to cater not only for “the judicious” (Hamlet, III.ii.26) but also for “the unskilful” (Hamlet, III.ii.26) or “the barren spectators” (Hamlet, III.ii.41). Unlike Marlowe and the other University Wits, who wrote exclusively for the taste of the elite and the cultivated rather than for the commonalty, he wrote for the whole people and transformed the theatre into a fully popular means of entertainment as well as instruction and enlightenment. Later in 1600, when he wrote Hamlet, he revisited this issue in it and voiced his criticism of the state of the contemporary theatre. The criticism is embedded in the opening part of the dialogue between Hamlet and the First Player: “I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was never acted, or if it was, not above once—for the play, I remember, pleased not the million, ‘twas caviare to the general. But it was, as I received it— and others, whose judgments in such matters cried in the top of mine—an excellent play, well digested in the scenes, set down with as much modesty as cunning. I remember one said there were no sallets in the lines to make the matter savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of affection, but called it an honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine.” (II.ii.430-441)

In the speech, although Hamlet seems to appreciate the play and pretends to be praising its perfect generic qualities, impeccable structure and unaffected style, ironically he draws attention to the fact that the play 5

On Shakespeare’s growth into a professional actor and also on the development of his writing skills, see Gurr 19; Greenblatt 161-163, 188-198, 206-225 et passim, and Ackroyd 93-208.

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actually failed to appeal to the public and was apparently removed from the playing company’s repertoire: “[…] it was / never acted, or if it was, not above once—for the / play, I remember, pleased not the million, ‘twas / caviare to the general” (Hamlet, II.ii.430-433). The play, which Shakespeare thus parodies and criticizes, evidently brings to mind the early Marlowe-Nashe play The Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage (Marlowe 330-373), which was probably written or acted about 1587. Based on the sentimental Dido-Aeneas romance in The Aeneid (283-445[I,594-IV,705]), Marlowe’s play was indeed a rhetorical showpiece, especially in Acts I and II and partly Act III, with long declamatory speeches, narrative rather than dramatic dialogues, and extensive mythological material. When acted as such, it must have confused and bored the audience. Evidently Shakespeare must have seen the play performed by the Lord Admiral’s Men at the Rose Theatre in Southwark, where, as Greenblatt has remarked (189), he also watched Marlowe’s Tamburlaine in 1587 with Edward Alleyn, “an astonishingly gifted young actor” as the chief player (Greenblatt 190). He must have noticed that the Dido play, like all the other Senecan-style plays of the University Wits, with rhetorical bombast and no moving action, was a total failure. Hence, both professionally and commercially he must certainly have resolved to make his theatre the people’s theatre. This artistic awareness must obviously have forced him to change his writing strategy and begin to construct his plays in a hybrid way so that both the elite and what he called “the groundlings” (Hamlet, II.ii.11) or “the ignorant” (Hamlet, II.ii.559) of his audiences were to be pleased. The key to this end was not simply good acting but, more importantly, a careful and balanced blending in his plays of the tragic and the comic, of the serious and the farcical, of the grievous and the laughable. As Greenblatt has stated, “Shakespeare wrote for the theatre not as a poet, in the sense that Greene and company understood themselves, but as a player” (210). It may be suggested in this regard that, as an actor and a playwright, Shakespeare thought he had to be all the people but also remain himself. However, it was not only out of a literary, aesthetic or purely theoretical consideration that, especially in his tragedies, Shakespeare must thus have opted for generic hybridity and adopted an anti-Senecan form of dramatic construction. Also the audience profile, coupled with the pressure of a competitive theatre market, must have had considerable impact on his writing strategy. Historically, Elizabethan England witnessed a major transformation in many respects, ranging from population growth, increasing overseas trade, transatlantic explorations and colonialism to economic prosperity, growing influence in international

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relations, educational improvements, increase of literacy, the development of an entertainment industry, and so forth. Especially London, the metropolis with a population of two hundred thousand (Greenblatt 188), was the vibrant centre of this transformation (Gurr 12-13). Besides economic, commercial, diplomatic and other advantages and interests, the city also offered an extremely productive and rewarding social and cultural life. Evidently the theatres were the most popular and influential institutions of this life. As Robert Weimann has argued, “The organization and audience of the Elizabethan theatre mirrored a highly transitional social, economic, and ideological balance between the feudal background of the New Monarchy, the nobility, and the conservative gentry on the one hand, and the aspiring new gentry, the London bourgeoisie and the plebs on the other” (xii).

Although theatrical performances had been traditionally offered in the great halls of manor houses or in the yards of inns in London6 as well as in the country by the travelling groups of players such as the players in Hamlet (II.ii.315-317, 324-329, 417-425), it was from the late 1560s onwards that public theatres or playhouses began to be built for profit and entertainment (Gurr 7-12 and 27-29; Greenblatt 181-188). Beginning with the Red Lion in 1567, the Theatre in 1576 and the Curtain in 1577, which were all built outside the jurisdiction of the London city authorities, there followed the other theatres, mostly in Southwark and also outside the city’s jurisdiction, which included the Rose, the Swan, the Globe, the Red Bull, the Fortune, and the Hope (Greenblatt 189; Ackroyd 98, 125-131, 277-278, 323, 326-327 and 329). In these theatres, various companies, named in association with their noble patrons such as the Earl of Leicester’s Men, the Lord Admiral’s Men, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men and so forth,7 offered their performances, usually in strong rivalry with 6

In fact, as Peter Burke has pointed out, inns in Elizabethan England were major centres of popular culture; they were “places for watching cock-fights or for playing cards or backgammon, throwing dice or bawling at nine-pins. Minstrels and harpers performed in taverns and there was dancing, sometimes with hobbyhorses. Ale-houses were a setting for popular art […] In London in particular, certain inns— and their yards—were important cultural centres, with the innkeeper acting as impresario or animateur” (109-110). Accordingly, the presentation of plays by touring companies was obviously part of such a display of popular culture. 7 Although some members of the nobility in Elizabethan England had kept in the 1560s under their patronage some players as entertainers, the 1572 “Acte for the

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each other. Since the theatre companies were concerned about the economic profitability of their performances on stage, they always tried to attract large crowds by maintaining an extensive repertoire with plays that catered for diverse tastes and mentalities. For the companies and players, “success meant working in London where the biggest audiences were, and where there might be the accolade of performing in the the Christmas season of festivities at Court. For the players London meant living in one place instead of travelling and, more important, enjoying a steady income” (Gurr 28).

This was especially true of Shakespeare’s company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, which, in terms of profitability, was certainly ahead of the other companies since Shakespeare and his fellow actors as shareholders were able to make a huge investment for the construction of a brand new theatre in Southwark (Gurr 44-48), which opened in 1599 under the name “the Globe,” with the gala performance of Julius Caesar. Moreover, the company was often invited to the Court for performances in the Queen’s presence. So the company enjoyed both profit and royal favour. However, there were also the performances of the boy companies that in fact enjoyed both royal favour and public appreciation (Gurr 33 and especially 49-51). Apparently their performances were a challenge to the companies of adult players, and some companies went on tours in the country to earn a profitable living (Gurr 6, 31 and 39-41). As a commercial playwright and an important shareholder of the Globe, Shakespeare was certainly worried about their popularity since this would mean a sizeable loss of his own audience and, hence, of profit. The problem is raised in the players scene in Hamlet; after Rosencrantz informs Hamlet that a group of players are on their way to the Court “to offer [him] service” (II.ii.317), the dialogue turns into a series of queries that Hamlet makes about the social and financial status of the players as well as the growing popularity of the boy companies, thus reflecting Shakespeare’s own criticism of the matter: punishment of Vacabondes” forced independent or self-employed theatre groups to seek patronage and associate themselves as “servants” with the nobility (Gurr 2749, and Greenblatt 272-273). Accordingly these theatre groups came to be known as The Earl of Leicester’s Men, The Earl of Sussex’s Men, The Earl of Warwick’s Men, The Earl of Essex’s Men, The Earl of Oxford’s Men, Lord Strange’s Men (also The Earl of Derby’s Men), The Queen’s Men, Lord Hunsdon’s Men (later The Lord Chamberlain’s Men), The Earl of Worcester’s Men, the Lord Admiral’s Men (originally Lord Howard’s Men), the Earl of Hertford’s Men, and The Earl of Pembroke’s Men.

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Chapter Sixteen “Ham. […] What players are they? Ros. Even those you were wont take such delight in, The tragedians of the city. Ham. How chances it they travel? Their residence, both Reputation and profit, was better both ways. Ros. I think their inhibition comes by the means of the Late innovation. Ham. Do they hold the same estimation they did when I Was in the city? Are they so followed? Ros. No, indeed are they not. Ham. How comes it? Do they grow rusty? Ros. Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace; but there is, sir, an eyrie of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top of question, and are most tyrannically clapped for’t. These are now the fashion, and so berattle the common stage—so they call them […].” (II.ii.324-340)

Of course, through Hamlet’s questions to Rosencrantz, Shakespeare raises another crucial issue that is related to the Elizabethan public’s esteem and evaluation of the theatres and the players both institutionally and professionally. Actually the Elizabethans had an ambivalent attitude towards the theatres. Their perception of the theatres was paradoxical. On the one hand they thought that the theatres were morally harmful and socially dangerous, but on the other the theatres were regarded as instructive and useful. It was primarily radical Puritans and municipal authorities that were most adamant in their hostility against playwrights, players and theatre-owners (Patterson 18-21; Gurr 7, 9 et passim). For instance, in a royal proclamation concerning public performances of plays, it was clearly stated that municipal authorities and justices of the peace “permyt none to be played wherein either matters of religion or of governaunce of the estate of the common weale shall be handled or treated, beyng no meete matters to be wrytten or treated […] nor to be handled before any audience […]” (qtd. in Patterson 19).

Moreover, the government authorities urged the city officials to censure those plays, especially “comodies and enterludes,” which “containe mater that may bread corruption of manners and conversacion among the people” (qtd. in Patterson 21). As for the Puritan fundamentalists, they expressed their hatred in the most hostile terms such as can be seen in the notorious Puritan pamphleteer Stephen Gosson’s slanderous and

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provocative The Schoole of Abuse, which, published in 1579, incited Sidney and Thomas Lodge (c.1558-1625)who, in response, wrote apologies for the vindication of poetry and drama (Umunç, “Sir Philip Sidney” 113).8 For Gosson, although certain plays with a moral purpose are “good playes and sweete playes, and of al playes the best playes and most to be liked” (sig. 24a), it is especially in comedies dealing with lust, adultery, and licentiousness that one can observe “the abuses of Poets, pypers, and Players which bringe vs too pleasure, slouth, sleepe, sine, and without repentaunce to death and the Deuill” (sig. 25a). Naturally, both Shakespeare and the other playwrights of the period were agitated by government censorship and sustained Puritan attacks. For instance, in his satirical and polemical Pierce Penniless, written in the early 1590s, Thomas Nashe (1567-1601?) bitterly condemned the Puritan aversion against the theatre and drew attention to the social and moral uses of the public performances which usually took place in the afternoon. For instance, as regards the social benefits of the theatre, he pointed out that, in order to keep the masses away from rioting or any kind of social disturbance, “the policy of plays is very necessary, howsoever some shallow-minded censurers (not the deepest searchers into the secrets of government) mightily oppugn them. For whereas the afternoon being the idlest time of the day, wherein men that are their own masters (as gentlemen of the Court, the Inns of the Court, and the number of captains and soldiers about London) do wholly bestow themselves upon pleasure; and that pleasure they divide (how virtuously it skills not) either into gaming, following of harlots, drinking, or seeing a play: is it not then better, since of four extremes all the world cannot keep them but they will choose one, that they should betake them to the least, which is plays? Nay, what if I prove plays to be no extreme, but a rare exercise of virtue?” (112). 8

Like Sidney, Lodge was also upset by Gosson’s attacks in The School of Abuse on poets, playwrights, and players and so wrote his pamphlet A Defence of Poetry, Musick and Stage Plays in late 1579 or early 1580. In the opening part of the pamphlet, he refers to Gosson’s book and makes the following biting remarks: “There came to my hands lately a little […] pamphelet, baring a fayre face as though it were the Schoole of Abuse; but being by me aduisedly wayed I fynd it the oftscome of imperfections, the writer fuller of wordes then judgements, the matter certainely as ridiculus as serius. […] I meane to[…] teach the Maister what he knoweth not, partly that he may see his owne follie, and partly that I may discharge my promise, both bind me: therefore I would wishe the good scholmayster to ouer looke his Abuses againe with me, so shall he see an ocean of enormities which begin in his first prinsiple in the disprayse of Poetry ” (3).

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Nashe, apparently recalling the topical and thematic contents of the plays currently on show in the London theatres, extended his defence in strong terms by further emphasizing the moral benefits of the theatre: “in plays, all cozenages, all cunning drifts over-gilded with outward holiness, all stratagems of war, all the cankerworms that breed on the rust of peace, are most lively anatomized. They shew the ill success of treason, the fall of hasty climbers, the wretched end of usurpers, the misery of civil dissension, and how just God is evermore in punishing of murder. […] What should I say more? They are sour pills of reprehension, wrapped up in sweet words” (114).

Although Shakespeare was also critical of the hostile attitude in society towards the theatre and players, in his defence he took a low profile rather than went for an open rebuttal and public invective. He apologetically urged his audiences by arousing their sentiments and calling for their honest judgments to regard players and playwrights as respectable and specially gifted professionals deserving support and tolerance. That is why he makes Hamlet rebuke Polonius for the latter’s contemptuous treatment of the players: “Ham. […] Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed? Do you hear, let them be well used, for they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time. […] Pol. My lord, I will use them according to their desert. Ham. God’s bodkin, man, much better. Use every man after his desert […] Use them after your own honour and dignity: the less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in.” (II.ii.518-528)

As an actor playwright, who was clearly aware of the prevalent public scorn of players, Shakespeare was certainly very sensitive about his profession and always asked his audience to recognize the status of players. By way of instruction for his audience he often made references in his plays to the benefits of dramatic performances. A good example is what Hamlet says to the First Player about the aesthetic and moral function of drama: “[…] the purpose of playing, […] both at the first and now, was and is to hold as ‘t were the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.” (III. ii. 20-24)

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Shakespeare’s didacticism was part of his professional policy to overcome the public prejudice against players. In his plays he often stressed the pedagogic role of players in the moral enlightenment of people. Besides his aphorisms and proverbial sayings that are extensively embedded in the dialogues of his characters, he also included passages with philosophical, political or moral precepts and, thus, demonstrated especially to his audience that theatres and players responsibly contributed to the instruction and improvement of the public. One good example in this regard is Jaques’s metaphorical and often-quoted speech in As You Like It, where the world is compared to the theatre, and man in this world to a player in the theatre. As if holding a mirror to nature for a pedagogic purpose, Shakespeare, by offering a survey of the seven ages of man, solemnly reminds the audience through Jaques’s speech of the transitoriness and tragic end of human life: “Jaques. All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms. Then, the whining school-boy with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then, a soldier, Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then, the justice, In fair round belly, with good capon lin’d, With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws, and modern instances, And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon, With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side, His youthful hose well sav’d, a world too wide For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything”(II.ii.139-166)

Another memorable passage with a pedagogic focus is Ulysses’ political speech in Troilus and Cressida. In his speech Ulysses, with the Agamemnon-Achilles quarrel in mind, comments on how faction and anarchy destroys social hierarchy and harmony, and, for illustration, he metaphorically refers to the cosmic order: “Ulyss. Troy yet upon his basis had been down And the great hector’s sword had lack’d a master But for these instances. The specialty of rule hath been neglected, And look how many Grecian tents do stand Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions. When that the general is not like the hive

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Chapter Sixteen To whom the foragers shall all repair, What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded, Th’unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask. The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre Observe degree, priority, and place, Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, Office, and custom, in all line of order. And therefore is the glorious planet Sol In noble eminence enthron’d and spher’d Amidst the other; whose med’cinable eye Corrects the influence of evil planets, And posts like commandment of a king, Sans check, to good and bad. But when the planets In evil mixture to disorder wander, What plagues and what portents, what mutiny, What raging of the sea, shaking of earth, Commotion in the winds, frights, changes, horrors, Divert and crack, rend and deracinate The unity and married calm of states Quite from their fixture! O, when degree is shak’d, Which is the ladder of all high designs, The enterprise is sick. How could communities, Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities, Peaceful commerce from dividable shores, The primogenity of and due of birth, Prerogative of age, crowns, scepters, laurels, But by degree stand in authentic place? Take but degree away, untune that string, And hark what discord follows. Each thing melts In mere oppugnancy.” (I.iii.75-111)

Evidently, Shakespeare addressed socially educative passages as such and other statements or remarks of wisdom in his plays to “the judicious” in his audience to demonstrate to them that the theatre did contribute to the enlightenment and moral improvement of society. Thus, he craved for their support and patronage of the theatre and wished them to exercise their influence in this respect. Of course, one would wonder to what extent the undereducated and the underprivileged of his audience really understood Shakespeare’s meaning and intention in his plays. In fact, from his references to the common people in his audience, whom he described in Hamlet as “the ignorant” (II.ii.559), “the groundlings” (III.ii.11), “the unskilful” (III.ii.26), and the “barren spectators” (III.ii.41), it is clear that he did not consider them to be intellectually able to perceive the thematic depth and epistemic extent of his plays. For him, they were “the tag-rag people” who would “clap […] and hiss […] the players in the theatre”

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(Julius Caesar, I.ii.255-258) and “gape and point / At [their] industrious scenes and acts of death” (King John, II.i.375-376). As remarked in an anonymous 1606 pamphelet, the common people went “to plaies more for musicke sake, then for action” (qtd. in Gurr 80). However, this does not mean that Shakespeare regarded them with contempt; he teased them and appropriated their manners and culture for the enrichment of his dramatic vision. Also economically he valued them since they constituted a sizeable part of his audience and provided good income. In fact, culturally and socially, for Shakespeare and for the Elizabethans, the theatre was a major public institution where the élite and the commonalty were involved in a social intercourse and shared the same complex forms of dramatic discourse. The theatre played a central role in the depiction and dissemination of both high culture and popular culture. As Q.D. Leavis has stressed, Elizabethan society as well as culture was characterized by “an inexplicable mixture of the profound and the naïve, the fine and the gross, the subtle and the crude” (89). Obviously, by practising generic hybridity whereby comic lightness and tragic austerity were presented in the same context in his plays, Shakespeare not only made the theatre the focus of social entertainment and intellectual erudition (Patterson, especially 20-24) but also contributed to the development of the popular theatre and, hence, to its democratization. Indeed, the popular culture that Shakespeare depicted in his drama through his tavern scenes, prostitutes, bawdy jokes, clowns, peasants, foolish types and backstreet thugs was the culture that emerged from below and became the voice of the commonalty. In his drama, Shakespeare set what one may call the proletarian reality against the upper-class reality of the judicious, and thus the theatre became a platform for the intermingling of the social classes and for the representation of cultural diversity. Moreover, for the understanding of his audience, Shakespeare stresses that acting and performing on stage is an art and, therefore, needs to be learned; as can be seen from Hamlet’s expert instructions to the players (III.ii.1-45), it is a very serious business and requires a great deal of effort and preparation. Also in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare draws attention to the same issue but jestingly; when Theseus queries Philostrate about the artisans and their performance, his master of revels replies with a sense of tease and class discrimination: “Phil. Hard-handed men that work in Athens here, Which never labour’d in their minds till now; And now have toil’d their unbreath’d memories With this same play, against your nuptial.” (V.i.72-75)

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By depicting the artisans thus ludicrously attempting to stage a grotesque play based on the mythological story of Pyramus and Thisbe (I.ii.1-104, III.i.1-100, and V.i.108-334), Shakespeare offers a caricature of the art of acting and, thereby, plays it down for the amusement of the audience. However, in The Tempest he once again seriously reminds his audience of the esteem and appreciation that needs to be extended to the players who do work hard and tire themselves extremely for their performances but unfortunately will soon be forgotten by the public: “Pros. Our revels are now ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits, and Are melted into air, into thin air: […] […] We are such stuff As dreams are made on; and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vex’d; Bear with my weakness; my old brain is troubled.” (IV.i.148-150 and 156-159)

The Tempest was the last play that Shakespeare wrote at the end of his career. So Prospero’s words not only express Shakespeare’s own personal sense of physical and mental exhaustion, and his melancholy awareness of approaching death, but also gesture to the irony that players may have earned fame in their career but, once they cease to perform, the audience no longer remembers them. In comparing the brevity and eventful course of human life to a player’s career, Macbeth also reiterates the same view: “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon ther stage, And then is heard no more; it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” (Macbeth, V.v.24-28)

As regards acting and performance, one other issue that concerned Shakespeare was the style of acting. Most Elizabethan players tended to be liberal with the text of their parts and would often go out of their way to improvise and thus earn much popularity. They were particularly interested in long rhetorical declamations, exaggerated gesturing, and affected mannerisms. In this regard, the great Elizabethan actors Edward Alleyn in tragedy and Richard Tarlton in comedy were notorious. Associated with the Lord Admiral’s Men, Alleyn earned great fame and unsurpassable popularity by his memorable performances of Tamburlaine, Faustus and Barabas in Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great, Dr Faustus and The Jew of Malta respectively (Gurr 90-91). As Greenblatt has remarked,

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Alleyn was “an astonishingly gifted young actor” who had “a majestic physical presence, with a ‘well-tuned,’ clear voice capable of seizing and holding the attention of enormous audiences” (Greenblatt 190 and191). As a young actor in the late 1580 and early 1590s, Shakespeare must have watched Alleyn in the performances of Marlowe’s plays. Though probably much impressed by Alleyn’s overwhelming performance and rhetorical mastery (Greenblatt 191), he must have considered Alleyn’s style of acting dramatically not perfect. So later in Hamlet, when he came to write the Players scene, he must have recalled Alleyn’s style and referred to it critically in Hamlet’s instructions to the players on acting: “Ham. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to You, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise.” (III.ii.1-13)

In addition to these remarks, Shakespeare’s continued criticism of Alleynstyle acting (Hamlet, III.ii.16-35) throws much light on the dramatically more proper techniques that apparently Richard Burbage, the tragic actor of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, used in performing Shakespeare’s tragedies. Shakespeare was also critical of Tarlton-style acting in comedy although he may not have watched Tarlton, who had been a member of the Queen’s Men and died in 1588. Yet, as Peter Thomson has put it, Tarlton “remained an overpowering theatrical ‘presence’ even after his death” (106). Actually, he “was not only a stage clown but a man of many parts” (Gurr, 86). His comic improvisations and jokes were so popular that he became what Gurr has called “a byword in the 1580s” (86). By his extemporizing practice, he would often break “the good order of the play he was in” (Thomson 106) and “produce discomfort among fellow-actors and audiences alike” (Thomson 106). So, Tarlton’s extemporizing habit may have been on Shakespeare’s mind when he put into Hamlet’s mouth the following words: “Ham. […] And let those that play your Clowns speak no more than is set down for them— For there be of them that will themselves laugh, to Set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh

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To conclude then, in emphasizing once again Shakespeare’s intellectual versatility and dramatic creativity coupled with critical perceptiveness, William Hazlitt’s learned statement may be recalled: “The striking peculiarity of Shakespeare’s mind was its generic quality, its power of communication with all other minds—so that it contained a universe of thought and feeling within itself, and had no one peculiar bias, or exclusive excellence more than another. He was just like any other man, but that he was like all other men” (324).

Works Cited I. Texts and Primary Sources Aristotle. The Poetics. Trans. W. Hamilton Fyfe. Loeb Classical Library edn. London: Heinemann; Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1982. Arnold, Matthew. “The Function of Criticism at the Present Time.” Poetry and Criticism of Matthew Arnold. Ed. A. Dwight Culler. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1961: 237-258. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Biographia Literaria or Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life And Opinions. Ed. George Watson. 1817. London: Everyman’s Library-Dent, 1965. Gosson, Stephen. The Schoole of Abuse. London, 1579. Hazlitt, William. Selected Writings. Ed. Jon Cook. Oxford World’s Classics edn. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998. Horace. Satires, Epistles and Ars Poetica. Trans. H. Rushton Fairclough. Loeb Classical Library edn. London: Heinemann; Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1978. Lodge, Thomas. A Defence of Poetry, Music, and Stage-Plays. [Ed. David Laing] 1579-1580? London: Shakespeare Society, 1853. Marlowe, Christopher. “The Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage.” Marlowe’s Plays and Poems. Ed. M. R. Ridley. London: Everyman’s Library-Dent, 1967: 330-373. Nashe, Thomas. The Unfortunate Traveller and Other Works. Ed. J.B. Steane. London: Penguin Books-Penguin Classics, 1987. —. Pierce Penniless His Supplication to the Devil. Nashe, The Unfortunate Traveller: 49-145.

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[Puttenham, George]. The Arte of English Poesie, Contriued into three Bookes: The first of Poets and Poesie, the second of Proportion, the third of Ornament. London: Richard Field, 1589. Shakespeare, William. King John. Ed. E. A. J. Honigmann. Arden edn. Third Series. 1954. London: Routledge, 1994. —. As You Like It. Ed. Agnes Latham. Arden edn. Third Series.1975. London: Routledge, 1996. —. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Ed. Harold F. Brooks. Arden edn. Third Series. 1979. London: Routledge, 1994. —. Julius Caesar. Ed. T.S. Dorsch. Arden edn. Third Series. 1955. London: Routledge, 1995. —. Hamlet. Ed. Harold Jenkins. Arden edn. Third Series. 1982. London: Routledge, 1995. —. Troilus and Cressida. Ed. Kenneth Palmer. Arden edn. Third Series. 1982. London: Routledge, 1994. —. Macbeth. Ed. Kenneth Muir. Arden edn. Third Series. 1951. London: Routledge, 1995. —. The Tempest. Ed. Frank Kermode. Arden edn. Third Series. 1954. London: Routledge, 1994. Sidney, Sir Philip. The Defence of Poesie. London: William Ponsonby, 1595. Virgil. Eclogues, Georgics, Aeneid. Trans. H. Rushton Fairclough. Rev. Ed. 2 vols. Loeb Classical Library edn. London: Heinemann; Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1967-1969.

II. Secondary Sources Ackroyd, Peter. Shakespeare: The Biography. London: Vintage, 2006. Burke, Peter. Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe. New York: New York UP, 1978. Gardner, Helen. The Business of Criticism. 1959. London: Oxford UP, 1970. Greenblatt, Stephen. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. London: Pimlico, 2005. Grivelet, Michel. “A Portrait of the Artist as Proteus.” Muir 27-46. Gurr, Andrew. The Shakespearean Stage, 1574-1642. 3rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992. Leavis, Q.D. Fiction and the Reading Public. 1932. London: Bellew, 1990. Muir, Kenneth. Interpretations of Shakespeare: British Academy Shakespeare Lectures. Oxford: Clarendon, 1985.

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Patterson, Annabel. Shakespeare and the Popular Voice. Oxford: Blackwell, 1989. Thomson, Peter. Shakespeare’s Professional Career. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992. Thorndike, Ashley. Introduction. Minor Elizabethan Drama. Ed. [R.G. Howarth]. 2 vols. London: Dent-Everyman’s Library, 1967: I, v-xii. Umunç, Himmet. “‘Vergilius Örne÷i’: Rönesans øngiliz Edebiyatnda Tür ve Üslûp Sorunu [‘Exemplum Vergilianum’: Problematics of Genre and Style in Renaissance English Literature].” Frankofoni 15 (2003): 327-340. Umunç, Himmet. “Sir Philip Sidney and Literary Criticism in Renaissance England.” Journal of Human Sciences (Middle East Technical University), VIII, 1 (1989): 107-118. Weimann, Robert. Shakespeare and the Popular Tradition in the Theatre: Studies in the Social Dimension of Dramatic Form and Function. Ed. Robert Schwartz. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins UP, 1987.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN MEETING THE YAHOOS AND THE HOUYHNHNMS: SWIFT’S SERMON AND THE FUNCTION OF SATIRIC ALLEGORY KYRIAKI ASIATIDOU

It is easy for us who travel into remote countries, which are seldom visited by Englishmen or other Europeans, to form descriptions of wonderful animals both at sea and land. Whereas, a traveller’s chief aim should be to make men wiser and better, and to improve their minds by the bad, as well as good example of what they deliver concerning foreign places. I could heartily wish a law were enacted, that every traveller, before he were permitted to publish his voyages, should be obliged to make oath before the Lord High Chancellor, that all he intended to print was absolutely true to the best of his knowledge….This indeed would be too great a mortification if I wrote for fame: but, as my sole intention was the PUBLICK GOOD…I write for the noblest end, to inform and instruct mankind. (Swift 1992, 221)

Whose voice do we, the audience, hear in the above lines? Both Gulliver the traveller and Swift the clergyman tell a story to sociopolitically and spiritually awake their fellowmen. Yet, their vision differs significantly: Gulliver desires to become a role model whereas Swift presents Gulliver as an example we need to avoid. In the first three travels of Gulliver (the voyage to Lilliput, the voyage to Brobdingnag, and the voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, and Glubbdubdrib), Swift employs satire for the purpose to correct human follies and vices on a socio-political level. During these trips, the reader feels sympathy for Gulliver, the man who speaks effectively, observes and forms his own opinion, debates, and criticizes. In other words, Gulliver represents each one of us, and Swift’s satire seems to target the inhabitants of the ‘‘unfamiliar’’ lands which are familiar to every reader unsatisfied with the

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socio-political conditions of his/her own country. However, the last voyage to the land of the Houyhnhnms1 differs from the rest because Swift places Gulliver in a location that extends beyond the worldly boundaries where Swift explores human nature on a philosophical and religious level: Is possible for Man to become image of God? Gulliver’s fourth travel is an unconventional sermon, the nature of which is the focus of this article. Many scholars and critics have named Swift a misanthrope and a pessimist because he supports the limitation of human reasoning /spirituality and presents a degenerated humanity. Others point out that Swift targets the Houyhnhnms’ absurd perfection. In ‘‘The Houyhnhnms as Menippean Horse,’’ W. E. Yeomans points out that when it comes to interpreting the nature of Houyhnhnms, scholars are divided; scholars— such as George Sherburn, W. A. Eddy, Charles Peaky, and Ricardo Quintana—favour the view of the Houyhnhnms as ideal creatures, whereas scholars—such as T. O. Wedel, Ernest Tuveson, Kathleen Williams, and Samuel H. Monk—see the Houyhnhnms as ‘‘an ironic ideal ill-suited to the emulation of men’’; John F. Ross perceives the Houyhnhnms as ridiculous beings, whereas Samuel Kliger claims that they mirror Gulliver’s absurd definition of perfectionism; Martin Kallich, Irvin Ehrenpreis, and Calhoun Winton find the Houyhnhnms ironic deistic representations of life(Yeomans n.d., 449-450). Both opposing sides seem to place the perfect/imperfect Houyhnhnms’ nature at the centre of the praise or condemnation of man’s nature. I support an interpretation of the Houyhnhnms within the framework of Classicism and Christian tradition, that is, the blend of ancient Greek mythology and Christian dogmatism, especially if we see Swift as a Christian priest and a Neo-classicist. As religious systems, ancient Greek mythology and Christianity are not irrelevant. The accepted by the majority of Christian denominations dogma of man’s ultimate end to become image of God2 (Houyhnhnms) reminds us of the reverse case in ancient Greek mythology in which the Olympian gods share with human kind the same weaknesses and passions. Or, the Christian dogma of the fallen human nature (Yahoos) echoes the Iron Age within which humanity experiences a sad condition. Thus, an 1

Gulliver’s fourth trip takes place in the land of the Houyhnhnms (and the Yahoos). We may notice that this is the only land without a name; the primary inhabitants are not humans but horses, and the secondary inhabitants, the Yahoos, are humanoid; the Houyhnhnms’ society is defined by simple Daily living and simple thinking. Gulliver enjoys his time and spends five years in this land where, after many adventures, he meets the living beings who are closer to the Truth. 1 Genesis 1:26-27 2 Genesis 1:26-27

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interpretation that views the society of the Houyhnhnms as the ideal human society that possesses true wisdom and the use of the Yahoos as symbols of the bathos of the human spirit is possible; this interpretation reconciles opposing sides in the scholarly dispute on the meaning of Gulliver’s fourth travel, shifting our focus from the different nature of the Houyhnhnms and the Yahoos to a multi-levelled human nature. The Houyhnhnms as depictions of the Divine do not decrease the value of the latter but strengthen the possibility of its full realization by humans through its concrete presence within the natural world. Swift’s association of the Houyhnhnms with ‘‘the perfection of nature’’ (Swift 1992, 177)is understandable on the basis of a blend of platonic and Aristotelian definition of knowledge and Truth. Truth is independent from human reasoning; yet, man may reach the truth through its material manifestation which can take any form (Poulakos and Poulakos 1999, 121-130). The choice of an animal as the carrier of wisdom is in harmony both with Christianity and Greek mythology. The appearance of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, as a Dove stands among the most popular transfigurations of the Divine in the Bible3. Similarly, the transformation of the Olympian gods into animals becomes imperative when the former want to interact with mortals and occasionally with other divinities. Poseidon—one of the three most important Greek gods (the other two are Zeus and Hades)—is the god of the sea, and his symbol is the horse. In Thessaly, it was believed that Poseidon was the god who stroke his trident on a rock and the first horse was born. Poseidon was also the god who desired Demeter (the goddess of harvest and fertility) and transformed himself into a stallion to mate with her when she turned into a mare and mingled with the horses of king Onkios to avoid Poseidon in vain; their offspring was the horse Arion. Poseidon— possibly in the form of a horse—also mated with one of Aeolus’ daughters, Melanippi (=black mare), and Pegasus was Poseidon’s offspring from his union with Medusa (ȀĮțȡȚįȒȢ 1986, 116). In all these examples, special attention may be given to the association of the Divine with animals and with the element of water, both in Christian and Greek pagan traditions. Furthermore, like Lemuer Gulliver, sailors—whose adventures take place in the unfamiliar worlds of the sea— seek the protection of God, a supernatural power that can make them feel secure far away from home; thus, the blending of the Christian God with the pagan god Poseidon is possible in Swift’s writing. 3

A Dove appears when the baptized Jesus emerges from the waters in Matthew 3:13, a Dove appears on the face of the waters in Genesis 1:12, and a Dove appears to Noah after the disastrous Flood in Genesis 8:8-12. See also John 1.33, Corinthians 12:13, and Titus 3:5.

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Gulliver’s arrival in the land of the enlightened Houyhnhnms is his last trip in the sea and signals the climax of his travelling experience in a complete way, both physically and spiritually. In ‘‘The Nature of Allegory as Used by Swift,’’ H. M. Dargan points out, Throughout Gulliver’s four voyages, Swift tends to treat his allegorical figures less and less as realistic types of human beings, more and more as abstractions: therefore in Houyhnhnmland we have a sort of war between virtues and vices…with the Houyhnhnms symbolizing the abstract perfection of humanity and the Yahoos symbolizing the abstracted baseness. (Dargan 1916, 177)

If we place Dargan’s words in a Christian context, the Houyhnhnms, who resemble horses, symbolize the peak of human spirit, the Human Form Divine, whereas the Yahoos, who resemble humans, symbolize the bathos of human spirit, the Fall. Poseidon’s name (=lord/husband of Earth) and many of the epithets given to him by the Greeks (ie. Gaieochos=earth holder, Enosihthon and Ennosigaieos= earth shaker) reveal the god’s association with the earth—especially the underworld—much before he becomes god of the sea (ȀĮțȡȚįȒȢ 1986, 114). Incorporating this knowledge into a Christian context to explain the role of the Houyhnhnms and the Yahoos, we may say that mud, the combination of the elements of water and earth, symbolizes the completion/perfection of Adam and Eve as Children of God in the garden of Eden; thus, in Swift’s sermon, the Houyhnhnms represent humanity in its highest state of existence. At the same time, the mud’s ‘‘offensive smell’’—according to Gulliver— reminds us of Adam’s and Eve’s fall; thus, in Swift’s sermon the Yahoos represent the fallen nature of humanity. As a priest and a theologian, Swift believes in Human Form Divine. Gulliver comes very close to his spiritual salvation: …I [Gulliver] rather wish they [Houyhnhnms] were in a capacity or disposition to send a sufficient number of their inhabitants for civilizing Europe; by teaching us the first principles of honour, justice, truth, temperance, public spirit, fortitude, chastity, friendship, benevolence, and fidelity. The names of all which virtues are still retained among us in most languages, and are to be met with in modern as well as ancient authors; which I am able to assert from my own small reading. (Swift 1992, 222)

What Gulliver reveals in the above lines is that our existence in Human Form Divine permeates the collective consciousness of our society—all that virtues that define the nature and society of the Houyhnhnms also exist in human languages, thus, humanity is capable of reaching

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perfection. The denial of the possibility of human race’s salvation would be heretical, and, therefore, unacceptable for Swift. Mainstream Christianity teaches that the Fall of Adam and Eve is a Felix Culpa. Yet, our Fall should always reminds us that we are born with vices and follies we ought to control. I believe that Swift’s perception of man as an animal rationis capax (=an animal capable of reason) captures the middle ground between the moral philosophy of the benevolence of human nature and the theory of degeneration. Gulliver says, My reconcilement to the Yahoo-kind in general might not be so difficult, if they would be content with those vices and follies only which nature hath entitled them to…but, when I behold a lump of deformity, and diseases both in body and mind, smitten with pride, it immediately breaks all the measures of my patience. (Swift 1992, 224)

To understand Swift’s view on the way man can become Human Form Divine, a discussion on the meaning of reason (wisdom) and pride (hubris) as they are presented in Gulliver’s fourth trip is necessary. In the last voyage, the target of Swift’s satire becomes Gulliver and, along with him, the readers, as well as Swift himself; that is, all of us who have the ability to reason effectively. For Swift, reason is the only way for humanity to reach perfection. Swift’s embracement of Platonic reason that is strongly connected with absolute knowledge and single Truth opposes to the Sophistic reason embraced by his contemporaries and lovers of the art of deliberation. Gulliver is charmed by Houyhnhnm reasoning that has created the conditions of one’s experiencing absolute truth: MY MASTER HEARD ME with great appearances of uneasiness in his countenance; because doubting or not believing, are so little known in this country, that the inhabitants cannot tell how to behave themselves under such circumstances….He [the master Houyhnhnm] argued thus; that the use of speech was to make us understand one another, and to receive information of facts; now if any one said the thing which was not, these ends were defeated. (Swift 1992, 180-181)

Gulliver is a man who has the mental capacity to realize that spiritually, he is somewhere in the middle with tendencies toward his betterment; that is, he looks more like the Yahoos, but he thinks and behaves more like the Houyhnhnms: He [the master Houyhnhnm] was convinced (as he afterwards told me) that I must be a Yahoo, but my teachableness, civility, and cleanliness, astonished him. (Swift 1992, 176-177)

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Yet, at the end of his travelling experience/spiritual process, he fails to become enlightened—to attain knowledge/wisdom/the plain Truth possessed only by the Houyhnhnms— because his reasoning (and he is good at it) is subjective/Sophistic 4 , as opposed to the Houyhnhnms Platonic reasoning. Thus, we may observe difficulties in their communication concerning reality’s perception. Every day when I waited on him, beside the trouble he was at in teaching, he would ask me several questions concerning myself, which I answered as well as I could; and by those means he had already received some general ideas, although very imperfect. (Swift 1992, 179) ‘What you have told me’ (said my master) ‘upon the subject of war, doth indeed discover most admirably the effects of that reason you pretend to…I cannot but think, that you have said the thing which is not.’ I could not forbear shaking my head and smiling a little at his ignorance. (Swift 1992, 186)

Furthermore, Gulliver’s reasoning is overpowered by his desire/passion to become a Houyhnhnm: I had hitherto concealed the secret of my dress, in order to distinguish myself as much as possible, from the cursed race of Yahoos; but now I found it in vain to do so an longer. Besides, I considered that my cloaths and shoes would soon wear out, which already were in a declining condition, and must be supplied by some contrivance from the hides of Yahoos, or other brutes; whereby the whole secret would be known. I therefore told my master, that in the country from whence I came, those of my kind always covered their bodies with the hairs of certain animals prepared by art, as well for decency, as to avoid inclemencies of air both hot and cold; of which, as to my own person, I would give him immediate conviction, if he pleased to command me; only desiring his excuse, if I did not expose those parts that nature taught us to conceal. He said, my discourse was all very strange, but especially the last part; for he could not understand why nature should teach us to conceal what nature had given. That neither himself, nor family, were ashamed of any parts of their bodies. (Swift 1992, 178)

4

The term Sophistic is used with the meaning of deliberation (=one’s capacity to exchange with his / her interlocutors different views, opinions, and ideas, endowing truth with a relative character). 4 Genesis3:5-8

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Gulliver’s words echo Adam’s and Eve’s feelings of shame and covering of their nakedness when they hear God’s voice after their disobedience, that is, after their eating from the Tree of Knowledge of the Good and the Evil that would make them God-like5. Gulliver—without reailizing it— reveals his Yahoo nature that manifests his spiritual bathos. He is not ready to join the society of the Houyhnhnms because he is deprived of Innocence. Eventually, Gulliver’s intellectual blindness and emotional suffering leads him to commit hubris. He surpasses the human moral boundaries, denying his own nature and turning into a loveless being: I [Gulliver] expressed my uneasiness at his giving me so often the appellation of Yahoo, an odious animal, for which I had so utter an hatred and contempt. (Swift 1992, 179)

Ancient Greeks believed that those who commit hubris experience ate (=blindness of the intellect). There is also the Greek ati that means horse, and despite of their different meaning and spelling, ati (=horse) and ate (=blindness of the intellect) are homophones. Probably, Swift knew that ati and ate are pronounced alike and adopts a playful attitude towards his audience/readers. It is ironic that Gulliver’s contact with the Houyhnhnms, who possess the Truth, leads him spiritual blindness. Ancient Greek writers (ie. Herodotus and Homer) acknowledge ate as a stage in the process of God’s punishment towards the man who has committed hubris. In Swift’s sermon, like in all biblical stories and Greek myths dedicated to human pride, Gulliver’s punishment is an essential process towards the distribution of justice (katharsis); after committing hubris through the denial of his own kind, Gulliver provokes God’s nemesis (=anger) and tisis (=punishment)6. Gulliver never realizes that his exit from the land of the Houyhnhnms was the product of God’s nemesis. The decision of the Houyhnhnms to ask Gulliver to leave from their land resembles Adam’s and Eve’s exit from the garden of Eden7.Gulliver is consumed by pride the same way Adam and Eve display egoism. He has not realized that man attains perfection (wisdom) through modesty—an idea that fits within the Christian as well as the classical standards of living; through his interaction with the Houyhnhnms (and the Yahoos), Gulliver should have learned to fully accept his own flaws, as well as his fellowmen’s flaws, and instead of becoming critical towards his society, Gulliver should have 5

Genesis3:5-8 For more information on hubris, ate, nemesis, and tisis see also ȀĮțȡȚįȒȢ 1986, 257-258 7 Genesis 3: 23-24 6

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developed the desire to work with love and zeal towards the betterment of it. Eventually, Gulliver is stricken by God’s tisis, becoming mad and alienated from his own society: As soon as I entered the house, my wife took me in her arms, and kissed me; at which, having not been used to the touch of that odious animal for so many years, I fell in a swoon for almost an hour. At the time I am writing, it is five years since my last return to England: during the first year I could not endure my wife or children in my presence, the very smell of them was intolerable; much less could I suffer them to eat in the same room. To this hour they dare not presume to touch my bread, or drink out of the same cup; neither was I ever able to let one of them take me by the hand. (Swift 1992, 219) I began last week to permit my wife to sit at dinner with me, at the farthest end of a long table; and to answer (but with the utmost brevity) the few questions I asked her. Yet the smell of a Yahoo continuing very offensive, I always keep my nose well stopped with rue, lavender, or tobacco-leaves. And although it be hard for a man late in life to remove old habits; I am not altogether out of hopes in some time to suffer a neighbour Yahoo in my company, without the apprehensions I am yet under of his teeth or his claws.(Swift 1992, 223-224)

In ‘‘Swift’s Satire and Parody,’’ Michael F. Suarez, S.J. points out that Swift does not attempt to reform the targets of his satirical Works because he believes that are incapable of any change. Swift claims that satire as means of creating feelings of shame and, consequently, the desire of reform to the guilty ‘‘ ‘may be little regarded by such hardened and abandoned Natures as I have to deal with’’’(Suarez 2003, 115). Instead, Swift focuses on the ability of his readers to construct their own ‘‘life lesson’’ through the stirring of their critical awareness after their exposure to his work: “…but, next to taming or binding a Savage-Animal, the best Service you can do the Neighbourhood, is to give them warning, either to arm themselves, or not come in its way” (Suarez 2003, 115). According to Suarez, in his satire, Swift the clergyman avoids to be authoritative because he could easily undermine the fulfilment of his ultimate end, the creation of reasoning humans who can foster and advance our humanity (Suarez 2003, 116). Gulliver spends his life between sea and land. In his story, the unfamiliar (sea) becomes the familiar and the familiar (land) becomes the unfamiliar. And this is the point where a distinct line has been drawn between Gulliver and his society. In the sea, Gulliver progressively

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purifies himself; thus, he can understand the sad condition of our World. However, his lack of modesty destroys him, throwing him to the lowest state of human existence; Gulliver’s permanent living experience of the Yahoo state becomes the moral lesson for us who need to re-examine our relationship with the Divine.

Works Cited Dargan, H. M. ""The Nature of Allegory as Used by Swift"." StudiesinPhilosophy 13.3, 1916: 159-179. ȀĮțȡȚįȒȢ, ǿ.Ĭ. ǼȜȜȘȞȚțȒ ȂȣșȠȜȠȖȓĮ: ȅȚ ĬİȠȓ.Athens, Greece: Ekdotike Athenon S.A., 1986. Poulakos, John, and Takis Poulakos. Classical Rhetorical Theory. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999. Suarez, Michael F. S. J. "Swift’s Satire and Parody." In The Cambridge Companion to Jonathan Swift, edited by Christopher Fox, 112-127. The Cambridge University Press, 2003. Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels . UK: Wordsworth, 1992. Yeomans, W. E. "The Houyhnhnm as Menippean Horse." CollegeEnglish 27.6: 449-454.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN BLACK HERITAGE VERSUS WHITE DOMINANCE IN TONI MORRISON’S SONG OF SOLOMON MAHSA KHADIVI

The American society like most white dominant societies tries to enslave the minds of black people and perpetuate the myth of black identity. It uses the education system, literature, history, and media to disseminate its own established cultural codes and marginalize the other ethnic cultures. Accordingly, in order to challenge this imposing prevalence the ethnic minorities particularly the ethnic writers try to use their own cultural elements as a means of resistance. That is why Toni Morrison like most non-Western writers incorporates her own cultural modes in the Western form of the novel. Her fictions include influences from the African-American culture which has been harassed by EuropeanAmericans. She believes that due to the omission of the dominant previously slave-owning Americans, the history of the AfricanAmericans’ slavery and subjugation from their own perspective has been remained untold. Therefore, she aims to challenge the dominant culture’s authority in order to communicate her own people’s communal history and recover the black people’s cultural identity. To achieve this goal, she employs some definite elements of black cultural heritage like myth, supernatural events and characters, folktales and oral traditions in her own writing. In Song of Solomon (1979) children’s playing rhymes, fables, fairy tales, ghost stories, folktales, and legends are the primary sources fuelling Milkman’s self-discovery through the journey of the novel. As Jago Morrison has asserted, “These difficult-to-document elements are central to the novel’s exploratory structure” (2003, 121).

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Eurocentric History vs. Indigenous Mythology Turning to mythology rather than official documented history is an important factor in Morrison’s fictions and particularly in her Song of Solomon. Western rationality has constantly privileged history and historical documents rather than mythological beliefs. Yet, in a text written by an indigenous author, s/he mostly turns to mythical allusions and treats the mythological elements as certain historical documents. They redress perspectives which the rational scientific worldview has traditionally labelled as unreliable, suggesting that the mythic and supernatural viewpoint can also provide insight into the world. Thereby, the other marginalized worldviews are revalued as important contributions which should be taken into account by dominant discourses. Such writers are concerned with the incorporation of oral tradition and indigenous myth into the dominant Western cultural form of the novel. Likewise, Toni Morrison, through adopting the narrative device of magic realism tries to express her African-American culture in the face of the dominant European-American one. She attempts to provide an alternative history to substitute that sponsored by the dominant power and uses oral storytelling as a source of alternative perspective on history. Song of Solomon is set in an African-American community at a significant historical moment. The central character Milkman Dead is searching for his fami1y’s true history. In the course of the protagonist’s quest for his roots Morrison introduces the most conspicuous magical realist happenings in the novel. Like the flight of Milkman’s ancestor to escape from slavery and his own flight toward his best friend in the concluding scene of the novel. Peach argues: Song of Solomon is a dialogical novel, a hybrid of multiple motifs and allusions. Medieval romance motifs are combined, for example, with biblical references and classical allusions. Black folklore, realism and the supernatural are woven together and in the Circe episode realism seems to collapse altogether beneath the weight of fabulation (Bloom, 1999 163).

Morrison uses the flying myth in this story to tie Milkman and his people to their historical past and, more important, to emphasize their need for a black cultural and historical background. She acknowledges that her aim in constructing narratives of AfricanAmerican history is an attempt to create a cultural memory for the African-Americans so that they can have a sense of how they became who they are today and what their past achievements had been. A large part of

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this creation of a cultural memory is the expression of a specifically black American culture. Dehn Kubitschek states: African-American culture and literature work within a concept of the universe that differs from dominant Western ideas... Toni Morrison has acknowledged the importance of the sacred cosmos to African-American culture by saying that she wants her readers to be familiar with ‘black cosmology’ (McKay in Taylor- Guthrie151). (1998, 22)

Morrison has said that she wishes to make her fiction useful for contemporary African-Americans in order to help them to be able to move on from their slavery past. In “A Blessing and a Burden: The Relation to the Past in Sula, Song of Solomon and Beloved,” Guth declares: Among the many issues that inhabit Toni Morrison’s fiction, one of the most absorbing is the multifaceted and often problematic relationship of the present to the past. Whether she explores a love-affair or a girlhood friendship, generational rupture or the meaning of freedom -- whether she uses the model of communal story-telling to shape her work, reactivates a traditional myth or explores the dynamics of memory -- the impact of the past remains a central issue, wending its way through theme and form. (2000, 315)

Significantly, her objective is to explore the complex interaction between the present and a past that as a frightening nightmare imposes itself between the present and a future of freedom and renewal. In this regard, Morrison’s novels undoubtedly have been a major contribution to the celebration of black identity and culture. There are several references in Song of Solomon to the real events in modern American history. For instance, Guitar’s insistence to avenge the death of four little girls who died from a bomb set in their church refers to the famous 1963 bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama. The novel’s emphasis on the white violence motivating the Seven Days is real and reprehensible. The other historical incident which is mentioned in the novel is the murder of Emmett Till in 1950s. Emmett Till was a boy visiting from Michigan who was lynched in Mississippi for whistling at a young white woman. But along with these real historical happenings Morrison presents some fantastic and mythical incidents. Ironically, the mythical incidents of Song of Solomon are the determining elements which help the protagonist in discovering his true identity. More to the point, the most influential characters in the protagonist’s life; Pilate, Circe, and Ancestor Solomon are those with mythical proportions. Thus, by learning about the myth of flying Africans and indeed his own family’s myth,

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Milkman finally finds a way toward accomplishing the long-lasting search for his identity and a way out of his purposeless existence.

Fact vs. Fantasy Supernatural elements and fantasy is the other important trait in Toni Morrison’s works. Evidently, in Western culture the rational and reasonable is always the privileged concept while the supernatural and fantastic is the marginal and unprivileged. But in most indigenous writers’ works the supernatural elements are introduced into the realist setting of the story, and mostly these fantastic elements are the determining factors of the story. In other words, such writers refuse to respect Western postindustrial notions of the division between reality and fantasy, and seek to destabilize the cultural hegemonies that contribute to the preferring of “first world truths” to “third world myths.” In Song of Solomon, the author depicts the African-American society in the 1960s and it is divided into two parts. The first part of the story is set in Michigan and there are several references to real historical events which actually took place during the 1960s. In brief, the first part of the novel has a rather realistic structure. But in the second part which is set in the rural south, fantasy and supernatural elements are brought in the novel. As Peach in “Competing Discourses in Song of Solomon (1977)” asserts: By contrast, Milkman’s entry into the community occurs in the black heart of the South in the fight in the general store provoked by the way in which Milkman has black skin but ‘the heart of the white men who came to pick them up in the trucks when they needed anonymous, faceless labourers’. The zones are fluid, of course; political pressures from within can change them as can individual heroes. This is what Guitar, through violence, purports to do even though he operates in the tradition of the trickster and other ambivalent, archetypal figures who, by challenging the hero, push him toward his destination. (Bloom 1999, 168)

Thereby, the most significant and determining incidents of the story occur in the second part in which the protagonist encounters supernatural and unbelievable people and circumstances. It is in the south that Milkman discovers his family’s extraordinary history and becomes familiar with his origins and reaches a sense of identity. Also, the most prominent and influential characters of this novel that guide Milkman toward reclaiming his family heritage, are his aunt Pilate Dead and the old servant Circe. Both of these women possess supernatural and extraordinary attributes. Circe is too old, “So old she was colourless. So old only her mouth and

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eyes were distinguishable features in her face”, yet out of her toothless mouth comes “the strong, mellifluent voice of a twenty-year-old girl” (Morrison 2004, 240). Similarly, Pilate is not an ordinary being. She is born after her mother’s death. Morrison describes the unusual circumstances of her birth in the first chapter of the novel: She had come struggling out of the womb without Help from throbbing muscles or the pressure of swift womb water. As a result, for all the years he knew her, her stomach was as smooth and sturdy as her back, at no place interrupted by a navel. It was the absence of a navel that convinced people that she had not come into this world through normal channels; had never lain, floated, or grown in some warm and liquid place connected by a tissue-thin tube to a reliable source of human nourishment. (2004, 27)

Besides, she is a natural healer and she can talk to the dead. The other supernatural character is Solomon, Milkman’s great grandfather, who leaped from a rock and flied back to Africa to escape the atrocities of slavery.

Folklore and Oral Tradition Most African societies place great worth in oral tradition because it is a primary means of conveying culture. In African societies, oral tradition is the method in which history, stories, folktales and religious beliefs are passed on from generation to generation. Oral tradition is non-written history and for the African people, it is linked to their way of life. It is also a mode of transmitting feelings and attitudes. The African-American culture like its African predecessors considerably values “orality.” African cultures relied on oral performance to conduct the business of everyday life, to educate their children and to worship. This emphasis on orality was preserved in America for the reason that laws forbade teaching slaves to read or write. Also, slaves were often allowed their own religious services and black churches experienced less white interference than any other African-American institution. Oral performance thus remained sacred in African-American culture. Traditionally, the African oral traditions nurtured in slavery encouraged the use of music to pass on history, teach lessons, ease suffering, and pass on messages. So, orality preserves part of the historical past even under unfavourable conditions. In Song of Solomon, the song is the clue to Milkman’s family history. While trying to investigate his own family roots, accidentally he hears the children playing and singing a song. The song is an alternative for the flying African folktale. Solomon literally flies off leaving behind his wife,

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Ryna and some twenty other children. Through Susan Byrd, a cousin to his grandmother, Milkman realizes the magical tale behind the song. More to the point, in the novel’s opening scene while Pilate sings a verse from the song that Milkman later recognizes as the story of his ancestors, she is prominently preserving the past without even knowing it. In other words, in Song of Solomon the search for the origins does not end in the pages of scripture but in the backyard games of Shalimar’s children. For Milkman the past is a riddle, a reality locked in the verses of a children’s song whose meaning is no longer explicit because time has separated the words from their historical content. Hence, the chant sung by the children in Song of Solomon has the function of song in all marginal cultures as the unwritten text of history and culture. One specific oral form that has both contemporary and historical significance for African-American writers is ‘call and response.’ This form of oral tradition developed at the time of slavery as one slave organized the energies of others by issuing a verbal call to which the rest might respond. Lack of response meant that the person was not recognized or accepted as a leader. Response gave a leader a suggestion for the direction his or her next call might take. African-American churches also rely on call and response in their services. In fact, call and response has provided the basic rhythms for much African-American music in gospel singing and some varieties of jazz. Song of Solomon specifically honours call and response tradition. Correspondingly, Pilate and Reba’s mourning for Hagar in the church after her tragic death provides a good pattern: “Mercy?” Now she was asking a question. “Mercy?” It was not enough. The word needed a bottom, a frame. She straightened up, held her head high, and transformed the plea into a note. In a clear bluebell voice she sang it out-the one word held so long it became a sentence-and before the last syllable had died in the corners of the room, she was answered in a sweet soprano: “I hear you.” The people turned around. Reba had entered and was singing too. Pilate neither acknowledged her entrance nor missed a beat. She simply repeated the word “Mercy!”, and Reba replied. The daughter standing at the back of the chapel, the mother up front, they sang. (Morrison 2004, 317)

The other black American oral element used in Song of Solomon is ‘signifying.’ The term can be defined as evoking humorous insults in a verbal game. It is derived from the Trickster archetype found in much African mythology, folklore, and religion. In Song of Solomon when milkman is goaded into a fight at Solomon’s General Store he actually

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takes part in the black cultural ritual of “signifying,” which indicates his ability to relate to black men and to reconnect with the heart and soul of the black community. Furthermore, historically folklore has reverberated in the artistic sensibilities and cultural expressions of people of African descent in the Americas. Undeniably, articulating the values, beliefs, and ethos enabled the displaced African people to establish their own identity, resist dominance, and recall home. Morrison has based her novel on the African-American folktale of the flying Africans. As she reports, “I’ve heard all my life that Black people could fly, just as I heard the tooth fairy story, and I accepted it. Then I used to read about it in the slave narratives” (Bloom 1999, 26). According to this famous tale known as “Gullah folktale” there was a group of African born slaves who outraged with the atrocities of the slave holders, rose up one day from the field where they were working and flew back to Africa. The tale of flying Africans speaks symbolically of the ancestry of all African-Americans, as confirmed by its permanent presence in the sacred and secular black oral texts of folklore and spirituals. The slave narratives of nineteenth century are considered as Toni Morrison’s main source of investigation regarding this significant folktale. Folklore is by definition the expression of the common experiences, beliefs, and values that identify a folk as a group. So in basing Milkman’s identity quest on a folktale, the writer pays attention to one of the central themes in all her fiction which is the relationship between individual identity and community. She has declared as it is quoted in Teaching American Ethnic Literatures: Nineteen Essays: My meaning is specific: it is about black people who could fly. That was always part of the folklore of my life; flying was one of our gifts. I don’t care how silly it may seem. It is everywhere--people used to talk about it, it’s in the spirituals and gospels. (Maitino and Peck 1996, 149)

Here, she affirms her faith as an African-American writer in the veracity of the folktale. But in addition to tale of flying Africans Morrison has adopted other famous folktales in the course of her narration. Among them is Macon Dead’s reference to “the fable of snake” and also the very old West African folktale of “Anaanu,” a trickster spider who escapes famine by faking death and at night eats his fill. Song of Solomon is the story of a quest for black identity. Toni Morrison makes use of the elements of myth, supernatural, and black oral tradition in order to rediscover young Milkman’s lost identity. She creates

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a marvellous world where ghosts walk, women are born without navels or men can fly. As noted before, Morrison makes use of myth and magic to reconstruct a history that has been obscured or erased by white political and social injustice. As a matter of fact, in order to depict the true history of her people she avoids the classical Western worldview. She tries to rediscover this history in the black folktales, myth, and oral tradition in order to re-imagine history and to re-envision the African-American past by bringing it forward. As oral narratives and songs for many black writers are the best sources of cultural literacy and they are the only alternative for the official history written by the white people.

Works Cited Bloom, Harold, ed. Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1999. Guth, Deborah. “A Blessing and a Burden: The Relation to the Past in Sula, Song of Solomon and Beloved.” In Understanding Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Sula: Selected Essays and Criticisms of the Works by the Nobel Prize-winning Author, edited by Marla W. Iyasere, and Solomon O. Iyaserew, 315. Troy, NY: Whitston, 2000. Iyasere, Marla W. and Solomon O. Iyaserew, eds. Understanding Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Sula: Selected Essays and Criticisms of the Works by the Nobel Prize-winning Author. Troy, NY: Whitston, 2000. Kubitschek, Missy Dehn. Toni Morrison: A Critical Companion. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1998. Maitino, John R. and David R. Peck, eds. Teaching American Ethnic Literatures: Nineteen Essays. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996. Morrison, Jago. Contemporary Fiction. New York: Routledge, 2003. Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. New York: Vintage International, 2004. Peach, Linden. “Competing Discourses in Song of Solomon (1977).” In Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, edited by Harold Bloom, 163-8. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1999.

CHAPTER NINETEEN A POSTCOLONIAL STUDY OF CHINUA ACHEBE’S THINGS FALL APART: FOREGROUNDING MARGINAL ELEMENTS MAHSHID TAJILROU

Introduction Albert Chinualumogu Achebe was born on November 16, 1930 in Ogidi in eastern Nigeria and was died on 21 March 2013. His father, Isaiah Okafo Achebe, was from Ogidi and worked as a teacher for the Church Missionary. Achebe’s works reflect a true picture of Africa and Africans, and represent the complexities and dignities of pre-colonial African society, as well as the impacts of colonial encounter in Africa. Achebe in his famous critical work An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” condemns Conrad for his racial attitudes and decries the false brutal stereotypical descriptions of Africa and Africans. Therefore, Achebe’s famous novel Things Fall Apart (1958) responses Conrad’s work properly and shifts the focus from the certain dominance of the colonizer over the colonized to the uncertain cultural interchange of both. Moreover, at the centre of the encounter between colonialists and the natives lies hybridity. Achebe also includes this inevitable cultural interaction and the different elements of hybridity in this novel. To do this, first, he chooses the western literary genre of novel and then, by changing its form creates something completely different, an African novel. Meanwhile, Things Fall Apart is the result of “a complex cultural hybrid that is the product not only of the Igbo cultural traditions … but also of the encounter between those traditions and the culture of the West” (Booker and Gikandi, 2003, 67). However, this cultural encounter affects the Igbo society and finally destroys them. In colonial literature, the colonized is not authorized to speak; it is always on the margins of society. Since the colonized is increasingly figured as minor, feminine,

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dehumanized and childlike, they must be under the control of the patriarchal figure of the colonizer that portrays them as dependent and naïve. According J. C. Young: … the nations of the three non-western countries (Africa, Asia, and Latin America) are largely in a situation of subordination to Europe and North America, and in a position of economic inequality. Postcolonialism names a politics and philosophy of activism that contests that disparity, and so continues in a new way the anti-colonial struggles of the past. It asserts not just the right of African, Asian, and Latin American peoples to access resources and material well-being, but also the dynamic power of their cultures, cultures that are now intervening in and transforming the societies of the west. (4)

The struggle over the binary oppositions is one of the main issues of colonialism that creates a clear-cut division between West and the rest, self and other. Those who are classified in minority groups like non-westerners are reduced to the minorities. Hence, postcolonialism attempts to shatter the binary oppositions of colonial discourse by refusing to accept the superiority of the colonizer over the colonized. Postcolonialism creates a space for the marginalized and the dispossessed in the modern world. It also craves for highlighting the marginalized subjects and through blurring the defined dichotomies of colonial discourse, postcolonial study attempts to change peoples’ way of thinking and disrupts the authority of the centre to the periphery. Achebe as a famous postcolonial writer juxtaposes asymmetrical cultural heritages of Europe and Africa to portray all those precious histories of the past at present. His novels and essays have had great effects on the growth of postcolonial theory and the recognition of indigenous knowledge systems.

Marginality Many people around the world such as black people, women and the postcolonial subjects are considered minor and marginal from the perspective of dominant Western culture. Hence, the Europeans are assumed more civilized and developed than the non-Europeans. More specifically, the ordinary lives of many “Third World” people are so complex that they cannot be represented truly as they deserve. Therefore, people in many societies have been relegated to the position of other, marginalized and colonized. According to Ashcroft et al. (1995, 135):

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Chapter Nineteen The perception and description of experience as ‘marginal’ is a consequence of the binaristic structure of various kinds of dominant discourses, such as patriarchy, imperialism and ethnocentrism, which imply that certain forms of experience are peripheral.

Marginality is the condition directed by the imperial authority which creates a posited relation to a privileged centre and an ‘othering’. In Things Fall Apart, there exist traces of marginality which the researcher analyses in this article. Jeyifo (2004, 55) maintains that there is “a need to resist the present colonialism of the mind and overturn dominant representations that have either ignored or marginalized the native voice”. This brief analysis indicates the tensions and ambiguities that reside at the heart of much postcolonial writing. Such tensions are intensified in another important feature of postcolonialism, one that creates serious difficulties with its ontological claims to represent the voice of the marginal. It makes certain claims on behalf of Third World peoples and indeed often speaks on the behalf of those seen as marginalized by Western dominance. The Europeans generally shape the lives of people in even the most marginal countries like Africa. The new conditions stimulated by colonialism help the rise of a new social class of efulefus [titleless men], agbalas [false god], osus [outcasts], women and those whom the clan has previously marginalized. Since one of the main features of imperial oppression is control over language, European imperialists used their language as a way of cultural imperialism to suppress the language of the colonized and hence its culture. The Eurocentric idea of European civilization is manifested in the fact that all the European colonizers considered their own language as the superior, normal one in the colonies. Thus, in order to suppress the language and culture of the others, they have represented their own language and later their own culture as the norm. Consequently, languages as communication and culture are the products of each other. Many critics have contributed to the question of the relationship between language and culture, and the researcher has chosen Fanon and Katrak for their direct and clear definition of this relationship. Fanon proposed that “to speak a language is to take on a world and culture” (qtd. in Ashcroft et. al 2006, 277). Katrak posits that “language is culture, particularly the transformation of rhetorical and discursive tools available through a colonialist education system; and one expression of cultural tradition is through language”. Here Katrak is stressing the similarity of language and culture and their unity. For Fanon and Katrak, the acquisition of a language gives one access to a specific culture from which that language has originated and consequently the possession of a

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worldview through it. Both of these writers are right in their ideas about the close relationship between language and culture but one should remember that language is only one aspect of culture. To the Europeans who had the civilizing mission at the back of their minds, Africa seemed savage and uneducated land that lacked what they called modern culture. What colonizers take as their heritage is those owning specified under culture, language, politics, religion, social customs, and global systems. Therefore, they start to implant their culture in these peripheries by absorbing the minorities of the society into the culture of the centre. Rao states that, “One can convey in a language that is not one's own the spirit that is one's own” (qtd. in Ashcroft et al. 1995, 276). What is implied here is that Europeans have conveyed their spirit through their language. Europeans as the owners of “higher” culture have conveyed their ideologies and learning through language, especially in the form of British government and schools in Africa. As mentioned before, language is considered a tool of power and a means of exerting culture. So the British colonizers conveyed their spirit by imposing their language and the only way to transmit European culture is through appropriating Western language. From the very beginning, the cultural conflict between the Ibo and the British missionaries is presented as a clash between the two communities with different languages and identities. The European’s early manner and content of speech leads to rumours in Umuofia. The difference in language is offered by Obrieka, one of the clan’s elders, as the reason for the white man’s violation of Ibo custom. When asked if a white man understands the customs of the Ibo, Obrieka replies. “How can he when he does not even speak our tongue?” (Achebe 2139). Moreover, the linguistic tension around which the novel is consciously constructed is emphasized by the fact that the tale both begins and ends with the opposite attitudes of the Ibo and the English in relation to the use of language (Wasserman qtd. in Iyasere 1998, 77). The novel opens with the Ibo statement: “Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten” (Achebe 2067). The novel's ending lines include the white district commissioner’s statement: “One of the most infuriating habits of these people was their love of superfluous words” (Achebe 2152). The opposition between the Ibo's oral culture and the British literate one provides the source of conflict. As a consequence, each finds the language of the other incomprehensible. Moreover, language and learning are used as a means of conveying the culture of the powerful side. The imperialists destroy the tribesmen's previous oral cultural tradition by substituting their

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written language and educational system. As is clear “Mr. Brown went from family to family begging people to send their children to his school and Brown explains that the leaders of the land in future would be men and women who had learned to read and write” (Achebe 2141). He explains that if Umuofia fails to send children to school, strangers will rule it. Finally under his effective arguments more people become interested in learning in his school and “he encouraged them with gifts of singlets and towels”. The white men have tried to propagate their language as a standard language in order to spread their domination over Africans. This is seen when they send Okonkwo's son, Nwoye, “to the new training college for teachers in Umuru” (Achebe 2142). The significance of the dominant English language over the clan can be found also “in the Native Court where the District Commissioner is surrounded by Ibos who speak English” (Achebe 2141). European language appeals to the indigenous people in a way that they lose their native language and use the language of the master even in their own native court. Colonial social ethics affect African society so highly that the cultural values of European missionaries permeate into the culture of African society and weaken their traditional beliefs. Before the arrival of Christianity into Igboland, the Igbo had their own definite customs in both religious and secular activities. The introduction of the new faith disrupts the order of the Igbo society consequently; the Christian missionaries consider African religion pagan and primitive and condemn the Igbo people as “barbarians”. At the beginning of Christianity, the Europeans preached sermons for communicating the gospel to the Igbos. According to (Lang 2000, 164), “they used this method everywhere they went, in people's homes, at village squares, in the schools and in the houses of worship”. People were not allowed to ask questions; therefore, they just listened to the preacher's sermons. Missionaries preached and taught Bible for new “converts.” Since from the beginning both language and Christianity went hand in hand, the Bible dialect consequently became the accepted standard language of the natives. The marginal, lower members of society find in the white man's religion comfort and brotherhood that has never been afforded them before. The Europeans established Christian churches on Western cultural models where Christian practices were imposed on the Igbo. Mr. Kiaga said, “we have now built a church and we want you all to come in every seventh day to worship the true God” (Achebe 2129). He continued his preaching, “we have been sent by this great God to ask you to leave your wicked ways and false gods and turn to Him so that you may be saved when you die” (Achebe 2127). Many converts go to church, and the number of attendants increase. The missionaries criticized the

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traditional Igbo customs and reject the rituals performed by their ancestors. Moreover, the indigenous people wear in European style, go to their schools, and learn how to write and read and foreigners’ language. The whites also construct a court to humanize the natives, “The white men had also brought a government. They had built a court where the District Commissioner judged cases in ignorance. They had court messengers who brought men for trail. Many of these messengers came from Igbo’s tribes” (Achebe 2138). It appears that during the early Christianization of Igboland, the new faith appeals to the clansmen. In this way most missionaries treated the Igbo traditions, culture, and institutions as inferior to their Western ones. Considerably, the first converts were among the outcasts attracted to Christianity: None of them was a man of title. They were mostly the kind of people that were called efulefu, worthless empty men. The imagery of …was a man who sold his matchet and wore the sheath to battle. Chielo…called the converts the excrement of the clan, and the new faith was a mad dog that had come to eat it up. (Achebe 2126)

The earliest converts are among the margins of community. The outcasts find that “the new religion welcomed twins and such abominations” (Achebe 2132). Early Christians were ridiculed and ostracized. A man in the meeting said, “But let us ostracize these men. We would then not to be held accountable for their abominations” (Achebe 2133). Moreover, Achebe has shown that the white men alone were not the only reason behind the disintegration of this traditional community. Instead, there were four kinds of Ibo social underclass who assist the Europeans. Firstly, the osu, were forbidden from having any social interaction with the free citizens. Secondly, twins, some of whom were killed at birth, and their mothers, who were usually ostracized. Next, those with terrible diseases like leprosy, who were cast out of the villages and abandoned in the “evil forests” to die. Besides, “the efulefu were the first to embrace all aspects of Western education and, ironically, became the ruling class of civil servants and administrators in colonial and postcolonial Eastern Nigeria” (Ogbaa 1994, 13). Indeed, the efulefu not only left their own people's traditions and religion to join Europeans, but also fought on the side of the imperial power against their own Igbo people. Since Things Fall Apart is a novel of conflicts its characters are divided into opposing groups according to religion, age, and gender, as well as economic and social groups. That is, the major conflicts occur between African people and Europeans; between Igbo traditional religious leaders and white missionaries; between elders of the clan, called ndichie,

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and the youth who are now being converted into Christians; between males (who dominate the females) and females (who are expected to be seen but not heard); and between rich and titled men and poor and untitled ones. However, the most violent form of the social divisions is that between the free citizens and the outcasts or efulefu that are excluded.

Dominance of Men African society is highly hierarchical where masculinity dominates femininity. Thus, in this way women are subordinated and suppressed. They are also relegated to passive creatures that have to perform their domestic roles and obligations. They are also not seen or heard so they must obey their husbands. In Things Fall Apart, there is much realistic description of how things worked in Igbo village society. Nevertheless, most of these passages relate to how decisions were made for the community in meetings of elders, where only men spoke. African patriarchal culture puts women in a minor position: “It was very clear from the way the crowd stood or sat that the ceremony was for men. There were many women, but they looked on from the fringe like outsiders” (Achebe 2103). Men’s empowerment is justified in its omnipotent presence, while women are discredited as trivial and neglected, feel like outsiders. Indeed, it is under the protection of men as the centre of a macrocosm that the marginalization of women’s microcosm is seen. In addition, the gender difference affects the classification of the agricultural crops into male and female which stand for manliness and womanliness respectively. In the novel, except for the priestess Chielo, women had no voice outside of their family. Okonkwo’s attempt at a young age at “fending for his father's house” (Achebe 2074) is made more difficult by the fact that although his “mother and sisters worked hard enough … they [only] grew women's crops, like coco-yams, beans and cassava” (Achebe 2075). Since “yam, the king of crops, was a man's crop” (Achebe 2075), the narrative indicates that Okonkwo’s mother and his sisters can minimally support their own lives. While the king of crops, the yam, stands for manliness, the less important crops such as beans, coco-yams, and cassava are grown by women. Furthermore, In Umuofia, masculine traditions are celebrated openly. The depiction of masculine ideology is performed mainly through the representation of Okonkwo’s personal success and his recognition within the clan. As a young man, he strengthens his position within the clan by overthrowing Amalinze the Cat. With this feat, “Okonkow’s fame had grown like a bush-fire in the harmattan” (Achebe 2066). His achievement

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in the famous wrestling match begins the story of the most worthy feat “since the founder of their town engaged a spirit of the wild for seven days and seven nights” (Achebe 2065). The sanction of male centred traditions in Umuofia, like the selection of men, is part of those dominant traditions that the other people must accept. From a very early age, Okonkwo is obsessed with fighting for his masculinity, … lest he should be found to resemble his father. Even as a little boy he had resented his father's failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was an agbala, that was how first came to know that agbala was not only another name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken no title. And so was ruled by one passion -- to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved. One of those things was gentleness and another was idleness. (Achebe 2070)

Okonkwo’s adherence to the masculine beliefs as a defensive source helps him to order his world later. He develops his masculine identity to justify his actions in an unfriendly world. His obsession with masculinity leads him to continue the manifestation of offensive boldness and his strong rejection of subjective values such as “gentleness” and “idleness.” What motivates Okonkwo is the disgraceful crisis of his father, Unoka, which forces him towards achievement. He constructs his identity against everything that his father as a lazy man represents and stubbornly sets out his actions. However, Umuofia's selective traditions and Okonkwo’s masculinist assertions serve to marginalize the women, efulefus, osus, agbalas, and others within the community. Umuofians have a special word for dispositions such as “gentleness” and “idleness” (Achebe 2070). For example, the Igbo word agbala is not only another name for women; it also refers to weak and lazy men such as Okonkwo’s father, Unoka. Umuofia’s traditional way of representing values allows Okonkwo to miss other principles. Hence, he considers his father as a marginal member of community due to the lack of wealth and no great title. Nevertheless, Okonkwo’s belief that he must wipe out his father's memory by succeeding in everything his father has failed at, disagrees with a society which “judges a man according to his worth, not that of his father” (Achebe 2068). Through comparing strength and weakness, Okonkwo even distorts the natural harmony between male values and female and maternal ones. By magnifying masculinity over femininity, the society also puts more stress on the binaries of sexes. Okonkwo as a leader of great magnitude wants to preserve his manly prowess. Since he is “the proud and imperious emissary of war” (Achebe

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2070) he gains a leading role by taking titles and has become a member of the elders’ group. He is sent as a war messenger to Mbaino. There is no fear of war in him. “He was a man of action, a man of war... In Umofia’s latest war he was the first to bring home a human head “that was his fifth head” (Achebe 2069). Here one can find the interrelation of the violence and antagonistic atmosphere of war with masculine bravery. Since the Igbo community is a male-dominated culture, all through the novel the female gender is mocked. In the wake of the murder of Ikemefuna, Okonkwo asks himself: “when did you become a shivering old woman . . . , you have become a woman indeed” (Achebe 2093). Even the new converts are described as “effeminate men clucking like old hens” (Achebe 2131). In addition, at Ezeudu's funeral, Okonkwo accidentally kills a man, culturally termed female murder, and is exiled from Umuofia to Mbainta. In Okonkwo’s opinion Mbainta, his motherland, is “female.” He continuously regrets that his favourite child, Ezinma, is not a boy. In another situation, he mourned for the clan which he saw falling apart. He mourned for “the warlike men of Umuofia, who had so unaccountably becomes soft like women” (Achebe 2142). Definitely, his contempt for womanhood obsesses his mind and manifests women’s subordination. Worthy to note, Things Fall Apart focuses on telling the story of the male space: wrestling, ceremonies, masquerades, and war. There are two standards in the traditional community, a masculine one and a feminine one. The masculine philosophy has the social prominent role in the values of strength, hard work, and individual achievement. Later in the novel Achebe shows how the boys are conditioned and exposed to their fathers as a male symbol, as warrior and chief. This passage is worthy of special note, So Okonkwo encouraged the boys to sit with him in his obi and he told them stories of the land, the masculine stories of violence and bloodshed. Nwoye knew that it was right to be a masculine and to be violent… and so he feigned that he no longer cared for women stories. When he did this he saw that his father was pleased, and no longer rebuked him or beat him. So Nwoye and Ikemefuna would listen to his stories about tribal wars…and as he told them of the past they…, waiting for the women to finish their cooking. (Achebe 2088)

Masculinity defines the relationship between the margin and centre. In contrast, it is from the women that the children become sensitive and enthusiastic in using their imagination:

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Nwoye knew that it was right to be masculine and to be violent, but somehow he still preferred the stories that his mother used to tell. And which she no doubt still told to her younger children, stories of the tortoise…of the bird… who challenged the whole world to a wrestling contest and was finally thrown by the cat. (Achebe 2088)

Even the stories told by men are considered superior to women’s. For example, “He slapped the ear and hoped he had killed it. Why do they always go for one’s ears? When he was a child his mother had told him a story about it. But it was as silly as all women’s stories” (Achebe 2098). But culturally, Okonkwo as a male representative is marginal because of his excessive masculinity. One of the deviations that contribute to the margins of society is excess. It is clear that Okonkwo’s “solid personal achievements” are stimulated by an obsession to succeed in excess of what his community needs (Achebe 2065). Hence, this over-insistence on success destroys him in the end. Instances of Okonkwo’s excess and following censure from his kinsmen are found in the novel: “Only a week ago a man had contradicted him at a kindred meeting which they held to discuss the next ancestral feast”. Without looking at the man Okonkwo had said: “this meeting is for men… The man who had contradicted him had no title. . . This was the reason he called him a woman” (Achebe 2076). Moreover, at the beginning of the novel, one encounters a successful and famous man, who fulfils his tasks skilfully. Nevertheless as the novel progresses, Okonkwo is faced with strong opposition and he is no longer the central figure. Finally, his people do not support him in his tragic situation. They consider Okonkwo as just other and they do not appreciate him; therefore, this puts Okonkow on the margin of the society.

The Role of Women Yet at the same time, broadly speaking in African society women are also source of inspiration and life. At one level, women in Things Fall Apart are important: as mothers, they communicate with the earth's fertility; and as priestesses, they connect the visible and invisible worlds together. The two major symbols of the maternal principle in this novel are Ani, the earth goddess, and the concept of Nneka, or Mother is Supreme. “Ani renews life, and acts as a restraint on the male principle by punishing crimes of aggression” (Podis and Saaka 1998, 125). “Mother is Supreme” stresses the idea of woman as the one who can give comfort and protection when all other resources have failed. Here, it is seen that women transgress the margins and move towards the centre. Actually, a certain amount of economic independence counterbalances women's inferiority as they are

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capable of getting the profits of their farming and trading activities. In addition, women were able to exercise authority over their own affairs through market associations and titled societies. Although there are many cultural rules that define women's societal life, Igbo women are active participants in the religious life. They serve as priestesses, diviners, messengers and worshippers. The most important deity in Igboland, Ala (earth goddess) is female and her chief agent is a woman. She is responsible for fertility and agriculture among the Igbo. They lead in every aspect of worship except igo oji (blessing and breaking the kolanut) and igo ofo (using the ofo stick ritually). Indeed, Ekwefi's pursuit of Chielo actually disdains the masculine traditions of the community, because Ekwefi defies Chielo’s male deity, Agbala. In other words, this defiance represents her rejection of Umuofia's traditions. In addition, attention is paid to the significance of female stories in challenging the masculine standards and dominance to show women’s freedom from the limitations of repression along with the principles of tradition. The pursuit of Chielo identifies a positive and heroic undertaking in which Ekwefi's courage gives her an important position. She endangers her life in this shocking journey by encountering the wandering spirits of the wild and also by the possibility of very severe revenge from Agbala, who as Chielo had warned earlier could “harm” Ekwefi (Achebe 2111). The moment of Ekwefi’s heroic journey reminds us of the moment when Okonkwo’s feat is celebrated. The remarkable defeat of Amalinze the Cat in which Okonkwo’s feat is compared to the battle in which the founder of Umuofia “fought with spirit of the wild for seven days and seven nights” (2065). In another scene Ekwefi's journey through the darkness where she rebels against all the wandering malevolent spirits and to escape from their destructive power is of ideological significance. By this act Ekwefi transgress marginality to reach the centre. She struggles with this difficult situation to gain independence and through this journey she moves to attain self-realization and freedom. Moreover, when Ezinma is telling a story to relate to Ekwefi how Tortoise and the Cat went on to wrestle against Yams, she is interrupted by Chielo. Chielo embodies the role of woman as merciless agent of the will of the gods. She belongs to the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves and no man in the community with his great status can dispute her authority (Obioma Nnaemeka qtd. in Podis and Saaka 1998, 126). Certainly, a careful reading of the incomplete tale about the symbolic value of the yam as the most significant crop of Umuofia shows how Ezinma and Ekwefi by their subversive ability to question the yam’s dominance change its superiority as an important male crop. Overall, Ezinma's tale questions not only Okonkwo’s authority but also the

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masculine traditions of the clan. Female stories are also linked with the cultural past which is complemented by the warlike stories of the males. Finally, Achebe through creating a contrasting pattern tries to offer us a complementary picture of masculine and feminine principles.

Conclusion Since European colonialists view the Africans as primitive and marginal, they attempt to change and shatter the natives’ language, religion and hence their historical identity to implant their own traditional and socio-economic values as the norm. The imperialists destroy the tribesmen's previous oral cultural tradition by substituting their written language and educational system. The British missionaries preach Bible and invite indigenous people to participate in church traditions, ceremonies, and rituals. Achebe presents pre-colonial Igbo society and then portrays the traumatic process in which this culture loses its autonomy in the face of the colonial encounter. Unlike some of his contemporaries, however, Achebe does not seek to romanticize Igbo society, but to reject the colonial system of belief that marginalizes Africans and relegates them to people without a significant culture. Although Achebe manifests a highly hierarchical society in which women are subordinated and oppressed, they see themselves capable of participating in socio-economic as well as religious life. Achebe by constructing a contrasting pattern tries to maintain the complementary roles of masculine and feminine principles. Likewise, Achebe shows negative as well as positive elements of Igbo culture, and he is sometimes as critical of his own people as he is of the colonizers. However, the coming of Europeans accelerates the Igbos disintegration. In conclusion, Achebe’s goal was to make people know about some of the African struggles, and how to appreciate the grandeur of life in traditional African societies.

Works Cited Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart, in Sarah Lawall and Maynard Mack (eds). The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces: The Western Tradition. New York: Norton, 1998. Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffith, and Helen Tiffin, eds. The Post-colonial Studies Reader. London: Routledge, 1995. Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffith, and Helen Tiffin, eds. The Empire Writes Back, Theory and Practice in Post-colonial Literature. London:

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Routledge, 2002. Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffith, and Helen Tiffin, eds. The Postcolonial Studies Reader. London: Routledge, 2004. Bhattacharjee, Sukalpa. Post-Colonial Literature. New Delhi: Tarun Press, 2004. Booker, M. Keith. The African Novel in English: An Introduction. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1998. Booker, M. Keith, and Simon Gikandi. (eds). The Chinua Achebe Encyclopaedia. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2003. Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge, 1994. Gallagher, Susan VanZanten. “Linguistic Power: Encounter with Chinua Achebe.” The Christian Century 12 March 1997: 260. http://www.Questia.com/ (November 12, 2012). Huddart, David. Homi K. Bhabha. London: Routledge, 2006. Iyasere, Solomon O. Understanding Things Fall Apart: Selected Essays and Criticism. New York: The Whitston Publication, 1998. Jeyifo, Biodun, and Wole Soyinka.: Politics, Poetics, and Postcolonialism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Lazarus, Neil. The Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial Literary Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Loomba, Ania. Colonialism/ Postcolonialism. London: Routledge, 2005. Ogbaa, Kalu. Literary Analysis: Unifying Elements of Things Fall Apart Understanding Things Fall Apart: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999. Podis, Leonard A., and Yakubu Saaka. Challenging Hierarchies: Issues and Themes in Colonial and Postcolonial African Literature. New York: Lang, 1998. Turkington, Kate. Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart. London: Routledge, 1977. Williams, Patrick. An Introduction to Post- Colonial Theory. New York: Macmillan, 1997. Young, Robert. Colonial Desire. London: Routledge, 1995. Young, J. C. Robert. Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford, 2003.

CHAPTER TWENTY MARRIAGE CONFINEMENT AND FEMALE RESISTANCE IN HURSTON’S THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD MERYEM AYAN

Zora Neale Hurston’s black feminist novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), depicts the institution of marriage as a space of confinement for a black woman whose female resistance leads her to freedom. Their Eyes Were Watching God begins at the end of the story because Hurston’s protagonist Janie Crawford sits talking to Pheoby about her past three marriage experiences and her resistance that brings her freedom and helps her escape from the marriage confinement. In this paper, from a black feminist perspective marriage confinement and female resistance in Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God will be presented. Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God was negatively criticized in a “racially segregated environment” when the majority of African-American women were excluded from the literary canon and “Black feminist epistemology” (Collins 267). Zora Neale Hurston was one such figure negatively and harshly criticized when her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God was first published in 1937, by the famous African American writer Richard Wright stating that it “carries no theme, no message, no thought...” (23). Alain Locke has also negatively criticized the novel as an “over-simplification” of the Afro-American situation” (10). However, later Zora Neale Hurston and her novels were accepted within the Black American Studies and Black Feminist world. Carl Hughes says, in her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston “made a significant contribution to the field of American literature, using Negro themes” (172). Alice Walker was the one who positively criticized Zora Neale Hurston and brought her novel into the modern literary canon with the description of Hurston indicating:

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Chapter Twenty In my mind, Zora Neale Hurston, Billie Holiday, and Bessie Smith form a sort of unholy trinity. Zora belongs in the tradition of black women singers, rather than among “the literati.” . . . Like Billie and Bessie she followed her own road, believed in her own gods, pursued her own dreams, and refused to separate herself from “common” people (1977: xvii–xviii).

Zora Neale Hurston one of the few Black feminist novelist began to be appreciated especially with the growing interest in African American female writers and black feminism and her novels gained high interest when Black Feminism began to arise during the 1970s as a response to “the lack of attention African-American women had to bear both in Black Studies and the Women’s Liberation Movement (Baldellou 67). Alice Walker tried to bridge the gaps between these two studies; Black Studies and Women’s Liberation Movement, and the disciplines; Black Feminism and Feminism by coining the term “womanism” in her book In Search of Our Mother’s Garden: Womanist Prose (1983). In other words, Alice Walker highlighted the differences in the strategies used in black and white feminist approaches with her “womanist” perspective by pointing out that “black women experienced a different and more intense kind of oppression from that of white women. Furthermore, Walker stated that the feminist movements led by “white middle-class women have ignored oppression based on race and class” (1983: 9). Namely, Alice Walker within her womanist perspective defined black feminism as black women’s oppression that is different than white women’s because black women’s oppression is based on race and class that is ignored by white women. On the other hand, Patricia Hill Collins defined Black feminism, in her book Black Feminist Thought (1991), as “a process of selfconscious struggle on behalf of Black women” who share their experiences and ideas that provide “a unique angle of vision on self, community, and society”(15). Barbara Smith indicated that the subject of “gender conflict and violence” as a result of poverty and oppression became a recurrent black feminist issue in most African-American women’s fiction (8). Furthermore, Ula Taylor (1998) tried to “outline four main phases in Black feminist perspective” (234). In the first phase, “black women created self-definitions to change the negative representations of Black womanhood”, Hurston tries to repel the negative representation of Black womanhood by creating her resisting and distinct character, Janie. In the second phase, “Black women confronted any structure of oppression in terms of race, class and gender” as Hurston’s characters and especially Janie confront with these issues throughout the novel. Thirdly, “Black women became involved in intellectual and political activism”, and in the fourth phase, “Black women came to terms with a distinct cultural heritage

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to resist discrimination” (qtd. in Baldellou 68). Generally, in black feminism the black women intended to “prove to other black women that feminism was not only for white women” (Stewart 296). In past negatively and harshly criticized Zora Neale Hurston and her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God recently became a representative figure in the phases of Black Feminism reflecting the evolution of Black Studies through history and the main trends within Black Feminism. Jennifer Jordan (1988) considered Hurston’s novel as one of the first canonical Black feminist novel since black feminists have often turned to her novel as an important feminist text. Jordan described Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God as a ‘feminist fantasy’ because Janie “never perceives herself as an independent, intrinsically fulfilled human being” (115). Henry Gates indicated that Hurston’s novel is a “boldly feminist” one (1990:197) and a “speakerly text” (1988:170). Kristen Walker indicates that the heroine, Janie represents aspects of feminism and black feminism when she takes “the initiative to liberate herself from each of her three domineering relationships” (1) by freeing herself from the marriage confinements through female resistance. Nonetheless, Batker (1998) points out that Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God situated women at the centre of an African-American women’s literary tradition and its transcendence takes shape “within a broad continuum of AfricanAmerican women’s writing on sexuality early in this century” (199), thus concluding that “Their Eyes engages in early twentieth-century black feminist politics” (199). Similarly, Jordan also puts forward “the importance of women’s relationships with one another as an important presence in Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God that became one of the first novels, written during the Harlem Renaissance, to gain insight into African-American women’s situation in search of identity. Thus, Hurston’s novel is an “appropriate fictional representation of the concerns and attitudes of modern black feminism” (Jordan 107). Barbara Christian sees the black woman writer’s focus on “individual realization as an essential and radical issue of black feminist literature” (172). First of all, there has been a call for a literature in which “women have pivotal relationships with one another,” (Smith 164) to achieve a feminine bonding, and arrive at “liberation through [their] sisters” (Christian 181). Ultimately, the “liberation of black women from sexism and racism is to transform all black people and American society” (Christian 185). Thus, black feminist theory balances any perceived egocentrism with the cultural and political reintegration of transformed women into a revitalized society. The attempts of black feminists to present the conflicting imperatives of individual transformation, feminine bonding, and racial communalism

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have had a powerful effect on the reinterpretation of Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. The novel is seen as a mean of black feminist protest through its condemnation of the restrictiveness of marriage and through its exploration of intra-racial sexism and male violence. It is seen as a quest, through which the heroine, Janie Killicks Starks Woods, achieves a sense of identity as a self-fulfilled woman and, through her own self-realization, becomes a leader of her community. Furthermore, Janie’s struggle for identity and self-direction continues throughout the novel because she never defines herself outside the scope of her marital or romantic involvements and confinements. Janie’s sincere relationship with her friend Pheoby helps her to achieve a black communal identification but she fails to communicate with the black women around her or with the black community as a whole because she resists to be confined as a stereotypical black woman. In other words, Janie in a world where most modern social systems are patriarchal tries to gain independence by resisting the societal confines of gender stereotyping and by following her natural genius, not as a female but as a human being. Thus, Janie who was treated inhumanly and unequally shows resistance as she searches for her self-identity and ways to free herself from the gender stereotyping, societal confines and marriage confinement. Janie Crawford is a marginal character due to her resistance against participating in the rituals and traditions of her society. She creates a special version of spirituality in which no one can enter and no one can be oppressive with her strength of resistance. In the novel, Janie frees herself from the image of other and marriage confinement that is imposed on her by the oppressive ideas of the society. Actually, Janie tries to redeem her vision of resistance all through the novel. Janie is a beautiful black woman but only her body is visible to her community. This visual image of her body becomes the source for both her confinement and her resistance. The visible presence of Janie’s material body “reflects the complex historical and cultural forces which have created her, and it offers her a unique, individual identity” (Clark 601). Body plays an important role in female resistance because it is an object of knowledge and a target for female power’s exercise. Through exercising the power, the female body becomes subject to “to discipline” (Smart 80). So in a way, power exercises create spaces which render female visible in order to make it possible to change them and control them. Janie lives in a society in which women are defined by their outer beauty and not their inner beauty. However, “Janie goes through a radical shift in her way of seeing and behaving” in the society she lives (Levecq 91). Thus, Janie’s changing gaze and attitude become a strategy of resistance. Janie learns to see herself not through the

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eyes of dominant power in her society but through her own eyes and she learns to look at herself and see her beauty. Of course, all these experiences are gained after passing many stages in her life. “Her cleareyed view of herself at the end of the novel allows her to rise above the objectifying gaze of disciplinary power” (Daram & Hozhabrsadat 86). She learns to differentiate between her inside and outside and hide her inside from the gaze of power. Janie becomes both spectator and participant in her own life: “To speak the body, for an African American woman, means to recognize its visual racial difference as well as affirming its sexual identity. Hurston’s mind-pictures and seeing voices reclaim the physical world of pear trees and the beauty of the visible presence of blackness” (Clark 611). In the end of the novel, Janie reaches a peace of mind, in which she is “putting down the burden of the body by making it unavailable to prying eyes” (Cain 113). The most visible thing for her becomes the most invisible thing for the community that is her soul and story. The novel’s “ultimate resistance then lies in Janie’s carving out an individual visible narrative and identity” (Hollingsworth 276) by resisting the societal and marital confinements through her retelling of her story. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston reveals “the dominant male psyche of contemporary times through her male characters” (Pragya Shanker et al. 27 ). There are three major male characters in the novel, Logan Killicks, Joe Starks and Tea Cake Woods who enjoy the patriarchal dominance, authority and confinement. They want to control and rule the life of Janie who shows resistance to the patriarchal and marital confinements. Janie’s first marriage confinement comes at the age of 16 when her grandmother Nanny forces her to marry a local farmer, Logan Killicks, so that she will not experience the violent sexual and physical abuse the Black women experienced. Therefore, Nanny orders Janie: “Ah wants to see you married right away” (TE 13). Nanny believes that Janie’s marriage to Killicks would be a way to protect her from the dangers of racial and sexual oppression and other men. However, ironically her marriage to Killings rather than protection turns into a torture because of Killicks violent treatment. He tries to use Janie to “increase his profits” (Ferguson 187) rather than treating her as a wife. Logan expresses his real use for Janie later in the novel when Janie refuses to work at his command, saying it isn’t her “place” to do so, he tells her, “You ain’t got no particular place. It’s wherever Ah need yuh” (TE 31). After Logan makes this statement, Janie shows female resistance and decides to escape rather than become his slave till the end of her life. According to Krasner, “To free herself from her marriage (confinement) with Killicks, she need only invalidate

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the elements of his symbolic vision...She recognizes that, for Killicks...marriage is primarily a financial arrangement, the sixty acres acting as both sign and guarantee of matrimonial unity” (120). Janie proceeds to do just that with Logan and lets him know he “ain’t done [her] no favor by marryin’ [her]” (TE 31). Janie takes action and shows resistance by running away with Joe Starks, who promises her a different lifestyle. He states, “Janie, if you think Ah aims to tole you off and make a dog outa you, youse wrong. Ah wants to make a wife outa you” (TE 29). Thus she decides to leave with the hope of becoming a wife rather than a mule as the Grandma had stated; “De nigger woman is de mule uh de world…”(TE 14). “In her refusal to labour without meaningful recompense, Janie indeed became a woman” (Ferguson 187). In other words, by refusing to be like a slave to Logan, Janie takes it upon herself to change her destiny. In accepting her destiny as her responsibility, she becomes a woman. This is a feminist and a black womanist action because Janie is willing to leave a husband who makes her unhappy, which was very rare for women in the 1930’s. Also, many women would not dare to disobey their husbands, but Janie has no problem standing up to Logan and letting him know her thoughts, even though he threatens her. To escape Logan’s oppressive grasp, she acts in a radical way showing a feminist action and female resistance and escapes with Joe. Thus she frees herself from the marriage confinement that had forced her to lead a life like a mule by showing physical female resistance. Janie’s second marriage confinement comes with Joe Starks. Actually, in order to free herself from Killicks’ violence she shows resistance and runs off with Joe Starks whom she believes will give her a place of freedom rather than space of confinement during their marriage but she becomes extremely disillusioned and confined in this marriage till Joe’s death. After her marriage to Joe, they move to Eatonville, where Joe becomes the first mayor and starts assuming complete control over Janie and not allowing her to have a place of freedom or a word to say. She realized that Joe was not the man of her dreams and knew he did not “represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees, but he spoke for far horizon. He spoke for change and chance” (TE 29). Janie very early in her marriage to Joe recognizes that “while he does provide liberation of a sort from the domination of Logan, [he] further confines [her] and creates a new kind of domination” (McGowan 112). He does this by not permitting her to speak in public, forcing her to wear her long hair up, and forbidding her to socialize on the store’s porch which was another kind of confinement because Joe also dominates Janie through acts of physical as well as verbal abuse. An instance of physical abuse occurs “when the

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bread didn’t rise, and the fish wasn’t quite done at the bone, and the rice was scorched, he slapped Janie until she had a ringing sound in her ears and told her about her brains before he stalked on the back to the store”(TE 72). Janie responds to this abuse by withdrawing into herself; “she had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew how not to mix them” (TE 72). This is Janie’s only defence mechanism to keep her sense of self whole and to prevent Joe from shattering it. Later in the novel, she fights back against one of Joe’s verbal abuse, in front of the customers in the store. Joe ridicules Janie by berating her attractiveness and sexual desirability. Janie strikes back with words: Naw Ah ain’t no young gal...But Ah’m uh woman every inch of me...Dat’s uh whole lot more’n you kin say. You big bellies around here and put out a lot of brag, but ‘tain't nothin’to it but yo’ big voice. Humph...When you pull down yo’ britches, you look lak de change uh life (TE 79).

In reaction to Janie’s outburst, Joe is speechless, so “he resorts to physical violence and slaps Janie in a pitiful attempt to make her mind her master” (Ferguson 190). Since Joe “can’t put up...he is forced to shut up” (Krasner 122). In this instance, Janie indirectly sets Joe’s death in motion. He no longer verbally abuses her because she takes a ways his authority that confined her verbally. After the incident, she watches him get sicker and sicker, until he is at his sick bed. She informs him of his incompetence as a husband, and he dies while she is in the room. Again, Hurston uses Janie to set forth her own liberation from another domineering and confining relationship. In other words, Janie once more shows resistance by destroying Joe’s domination, and frees herself from her second marriage confinement. The feminism at the end of this relationship is observed with Janie’s new found voice when she finally resists Joe’s domination and speaks up. “True speaking is not solely an expression of creative power; it is an act of resistance, a political gesture that challenges [the gender] politics of domination that would render us nameless and voiceless” (qtd. in Thompson 756). Janie through speaking shows resistance and gains power. Becoming voiced rather than staying voiceless becomes important for Janie because while Janie loves to tell stories, she uses her voice most often to resist dominant males in her life, namely Logan Killicks and Joe Starks. Thus, once again, Janie puts a new spin on her destiny by becoming verbally powerful and learning to resist both physically and verbally. Janie’s third marriage confinement comes with her relationship that involves Vergible “Tea Cake” Woods. After Janie meets Tea Cake and in

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resistance leaves the comfort of Eatonville to go with him to the Everglades. “Like Joe, Tea Cake appears, in the first instance, to be a purely liberating force in Janie’s life” (McGowan 113) and he does this by treating her as an equal human being. While Tea Cake teaches Janie to play checkers on the first day he meets her, he shows Janie the rules of the game, “she found herself glowing inside. Somebody wanted her to play. Somebody thought it natural for her to play” (TE 95-6). In this instance, Janie receives equal treatment from a man for the first time and ends up marrying him. Another example of Tea Cake liberating Janie occurs when he shows her how to use the gun and how to hunt. The irony of this act is that Janie becomes a better shot than Tea Cake himself. She is also able to put food on the table for them by the hunting game, which was extremely unheard for the time period the novel takes place in and is a significant feminist action. Generally, the man was the main provider of bread at home but the gender roles change in Janie’s and Tea Cake’s relationship. “In this liberation, however, just as in Joe’s liberation, there is also a reverse side, a side of domination. This domination appears most explicitly in Tea Cake’s jealousy and subsequent abuse of Janie” (McGowan 114). Tea Cake shows his first display of jealousy when he starts to leave work in the middle of the day and check on her. She asks him about his reasoning one day, and he tells her he is worried that “de boogerman liable tuh tote yuh off whilst Ah’m gone” (TE 132). Janie doesn’t believe in his story and confronts him about it. She states, “Tain’t no boogerman got me tuh study ‘bout. Maybe you think Ah ain’t treatin’ yuh right and you watchin’ me” (TE 133). He quickly reassures Janie that her theory is wrong and claims that he misses her too much during the day while he is at work, so she will have to join him and work next to him in the fields. Actually, Janie accepts to go work with Tea Cake because of the desire to be together, to share their experiences and avoid Tea Cake’s jealous attitudes. Later in the novel, Tea Cake demonstrates his jealousy through physical abuse. When racist Mrs. Turner brings her brother to meet Janie, Tea Cake retaliates in his own way: ...He had whipped Janie. Not because her behavior justified his jealousy, but it relieved that awful fear inside him. Being able to whip her reassured him in possession. He just slapped her around a bit to show he was boss. (TE 147) Towards the end of the novel, Tea Cake experiences another jealous episode, but this one becomes deadly. A rabid dog bites Tea Cake while he tries to prevent it from biting Janie. Days later, Tea Cake starts to go crazy with rabies and gets so sick that he becomes irrational. He

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indirectly accuses Janie of cheating on him and pulls a pistol on her. Janie foresees a situation similar to this earlier in the day and pulls a shotgun on him in return. When Janie realizes that Tea Cake is actually going to kill her, she defends herself and shoots him before he has a chance to shoot her. This is the most powerful and radical scene in the novel because Janie takes charge and ends a domineering and confining relationship in a masculine and shocking way. Actually, with the shooting of Tea Cake, Hurston is placing Janie in a masculine role of dominance, the position of power that she has been denied all her life as the passive black female in her relationships. After Janie kills him in self-defence and returns to Eatonville years later fighting and resisting against what other people think and expect from her and remains independent. Thomas Cassidy reveals that “Tea Cake’s transformation after the dog bite as an acceleration of force was already evident in his personality before the storm”. Thus, the jealous violence of the mad Tea Cake is prefigured by the jealous violence of the Tea Cake who slaps Janie around (qtd. in McGowan 114). McGowan states: Hurston shows Janie coming to a tragic recognition: when Tea Cake is attempting to fire a pistol at her, she recognizes that her love relationshipwhat has saved her-is precisely what threatens to destroy her. This threat has been present all along, but here Janie recognizes it as such. For a moment, the moment of firing the gun, Janie breaks from the Other (116).

Tea Cake is “the Other,” yet Janie is willing to “break” from him for her own well-being. This demonstrates her feelings of independence and self-discovery. Janie realizes she does not need Tea Cake in order to live she only needs herself which is a black feministic awareness. Actually, Hurston through Tea Cake’s and Janie’s relationship represents Janie’s control over her own life. Through “the act of shooting Tea Cake, Janie allows herself as subject to emerge...as a subject freed from its dependence on the Other” (McGowan 116). In other words, by killing Tea Cake, she frees herself from his demand for her dependence, and simultaneously finds her true, independent self. Obviously, one of the most important messages in the novel is the role of black feminism and self-discovery of a black woman through her three marriage confinements by showing female resistance. In other words, Janie overcomes three domineering relationships independently resisting and discovers herself in process. With her first husband, Logan Killicks, who treats her as nothing more than a working mule instead of treating her as a human, Janie becomes unhappy and confined. Thus, she resists and decides to escape from the domineering and confining life that her first

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marriage makes her experience. With her second husband, Joe Starks, who treats her as one of his many possessions, Janie for years endures his verbal and physical abuse, until one day she strikes back at him with words. Indirectly, Janie kills Joe with her words by resisting to be dominated by his verbal and physical abuse, and once more she manages to escape unhappiness and abuse both physically and verbally and liberate herself from the marriage confinement. Finally, Janie gets married to Tea Cake Woods. In the beginning of their relationship, Tea Cake treats Janie as an equal being, but as the relationship progresses, he becomes jealous and eventually domineering and violent. Janie makes her last change to advance her destiny by showing resistance and shooting Tea Cake when he threatens and confines her life. Thus, in the end, Janie ends up alone, but happy, independent and free from the marriage confinements. In other word, at the end of the novel, Janie who refuses to confine herself or see herself confined by others, chooses isolation and contemplation, not solidarity and action. Ferguson states that one of Hurston’s purposes behind Their Eyes Were Watching God is perfectly: Hurston sets her story in a more realistic black female world, where her greatest foe is the same one faced by the white woman. Both are plagued by a sexism antagonistic to their development. Instinctively, Janie...takes on the task of surviving this enemy among the men of her folk group who periodically advance and retard her ambitions. (195).

The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God that was once negatively criticized as failing to represent the struggles of Afro-Americans and black woman is now accepted and glorified as an “appropriate manifesto for black feminism” (Jordan 115) because the novel represents black women’s liberation, unconscious conflicts about emotional and financial dependence, sexual stereotyping, intra-racial hostilities, female resistance, marriage confinement, identity quest and class interests inherent within the black feminist movement. Consequently, Their Eyes Were Watching God a “black feminist” (Jordan 115) and “boldly feminist” (Gates 197) novel contains the message of black feminist awakening and self-discovery of a black woman who has strongly resisted the patriarchal and marital confinement by learning to raise her voice and by figuring out the usage of black feminist dialect, descriptive and contrasting language style. Briefly, a black woman has radically and in a black feminist way has shown female resistance and freed herself from the marriage confinement as she changed from a naive girl to a mature woman. Janie captures this pivotal transition when she observes, “the young girl was gone, but a handsome woman had taken her

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place” (TE 87). This growth enables Janie to understand the experience of resistance and the relationship between self and voice in a multiple and interrelated black feminist processes.

Works Cited Baldellou, Marta Miquel. “The Beloved Purple Of Their Eyes: Inheriting Bessie Smith’s Politics Of Sexuality.” miscelánea: a journal of english and american studies 36 2007. pp. 67-88 Batker, Carol. “‘Love Me Like I Like to Be’: The Sexual Politics of Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the Classic Blues, and the Black Women’s Club Movement”. African- American Review 32:2 (Summer 1998): Cain W. E. Protest and the Body in Melville, Dos Passos, and Hurston. New York: Routledge. 2004. pp. 199-213. Cain, W.E. Protest and the Body in Melville, Dos Passos, and Hurston. New York: Routledge. 2004. Clark Deborah “‘The Porch Couldn’t Talk for Looking’: Voice and Vision in Their Eyes Were Watching God”. Afr. Am. Rev., 35(4). 2001. pp 599-613. Christian, Barbara. “Black Feminist Criticism: Perspectives on Black Women Writers”, Athene Series, New York: Pergamon Press, 1985. pp. 15-16, 179-80; Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge. 2000. Print Daram Mahmood & Sepideh Hozhabrsadat. “Invisibility of the I’s in “Their Eyes Were Watching God” Internal Journal of English and Literature Vol. 3(4), April 2012. pp. 84-90, Ferguson, Sally Ann. “Folkloric Men and Female Growth in Their Eyes Were Watching God.” Black American Literature Forum 21. 1987. pp. 185-197. Gates, Henry Louise. Jr. “Afterword.” Zora Neale Hurston: “A Negro Way of Saying.” New York: Harper Perennial, 1990. pp. 195-205. —. Zora Neale Hurston and the Speakerly Text,” in The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. pp. 170-216. Hollingsworth L.C. “Reading the (In) visible Race: African- American Subject Representation and Formation in American Literature”, Dissertation. 2010. Hughes, Carl Milton. The Negro Novelist. New York: Citadel Press, 1953. p 172

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Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper Perennial, 1990. Johnson, Maria V. “‘The World in a Jug and the Stopper in [Her] Hand’: Their Eyes as Blues Performance.” African American Review 32. 1998. pp 401-414. Jordan, Jennifer. “Feminist Fantasies: Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Spring, 1988), pp. 105-117. University of Tulsa Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/464063 . Krasner, James. “The Life of Women: Zora Neale Hurston and Female Autobiography.” Black American Literature Forum 23 1989. pp 113126. Levecq C. “Hitting a straight lick with a crooked stick”: Humor and the Subversive in Three Novels by Zora Neale Hurston. Dissertation University of Illinois. 1991. Locke, Alain. “Jingo, Counter-Jingo and Us, Opportunity 16. 1938. p 10 McGowan, Todd. “Liberation and Domination: Their Eyes Were Watching God and the Evolution of Capitalism.” MELUS Spring 1999. pp 109-128. Pragya Shanker et al. “Discourse of resistance in the select novels of Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston” Explore - Journal of Research for UG and PG Students, Vol. III. Patna Women's College, Patna, India 2011, pp. 26-29. Smart B. Michel Foucault. New York: Routledge. 1985. Smith, Barbara. “Toward a Black Feminist Criticism,” in All the Women, pp.164 Stewart, Burns. “Living for the Revolution: Black Feminist Organizations, 1968-1980”, Journal of American History 93: 2006. pp. 296-298. Taylor, Ula. 1998. “The Historical Evolution of Black Feminist Theory and Praxis”. Journal of Black Studies 29: 2 (November 1998): pp. 234253. Thompson, Gordon E. “Projecting Gender: Personification in the Works of Zora Neale Hurston.” American Literature 66 1994. pp 737-763. Walker, Kristen. “Feminism Present in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God” Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Feb 8, 2007. pp. 1-3 Walker, Alice. “Zora Neale Hurston: A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View.” Foreword to Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography, by Robert Hemenway, xi–xviii. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 1977. —. In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1983, pp. 10-14.

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Wright, Richard. “Between Laughter and Tears”, (reviewed on Their Eyes Were Watching God) The New Masses, 5 October 1937. pp. 22-25

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE COMEDY AND FUN: IS SHAKESPEARE FUNNY? MURAT ÖöÜTÇÜ

While systematising Shakespearean comedy, most of the critics have disregarded the comic aspect of Shakespeare’s comedy. A critical survey of the reception history shows that the performative aspect has not been the focal point of analyses. In the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, Shakespearean comedy was disregarded as an apprenticeship-work, compared to his later tragedies, had generic failings and was censored for its bawdiness. As a reflection of the Enlightenment, we see in the 18th century a preoccupation with the systematisation of Renaissance Literature in general and Shakespeare in particular. The Enlightenment spirit in these critics wanted to create a tangible, analysable and universally valid understanding of Shakespeare. Since this systematisation was set against Neoclassical aestheticism, it was absorbed in generic comparisons and contrasts, which posited Shakespeare on a central position in academic studies, where critics were either for or against him. 1 Particularly, the academic debate on Shakespeare’s aesthetic value engendered “reproduction of his works in scholarly editions”, “the publication of critical monographs”, the integration of his works in higher education, and the making of the national bard (Dobson 1992, 3; Hanmer 1745, xiii-ix). This aestheticism, however, has created rather an Enlightenment Shakespeare whose legacy continues. 1

Yet, we should note that this central position was much in written form and less in action. Although the Shakespeariana is based on the debates in the 18th century, we see that the actual performances of the plays are set ironically on a secondary position where adaptations were preferred (Clark 1997, xliii). Hence, there was an orthographic approach towards Shakespeare’s comedies, seen in the many academic works composed in the 18th century.

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Accordingly, Shakespeare had defects, which derived from his “Ǖmall Latine, and leǕǕe Greeke” (Jonson 1623, A4r), which is why he was rather to be “love[d]” than imitated (Dryden 1808b, 354), as “Shakespeare, who writ first, did not perfectly observe the Laws of Comedy” (Dryden 1808b, 349, original italics). For instance, Shakespeare’s imperfections manifested themselves especially in generic hybridity 2 which had been considered as “the greatest Absurdity in Nature”, “a monǕtrous Production” (Trapp 1742, 239), and “monstrous inventions” (Addison 1832, 72), which renders the action chaotic “without deǕign” (Johnson 1765, A5v). As Dryden argued “the lameness of their Plots: many of which […] were made up of some ridiculous, incoherent story,” resulted in “that the Comedy neither caus’d neither your mirth, nor the serious part your concernment” (Dryden 1808a, 215). As For Shakespeare, Lennox even maintained that generic hybridity made him “to torture” a serious play “into a Comedy”, with “low Contrivance, abǕurd Intrigue, and improbable Incidents” so that he brought “three or four Weddings, inǕtead of one good Beheading, which was the ConǕequence naturally expected” (Lennox 1753, 28). The nonfulfillment of such expectations were also the consequences of many subplots which, according to Dennis, distracted the audience and hindered comic catharsis (quoted in Oliver 1990, xi) which is why that Shakespeare was considered to “[fall] so far short of” the ancients with his “Errors” (Dennis 1903, 41). Therefore, Shakespeare’s comedies were looked down upon as they were assumed not being able to create laughter according to Neoclassical precepts. However, there was also an apologetic mood in favour of Shakespeare’s so-called defects trying to find scapegoats or turning failure into success and presenting these seemingly defects as merits. As for scapegoats, the defects of printers and publishers in the printing process are tried to be detected by contemporary critics (Pope and Rowe 1725, xxi; Malone 1821, 203). As for merits disguised as defects, Rowe, for instance, maintained that Shakespeare lived in a period where “[t]here was no establiǕh’d Judge” (Rowe 1709, xxvi), and that he was free to follow his “Fancy” (Rowe 1709, xxvi), yet as Gildon further argues Shakespeare’s works needed some proportion of orderliness (Gildon 1710, lvii). Therefore, his imperfect and “quick Comedy” was considered to be “refin’d” by Jonson according to critics like Flecknoe (Flecknoe 1973, 89). Similarly, Farquhar considered present Shakespeare studies as 2

Sidney argued against generic hybridity and called it “groǕǕe abǕurdities” (Sidney 1595, K2r), whereas Puttenham similarly maintained the same and said that comedy should deal with “the common behauiours” of “the meaner Ǖort of men” and tragedy “meddled not with Ǖo baǕe matters” (Puttenham 1589, 20).

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anachronistic and maintained that the performative side of his comedies should be rather focused on: “The Rules of EngliǕh Comedy don’t lie in the CompaǕs of AriǕtotle, or his Followers, but in the Pit, Box, and Galleries” (Farquhar 1714, 73, original italics). Likewise, Berkenhout defended Shakespeare’s generic irregularities based on “arbitrary rules” specific to time and space (Berkenhout 1777, xxxii), whereas Walwyn argued that the seriousness mixed into comedy enabled comic catharsis while dignifying it (Walwyn 1782, 2-4). Exceptionally, Gildon went further and claimed that Shakespeare complies with classical rules of comedy (Gildon 1710, 281). Consequently, the apologetic mood of 18th century scholars just counteracted former critics who criticised Shakespeare. Towards the 19th century, however, the self-appointed position of the critic to care for the reader’s (not audience’s) morals increases, seen in the edition of John Bell who regarded the defective parts, namely the obscene parts, 3 of Shakespeare’s comedy as “cobwebs” that had to be removed (Bell 1774/1969, 6). He further argues that it has been our peculiar endeavour to render what we call the essence of Shakespeare, more instructive and intelligible; especially to the ladies and to youth; glaring indecencies being removed, and intricate passages explained; and lastly, we have striven to supply plainer ideas of criticism, both in public and private, than we have hitherto met with. A general view of each play is given, by way of introduction. Though this is not an edition meant for the profoundly learned, nor the deeply studious, who love to find out, and chase their own critical game; yet we flatter ourselves both parties may perceive fresh ideas started for speculation and reflection. (Bell 1774/1969, 9–10)

Therefore, the over-sensitive attitude for the morals of contemporary late 18th audience downgraded Shakespeare’s performed comedy which was rendered into a readerly and orderly medium of instruction. With the beginning of the 19th century, we see a shift to focus on the individuality of Shakespeare’s characters, which, however, was actually an extension of the disregard to the performative aspect of Shakespeare’s comedies. For example, Schlegel argues that characterisation is the most 3

This concern can be seen as an extension of the accusations made by the Elizabethan City Elders (Montrose 1996, 56; Wickham 1963, 86) and Gosson about the depiction of lust, “abuǕe” and “Adulterie” in theatres (Gosson 1587, 67, 80-81). A similar response to Shakespeare’s obscenity can be observed in the simplification of diction and storyline in Shakespeare’s plays in Charles and Mary Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare (Lamb and Lamb 1807).

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important element of Shakespeare’s works in which the characters seem to surpass social limitations where “the sage and the idiot, speak and act with equal truthfulness” (Schlegel 1846, 363). Coleridge, in a similar vein, argues that “the total effect is produced by a co-ordination of the characters” (Coleridge 1858, 146). Likewise, Hazlitt’s Characters of Shakespear’s Plays (1817) elaborates Schlegel’s ideas and exemplifies Pope’s ideas on the character portrayal of Shakespeare: “every single character in Shakespeare, is as much an individual as those in life itself” (Hazlitt 1854b, viii). Yet, through the same Hazlitt we may see the neglect of the performative aspect of Shakespeare in Shakespeare Studies. He said “[w]e do not like to see our author’s plays acted” (Hazlitt 1854a, 114). Moreover, the emerging scientific side of criticism, in line with Victorian developments in and pre-eminence of science, began with Moulton’s work, Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist: A Popular Illustration of the Principles of Scientific Criticism (1885), where he maintained that “literary criticism should follow other branches of thought in becoming inductive” (Moulton 1885/2011, 1), and that “[i]nterpretation in literature is of the nature of a scientific hypothesis, the truth of which is tested by the degree of completeness with which it explains the details of the literary works as they actually stand” (Moulton 1885/2011, 25, original italics). This scientific analysis was accompanied with psychoanalytic approach to the personal and artistic development of Shakespeare. Dowden using Furnivall and Moulton’s approaches maintained that the 1590s “fun pure and simple, comical surprises and grotesque incidents” (Dowden 1875/1948, 358) were gradually replaced by a mixture of high and low dramatic that subsisted simultaneously (Dowden 1875/1948, 360). However, towards the end of the 19th century, the old debate about generic defects reappeared in the form of systematising dramatic genres and dividing them into further subgenres as an extension of scientific inquiry. Boas’s Shakspere and his Predecessors (1896) divides Shakespeare’s comedies into early works, “The Golden Prime of Comedy” (Boas 1896/1900, 297-343), later comedies and another freestanding group, the problem plays which linked “comedies of matchless charm and radiance” with his later Works marked by “dramatic satire” (Boas 1896/1900, 344). As can be inferred from his words, later criticism which tried to systematise Shakespeare’s comedies into further categories thought them in relation with his tragedies. Accordingly, Frye’s The Myth of Deliverance (1938), Lawrence’s Problem Comedies (1931), Tillyard’s Shakespeare’s Problem Plays (1950), and Wheeler’s Shakespeare’s Development and the Problem Comedies (1981), try to solve the generic problem of Shakespeare’s comedies which do not fit into any category.

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This, however, shows the problematic nature of categorisation itself. Even the invention of new generic subcategories (not used for any other playwright) creates yet another academic vicious circle which neglects the performative aspect of Shakespeare’s comedies. The later comedies of Shakespeare, grouped as Romances, with G.Wilson Knight’s The Crown of Life (1947), Pettet’s Shakespeare and the Romance Tradition (1949), Felperin’s Shakespearean Romance (1972), Yates’ Shakespeare’s Last Plays: A New Approach (1975), or Palfrey’s Late Shakespeare: A New World of Words (1997) can be seen in a similar light. The Romantic preoccupation to equate Shakespeare’s works with his own life experience, that is, from maturity to perfection which brings depression and reconciliation, makes comedy in its early or late form secondary to tragedy. Therefore, Shakespeare’s comedies have been seen as apprenticeship works. Although the debate between Frye and Barber in the mid-20th century was thought-provoking, the former giving agency to comic characters and the latter denying it, this type of criticism focused primarily on the isolated text, theorising and trying to fix the meaning of the text. For instance, according to Frye the endings in the form of a festive conclusion, then, is the creation of a new reality out of something impossible but desirable. The action of comedy is intensely Freudian in shape: the erotic pleasure principle explodes underneath the social anxieties sitting on top of it and blows them sky-high. But in comedy we see a victory of the pleasure principle that Freud warns us not to look for in ordinary life. (Frye 1965, 75–6)

Controversially, Barber in Shakespeare’s Festive Comedy argues that “the saturnalian pattern appears in many variations, all of which involve inversion, statement and counterstatement, and a basic movement which can be summarised in the formula, through release to clarification” (Barber 1972, 4). Therefore, the agency of the comic character is restrained within social confinements manifested in the Lord of Misrule conventions which functioned just as a “vicious or perverse release” (Barber 1972, 259). While these conflicting ideas shaped subsequent debates on Shakespearean comedy until the 1980s, seen in Brown’s Shakespeare and his Comedies (1957), Berry’s Shakespeare’s Comedies: Explorations in Form (1972), Huston’s Shakespeare’s Comedies of Play (1981), after the 1980s, old school editorial intervention has been challenged by New Historicist approaches which have been trying to contextualise Early Modern literary works by foregrounding the mutual relation between text

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and context, showing the queerness and indeterminacy of dramatic production, and celebrating Shakespearean comedy especially for its subversive elements within dominant structures. These recent studies have not only extended the canon but have also enabled to look at the period from different and multiple perspectives. Nevertheless, just like the former approaches, New Historicist approaches have neglected the performative, phonocentric and polyvalent nature of drama while analysing primarily, rather separately and synchronically, dominant ideologies, issues of gender, race or cultural material. Therefore, this paper aims to concentrate on situational and verbal comedy in Shakespeare’s comedies and show that there is a need to look at the performative aspect of it to elaborate whether he is funny or not, that is, whether his comedies can create comic catharsis or not, especially in the Early Modern Period, specifically in the last decade of the Elizabethan Period. Although we cannot speak of an Elizabethan World Picture (Tillyard, 1959, 9, 18, 107) that is a priori, complete in itself, we may argue that in the centre at least an imaginary Master Signifier defined what was disorderly, ugly and ridiculous. This Master Signifier was traditionally personified in the middle aged economically independent white male household head who had subordinates. Subordination, however, was by no means a reductive top-down relation in a binary opposition. Particularly, Early Modern Patriarchy had multiple layers of imaginative and real subordination. As Shepard argues “patriarchal imperatives [...] constituted attempts to discipline and order men as well as women. Men, like women, might have experienced such imperatives in one or more of three ways: as beneficiaries; as subordinates; and as opponents” which were determined by “age, social status, marital status, and context” (Shepard 2003, 1). These subordinates consisted of young women, racial others and servants whose depiction as witty and domineering persons created “Lords of Misrule” (Barber 1972, 24-30) in the eyes of the Elizabethan playgoers. However, if we consider that not all but most of the playgoers of popular playhouses belonged to these subordinates (Gurr 1987, 4), did they consider their distorted reflection on the stage comic? Did they laugh at their ridiculous picture as much as it is assumed of the household heads? Besides, the household heads in form of the City Elders are reported to be offended by these “comic” plays as they presumed that plays attracted subordinates to lazy and disorderly behaviour, as not only bad examples seemed to be taken but also the very act of play watching itself was considered to create such behaviour (Williams 1995, 397; Wickham 1963,

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85-6; Montrose 1996, 48-9, 56). 4 Thus, if it is disputed that both the orderly and disorderly did not laugh at Shakespeare’s comedies, who did laugh at them? If nobody did, why did Francis Meres call him perfect in comedy (Meres 1598, 282)? Did other people such as Scoloker (Scoloker 1604, A2r) merely copy Meres’ comments on Shakespeare for their own ends or did they really think Shakespeare as a good comic playwright? While Shakespeare’s comedy was criticised and looked down on by contemporary academic playwrights (Greene 1592, Fv; Jonson and Drummond 1842, 46) or the literati (Puttenham 1589, 20) and later academicians, his comedy was appreciated by the population. It is true that most of the population got a preliminary Latin education in grammar schools analysing Cicero, Seneca, Plautus and Terence which fostered memorisation and signification (Mack 2002, 2; Simon 1979, 4-7, 23; Byrne 1961, 216-7; Gurr 1987, 80-1) and that listening habits seemed more “natural” to Early Modern audiences (Bell 1998, 7; Bradbrook 1980, 69-89; Gurr 1987, 12). Yet except the courtiers who could remember and make allusions (Gurr 1987, 81, 89-90; Bradbrook 1980, 35), the majority of the amphitheatre audience, illiterate housewives and servants (Gurr 1987, 54-5), could not interpret the many meta-academic literary allusions as much as the graduates who had made an intensive study of these.5 Just like Gurr maintains, we should not confuse reading and hearing experiences, where the former is slow and isolated in silence, whereas the latter is more quick and in a noisy environment (Gurr 1987, 99-100). Similarly, Wells argues that farfetched readerly interpretations deny performance conditions (Wells 2010, 8). In this light, physical conditions must have had their effects on the signification process in performance. As Gurr maintains 4

The hatred towards the theatre has been voiced by many Elizabethans like Chettle who said “Fie upon following plaies” as the players’ “wordes are full of wyles” (Chettle n. d., E2v) or Sir John Davies who dismissed theatres as places where “whores, / Porters and Ǖeruingmen togither throng” (Davies n. d., B2v-B3r). Gurr claims that the reaction of City elders’ shows that they did not attend plays very much. “Who were the paying playgoers at the first public playhouses in London? The outcry against them from the pulpits and Guildhall, which ran as a campaign with City funding from 1580 to 1584 and only stopped when the Privy Council set up the Queen’s Men as a monopoly, makes it likely that there were few playgoing clerics or aldermen of the City, certainly not the more puritanical of either group.” (Gurr 1987, 118). 5 As Brown argues ballads formed a more direct source for female audiences: “For these reasons, ballads offered ‘female speaking positions’ in a far more immediate way than did the all-male stage or in the mostly male-authored texts of official and literary culture” (Brown 2003, 295).

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[t]he mental composition of any playgoer must have varied according to an enormous complex of factors, ranging from the physical condition of the playgoer’s feet or stomach, or the hat worn by the playgoer in front, to the hearer’s familiarity with Ovid or Holinshed. Education and taste in regarding, the contrasting social and political allegiances of blue apron and flat cap culture against the court gallants and law students, all influenced the kind of play written for different playhouses and must to some extent therefore reflect at least the poets’ and players’ expectations of their customers. (Gurr 1987, 81)

Therefore, it can be argued that the comedy of contemporary academic playwrights remained too highbrow for the popular stage (Gurr 1987, 121). Performance, on the other hand, was rather the backbone of popular comedy because it could create laughter in its simplest and most direct form. Drama was and is in its essence phonocentric and not orthographically centred. Peculiarly, after the re-construction of the Globe Theatre in London as “Shakespeare’s Globe” in 1997 and the interdisciplinary work on Original Pronunciation, that is, OP, especially by David Crystal through Ben Crystal (Crystal 2005, 8; Crystal 2012, 12645), we see that the performative aspect and the importance of audience and player interaction has been re-emphasised in order to understand the reception of Early Modern Drama. With the simulation of an Elizabethan amphitheatre, some of former speculative academic work, such as that a performer could understand his audience better because of his more direct link with it compared to a reading public, has been proven. As Gurr has maintained even before the construction of Shakespeare’s Globe, “[p]erformed texts” do “supply an immediate response from the recipients, so that playwrights engage in a form of communication which is more nearly intercommunicative than any other publication” so that “[a]s performance texts, the plays were composed for a tighter grouping of people, a more immediate and readily recognisable social entity, than any audience for a printed text” (Gurr 1987, 1-2). That “tight” interaction was created especially after the commercialisation of drama where the performer and audience got a more systematised relationship of supply and demand. As Gurr puts forth, London playgoers in the 1580s and 1590s created the unprecedented phenomenon of an audience paying money to hear poetry. […] For the poets who were also players it must have been a revelation: poetry as a performing art speaking directly to an expectant crowd who paid money to enjoy the offering. Audience response could be directly manipulated,

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This demand and supply relationship was voiced in an “active” and “collective experience” of audiences which did not keep their “reactions private” (Gurr 1987, 45; Mann 1991, 3-5). Although indoor-theatres were quieter than amphitheatres, “noise”, whether to applaud or hiss, was an important side-effect of the presence of huge audiences (Gurr 1987, 44-5; Hattaway 1982, 52) that showed their emotions actively in “troubled Theaters” (Spenser 1596, 4.3.37)6 that contained the “gladǕome noyǕe of that applauding croud” (Hall 1597, 1.3.8).7 Shakespeare in this sense was also fortunate because he knew audience reactions by first hand as he had acting experience himself, seen in the note claiming him as one of the “principall Comœdians” in Every Man in his Humour (Jonson 1616, 72), and had players like Kempe and Armin, both considered as successors to Tarlton, who could exploit comedy to its farthest point (Johnson 1773, 372; Holmes 2004, 25; Thomson 1992, 139; Wiles 1987, 11, 29, 59, 139). For instance, in Twelfth Night8, after the interaction between the Fool and Viola in the fashion of the actor and his audience (TN 3.1.1-60), Viola specifically emphasises the Fool’s ability of performance and his skill to manipulate his audience: This fellow is wise enough to play the fool, And to do that well, craves a kind of wit: He must observe their mood on whom he jests, The quality of persons, and the time, And like the haggard, check at every feather That comes before his eye. This is a practice As full of labour as a wise man’s art: For folly that he wisely shows is fit; (TN 3.1.61-9; Crystal and Crystal 2012, Track 24)

This kind of expertise in actors was also assumed to be seen in the lack of stage-direction in the few contemporary playbooks, from which it is argued that with less or no directorial/authorial interference playwrights counted on professional actors’ merits as a custom (Long 1999, 414-33). 6

First book number, then canto number, and finally stanza number is given. First book number, then number of the Satire, and finally page number is given. 8 Shakespeare’s plays will be abbreviated as follows: Twelfth Night (TN), As You Like It (AYL), The Taming of the Shrew (Shr.), Comedy of Errors (Err.), Much Ado About Nothing (Ado.), Merchant of Venice (MV), and Two Gentlemen of Verona (TGV). References to the CD-ROM about OP will be given in Track Numbers. 7

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Thus, Shakespeare along with his able fellow actors could take audience reaction into consideration and exploit the discrepancies of the material they presented. This can be best seen in the demonstration of relationship in general and the relationship between the orderly and disorderly in particular which created laughter. Centralising the Master Signifier they could create laughter about matters of status, gender, race/religion which they interconnected to each other while presenting them simultaneously. This presentation, however, did not merely exploit stereotypes but rather was marked by complex characters which had their human sides (Thomson 2002, 140). This complexity helped the different parts of the cosmopolitan audience to follow the characters, take sides and interact with each other during the performance. Thus, the orderly and disorderly groups could delight in the performed battle between order and disorder, while they also might have mimicked this battle sitting at their seats or standing before the platform. Therefore, the core of comic catharsis in, especially, the Elizabethan popular theatre, was interaction with the audience which was both sociologically determined and enhanced with the extensive use of irony, whether verbal, dramatic or situational. As a result, the audience was active in the signification process. For example, the interaction of pairs in witty exchange of mostly misunderstood conversation, about high matters lowered or low matters made high, is functional to create comic catharsis. We may argue that the audience participates in that exchange by taking sides. In AYL, the audience may take part in the debate on “courtly artificiality” and “pastoral simplicity” where we may see scepticism to the “bucolic ease” (Goldsmith 1953, 888) of pastoral and the “ambivalence” it creates (Umunç 1994, 136). Although Arden is a “festive place” marked “by an attitude of liberty from ordinary limitations” that enables it to “contrast between everyday and holiday” (Barber 1972, 223), Touchstone shows his disbelief in it by “[mocking] the easy romanticizing of [the] pastoral” (Dillon 2003, 14) and shatters the illusion that the pastoral is a place where no one envies another, lives in “happiness” and the shepherds are only concerned with their sheep (AYL 3.2.71-5). Thereby, he focuses on the absurdity of the privilege of leisure of the gentle ranks, as Montrose argued in another context (Montrose 1983, 428). The absurdity lies in the fact that a courtier has to toil in the court to acquire not only an intra-court rank but also an extra-court estate on which he will express his high status not having to toil any more (Bush 1985, 7; Stone 1979, 56; Adams 1995,

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26). 9 Therefore, the “stand-up comedian” clown (Thomson 2002, 142) along with another comic character are not just fools who act foolishly but raise matters that may be taken seriously in other contexts. Hence, the interaction does not remain on a literary or academic level of stereotypical characters, but extends into sociologically matters concerning parts of the audience in different ways. Thus, the very complexity enables the comic actor to exploit incongruity and create comic catharsis in Shakespeare’s comedy. Similarly, the presence of male and female audiences and the ability of actors to exploit matters of gender by not only presenting these but also provoking player-audience interaction and interaction within the female and male audience is an important aspect for the creation of laughter. As Gurr argues, it can be inferred that apart from prostitutes who could attend theatre on their own (Gurr 1987, 57) most of the women audience of respected origin went to the theatres with their husbands or a male relative (Gurr 1987, 58). Therefore, it is quite possible that the battle of sexes is not limited to the stage but is extended to the audience as both female and male playgoers may interact with each other about their position on the struggle depicted. As Gosson illustrated in a negative sense, male and female interaction within the audience was very common: In our aǕǕemblies at playes in London, you Ǖhall Ǖee Ǖuch heauing, and Ǖhoouing, Ǖuch ytching and shouldring, to Ǖitte by women; Such care for their garments, that they be not trod on […] Such pillowes to their backs, that they take no hurte […] Such giving them Pippins to paǕǕe the time: […] Such tick[l]ing, Ǖuch toying, Ǖuch Ǖmiling, Ǖuch winking, and Ǖuch manning them home […] that is a right Comedie, to marke their behauiour[.] (Gosson 1587, 32-3)

In this “comedy” within the audience, elderly men and women may suppress the opinion of younger men and younger women, while the latter may interact with each other on an almost equal level. Just as Sly leads his “madam wife” to his side to appreciate the play and learn apart from the Lord’s instructions how to behave towards a woman (Shr. Ind. 2.141), the

9

We are against Barber’s oversimplified account of the pastoral: “Under the apparent nonsense of his self-contradictions, Touchstone mocks the contradictory nature of the desires ideally resolved by pastoral life, to be at once at court and in the fields, to enjoy both the fat advantages of rank and the spare advantages of the mean and sure estate.” (Barber 1972, 227).

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audience is fed by the boy and adult actors’ incongruous behaviour which they may mimic and elaborate during and after the performance.10 In contrast to former approaches on Early Modern Patriarchy, claimed to follow a top-down movement, recent studies have foregrounded its multi-layered and pluralistic mode of hierarchies. As Shepard argues, in Early Modern Patriarchy “gender hierarchies […] produce a complex multidimensional map of power relations which by no means privileged all men or subordinated all women” (Shepard 2003, 2-3). Therefore, laughter arises when Adriana, Kate and Beatrice are not just bad-tempered women, but use and abuse male norms which posit an incongruity with the norms of subordination. In this light, in “Shakespeare’s ‘romantic’ comedies, women not only make their choices but also perform their own devices to enact them” (Orlin 2003, 175). Reversing norm fosters emotional involvement of the audience and creates female appreciation and male laughter, whereas the taming process makes men appreciate and women laugh at the incongruity. Thus, we may argue along with Howard that disputation fostered interaction within the audience (Howard 1994, 78). Thence, the use and abuse of norms of patriarchy is one of the springboards for Shakespeare’s actors to incite audience reaction and laughter. For instance, apart from the dramatic irony that Adriana confuses her husband with his brother, which creates laughter, she abuses the convention of strong man, the elm, and weak woman, the vine, to spur the man, where the elm and wine imagery is here functional to enslave her husband by claiming, ironically, herself a “slave” (Err. 2.2.110-46). Since “the household itself was viewed as a ‘little commonwealth’” where “ideally, husbands should govern wives” (Shepard 2003, 3), we see that this ideal is used and abused by the wife to control the husband while encapsulating him in a Patriarchal simulation. Yet, ironically enough that simulation is the main reason for the subsequent conflict between the sexes as Adriana’s self-enslavement into her private space fosters the

10

This elaboration and mimicry can be seen as an extension of the misogynistic ballad convention: “Like writers of controversy pamphlets, ballad authors often wrote on both sides of an issue, in the alternating voices of men and women. Because ballad audiences often joined in and sang along, they functioned as participants as well as consumers, invited to take an active part in the performance and the debate it could foster.” (Brown 2003, 295).

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dispute with her husband’s dallying in his public space (Err. 2.1.11; DiGangi 2003, 98).11 Likewise, the relationship between Beatrice and Benedict shows “emotions” that “involve antagonism” (Findlay 2003, 396). While Beatrice shows her temperament through her use of cacophonic words and wishes to be a man to perform what she desires, to kill the Count after Hero’s assumed death, and while Benedict uses soft syllables in the dialogue with her, she incites him to enact by positioning Benedict to a passive role in the dialogue and simulating in herself the ideals of masculine aggressive behaviour (Ado. 4.1.300-23; Crystal and Crystal 2012, Track 22). Although Beatrice is “dressed for the wedding” and “plays the damsel who must die with grieving rather than fighting for her cousin’s cause,” (Findlay 2003, 397), we may argue that Beatrice uses that convention and does not only polarise her assumed passivity with her will to act like a man but also Benedict’s reluctance to be aggressive with her own boldness. In a similar light, the relationship of Kate and Petruchio in Shr. illustrates disputation and polarisation not just in isolation but interaction. This must have had their effects on the audience reaction, as their horizon of expectations were fed not only with plays but also with misogynistic “pamphlets” and “ballads” which used “alternating voices of men and women” and thus “invited to take an active part” in such debates (Brown 2003, 295). What makes the debate in Shr. the more energetic is Petruchio’s authoritarianism, exaggerated in his address to the audience to top his tyranny (Shr. 4.1.197-8). There was no such top-down relationship of patriarchal authority as Petruchio depicted or the male audience wished for. As Shepard argues, “[w]hile there is no doubt that males were the primary beneficiaries of” Early Modern Patriarchy “women were not wholly or unilaterally subordinated by it, and men’s gains were by no means uniform” (Shepard 2003, 3). Similarly Dolan maintains that contemporary manuals, sermons and records gave importance to proportional subordination which made the relationship of husband and wife a reciprocal one with its specific levels (Dolan 1996, 4-5). Hence, the very absurdity of male tyranny along with the parodic transformation of Kate creates incongruity which might have fostered a hot debate within the audience, if we take Brown’s argument about reaction towards misogynistic ballads into consideration (Brown 2003, 295). Thereby, the depiction of gender roles and the battle of the sexes in Shakespeare’s 11

Similarly, Portia, apart from her role as a cross-dressed lawyer, shows her wit when she creates the simulation of breaking vows and illustrates her husband that he should not even dare to deceive her (MV 3.4.57-84, 5.1.89-307).

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comedies enhance audience involvement and trigger reaction and laughter, which does not arise in a top-down movement but follows a multi-layered, pluralistic mode, based on the complexity of Early Modern Patriarchy. Furthermore, comic catharsis and audience-player interaction which is achieved through that battle in the form of the violation of gender roles is also a violation of roles concerned with status when it comes to the love relationship between Viola and the Duke, Olivia and Viola, Malvolio and Olivia, and Olivia and Sebastian. Either bottom up, or top-down, we see an incongruity in the choice of partners.12 The aspect of “power relations” in Early Modern Patriarchy (Shepard 2003, 3), manifested itself, especially in status, which by means of definers such as power, property and privilege (Kastan 1993, 101) becomes rather the numerator of signification in TN. As these definers regulated “vertical” relations of respect (Perkin 1969, 49), the bottom up or top-down marriages, which result in incongruities, create comic catharsis. Lower status Viola is first approached by higher status “poor Olivia” (TN 2.2.38) and the former eventually marries to Duke Orsino as his “fancy’s queen” (TN 5.1.387), whereas Olivia marries in “haste” to lower status Sebastian (TN 4.3.22). Here, unacceptable matches are regulated through the possibility of alteration (Bednarz 2001, 188), so that “[t]he comic resolution is not achieved through fidelity, but through fluidity or flexibility, as Olivia is quite happy to take Sebastian for Viola and Orsino Cesario–Viola for Olivia” (Laroque 2003, 42).13 Although Barber reduces these social and sexual transgressions to the containment of temporary festivity (Barber 1972, 245), we cannot deny that these are also reflections of the fluid cosmopolitan audience to which the play is presented.14 Higher status is mingled with lower status, just like in the pits and boxes of the Elizabethan popular playhouse, where the audience from different social 12

If we consider male homosexuality as an orderly phenomenon in the Early Modern Period, as DiGangi maintains (DiGangi 1997, 16-7), then the use of homoerotic triangle between Olivia-Viola-Orsino seems not disorderly. Rather, the mingling of different statuses seems to create laughter. 13 That fluidity, on the other hand, is achieved especially with the twinning and cross-dressing, Cross-dressing almost like masquerading for Viola (Barber 1972, 242), which disentangles problems of union: “Viola will get the man she served in the guise of his page, and Olivia will get the real man that the disguised Viola had imitated.” (Rackin 2003, 112). 14 TN presented Middle Temple’s feast 1602 (Barber 1972, 241), in footnote 1, Barber acknowledges that TN would be played at a public theatre (Barber 1972, 240-1); if we take into consideration that the Chamberlain’s Men did not use the Blackfriars permanently until 1608 (Gurr 1987, 37), then we may speculate that TN could have been played in amphitheatres, as well.

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levels, ages, and sexes may interact with each other, either verbally, through making a pass to a person, or gesturally, through eye contact and gestures. Thus, the difference between supposed centric and excentric components of the Early Modern society is blurred through their shared experience in laughter, which surpasses class boundaries. The case of Malvolio, however, becomes very interesting because although he is within the same conditions of social fluidity, he is excluded from the play’s gamos. Most of the newly rich were the result of marrying to well-off women and, thus, had “achieve[d] greatness,’” just as Malvolio wished for (TN 2.5.145, 3.4.42). To achieve higher social rank reflected the fact that status in the Elizabethan period was determined by both rank and wealth which represented the clash between feudalism and market economy (Kastan 1993, 106). This clash of established and newly earned richness was not only a point of tension but also of laughter. Manningham’s ideas on a contemporary performance illustrates not only an external evidence on audience reaction towards Malvolio, but also summarises contemporary conventional attitudes towards the stereotype of a steward who misuses his power to seduce his mistress, the former of which is usually deceived and made a laughing stock in contemporary ballads and accounts (Gurr 1987, 108; Burnett 1997, 160-71). Therefore, Malvolio’s forced signification based on “ridiculous boldness” (TN 3.4.36) does not only show the incongruity of prudent display and lecherous reality that wants to “go to bed” (TN 3.4.30) at the earliest opportunity, but how the primary motive of becoming a household head while “a servant [steward] still” (TN 2.5.155, 3.4.54) renders that goal ridiculous. As Malcolmson maintains, the lack of love in such a transgressive relationship renders it socially unacceptable (Malcolmson 1991, 39). Hence, Malvolio’s self-absorption (Barber 1972, 243), hinders his aspiration as he “is unworthy to master Olivia as a husband;” and “becomes unworthy even to serve her as a steward” (DiGangi 2003, 108). This unworthiness is further demonstrated in his parodic dressing up/down in yellow stockings which renders him the more a fool (TN 3.4.46-52). In the many antitheatrical tracts against class transgression (Gosson 1582, E5r), dressing up and down of one’s class was criticised as it was a counterfeit of one’s self, which created also the problem that class could be transgressed or mimed at all (Kastan 1993, 106). Hence, it becomes doubly transgressive when an actor, who can mime and transgress his class, enacts Malvolio’s class-transgression, so that the about to be Master Signifier, male head of the house, is ridiculed in the process of becoming

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the centre. The very purgatorial condition of Malvolio15 as a servant about to be a household head makes it possible for both aspirants and members of the status quo, that is, the servants and the masters within the audience, to laugh at the incongruity. Moreover, laughter among the masters and the servants in the audience may be created through fools or fool-like characters that may either narrate the master-servant relationship or enact it. Yet, it should be noted that Shakespeare shows the debate but takes no definitive side in it (Holbrook 2003, 85), which enables to ask for audience reaction. For instance, Lance addressed the audience directly to judge (TGV 4.4.15-6) whether he had any fault when he was punished for his dog’s misbehaviour by his masters and mistresses (TGV 4.4.1-38) and, thus, invites, as an actor, audience interaction. When he asks the audience whether any servant was beaten by his master (TGV 4.4.28-9), a purely rhetorical question that arises laughter because of the high percentage of the practice of beating apprentices (Pearson 1957, 442; Byrne 1961, 153) and, as a quick in-joke, calls three gentleman and the duke dogs (TGV 4.4.16-22), both master and servant classes are ridiculed simultaneously during the quick pace of performance, which can be seen especially in OP (Crystal and Crystal 2012, Track 15).16 This is further exploited when Lance parodies the master-apprenticeship relationship. As Holbrook maintains him as “a master – but a kindly one” (Holbrook 2003, 86). Particularly, Lance fashions himself as a master of his apprentice-like dog whom he taught everything to be a perfect dog (TGV 4.4.5-6) and chides for its poor observation of what its master does and asks Crab, his dog, whether he did himself or taught it to piss, for instance, to lady (TGV 4.4.33-8). Not only are the servants likened to dogs which, ironically, do not obey, but also masters are shown to treat their servants as dogs, whether or not they take pity on them like Lance (TGV 4.4.1-6). Thus, laughter is created through “slapstick” for the poor and “sadistic” laughter for the rich (Holbrook 2003, 76).17 Consequently, all of the members in the audience can laugh at class transgression without being openly offended by it. Besides, although racial laughter combined with misogyny may be provoked by likening countries to the parts of an ugly woman (Err. 15 Malvolio’s purgatorial condition is shown in the scene when he is taken into a cell (TN 4.2.21-132). 16 This cannot be seen in silent reading or performance in Received Pronunciation that much. 17 As in the case of the Dromios, who have to do what they are told, “Thither I must, although against my will; / For servants must their masters’ minds fulfil” (Err. 4.1.113–4).

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3.2.106-45), 18 the casket in MV which posits the restrictions upon the female sex by the patriarchal order (MV 1.2.20-34), combines status, gender and race incongruities. This restriction as a preventive measure proves effective when a “shadowed [liveried]” Muslim (MV 2.1.2) and “blinking idiot” Catholic (MV 2.9.54) groom make false choices (MV 2.7.60-2, 2.9.50-2) and, thus, relieve the Protestant playgoers in the Elizabethan playhouse. 19 Yet, that measure becomes ineffective in the realisation of what Barber calls the “prodigal dream” in the “festive movement by which gay youth gets something for nothing” (Barber 1972, 168). From the perspective of the seemingly death-surpassing and allcontrolling patriarch that restriction is ridiculed by the outcome where Portia organises musical hints to her choice, Bassanio (MV 3.2.63-72), which creates a comic catharsis where the fathers within the audience are purged of the fear it has not happened to them. Similarly, although the speech of Shylock seems for modern audiences problematic,20 the perception of the Jewish identity in the Early Modern Period should be taken into consideration to understand why Early Modern audiences might have laughed at Shakespeare’s comedy. 21 The Early Modern English imagination conceived Jews as a “nation” whose 18

The pun on “horse” and the homophone whores, only grasped through OP in performance, combines both high and low misogyny by referring to Phaedra’s white horse (Plato 2005, sec. 254b) and to slang simultaneously (Err. 3.2.84; Crystal and Crystal 2012, Track 20). A similar pun on whore/hour can be seen in AYL 2.7.24-8; Crystal and Crystal 2012, Track 7). 19 The deportation of blacks issued twice in 1596 and one more time in 1601 to stop the blacks from becoming over-populous (Habib 2008, 112-114) and the oppressive means to diminish Catholic presence (Williams 1995, 412; Breight 1996, 4; Hadfield 2005, 34-5; Black 1959, 456) were considered as preventive measures to uphold the Protestant identity in Early Modern England. 20 This concern has been elaborated by many critics, like Wynne-Davies who states that “[t]he recent focus upon the problem of reading questions of race/racism into an early modern play by present-day readers has brought a much-needed selfawareness of our own discomfort in discussing issues of prejudice. While recognizing our own subject position, however, John Drakakis asserts that to ignore such issues leads to a ‘disseminating of [the play’s] prejudices’ and that, rather, we need ‘To acknowledge that such prejudices are the products of a determinate history whose partial and horrifying solutions cannot, and should never be allowed to, exert a permanent claim on our own historically constituted sensibilities’ (Drakakis 1998: 209). Drakakis’s essay is immersed in its own theoretical ethos – cultural materialism – and is self-aware of the economics of its own production, yet its warning to be aware of and alert to racial and religious prejudice has a wider signification.” (Wynne-Davies 2003, 365). 21 MV was defined in the First Folio as a comedy (Shakespeare 1623, A8r).

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misfortunes were generated by “their wrong-doings and spiritual blindness” (Holmberg 2011, 12). Thus, “various Jewish ‘traits’ (ingratitude, miserliness, stubbornness) were described as unchangeable— hence, Jewish conversion was seen as a superficial process, put on for show, and unable to transform an inner Jewishness that was regarded increasingly as a quality passed down through generations” (Loomba and Burton 2007, 21). As a consequence, this unchangeable, stereotypical horizon of expectations of Early Modern audiences triggered comic catharsis. Although we may acknowledge that Shylock’s speech gives insight to the injustice towards racial others, we should note that the Early Modern audience did act, just as Shylock argues of his Venetian audience represented in Antonio who “laugh’d at my losses, / mock’d at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted / my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine / enemies,–and what’s his reason? I am a Jew” (MV 3.1.49-52). For the Early Modern audience, Shylock is “a comic antagonist” (Barber 1969, 176) and as Cohen maintains, “his Jewishness offers his abusers an explanation for his diabolical nature” (Cohen 1990, 35). Hence, the Christian audience perceives the very activities of the ordinary life of the Jew, Shylock, as a comedy, and therefore laughs at him. Furthermore, the comparison and contrast of black, “jet” Shylock and white, “ivory” (MV 3.1.35), “fair Jessica” (MV 2.4.28) might have created multiple layers of comedy for the Early Modern audience. Apart from Holbrook’s detection of the equation of fairness with high social rank (Holbrook 2003, 87) as Loomba and Burton depict, the early modern equated Jewishness and blackness as unchangeable traits that could be used interchangeably for discrimination (Loomba and Burton 2007, 12, 21). Within the Christian frame of mind there was no possibility to change these traits, even if one was defined otherwise. Therefore, Jessica’s own willingness to convert (MV 2.3.20-1) seems religiously incongruous, which is proved when she still continues stereotypical Jewish dislike of “sound of shallow fopp’ry” (MV 2.5.35) in her dislike to “sweet music” towards the end of the play (MV 5.1.69). From the position of the Protestant male audience who delights in these incongruities, laughter becomes a medium to be happy that such things did happen to others but not them. Comic catharsis, thus, first arises through the ridicule of a patriarch whose daughter is taken from him 22 , second of a Jew whose

22

As Laroque puts forward, “saturnalian inversion of rank or gender roles, seems to offer the occasion or the welcome detour that allows the young to get away with transgression and abuse. When Jessica elopes from old Shylock’s house and “gilds” herself with her father’s ducats (The Merchant of Venice, 2.6.49–50), she

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daughter converts on her own, and third of the Jew’s own forced conversion later on. In conclusion, our critical survey and analyses of particular Shakespearean comedies have shown that Shakespeare is indeed funny. He is funny, that is, weird, according to the academic critics who cannot appreciate his comedies for their generic hybridity or the depiction of sexism and racism. He is also funny, that is, he creates fun as an audience reaction, because Shakespeare focuses on the performative aspect of comedy. Therefore, we may argue that if the performative aspect of Shakespeare’s comedy, along with Early Modern audience expectations, is not taken into consideration, any classification or editorial work will fail to answer whether or not Shakespeare’s comedy was funny. This consideration, should, however, follow not just a synchronic approach pinpointing issues of gender, class and race/religion separately, but interconnect these along with simulations of original performance in OP, so that we may try to understand how Shakespeare could grasp the tastes of his playgoers.23 This type of analysis should not be rendered exclusively to the analysis of Shakespeare’s plays. On the contrary, it should be applied also to non-Shakespearean comedies. Thereby, it would be possible to have a more comprehensive understanding of not only Shakespearean comedy in particular, but also of Early Modern comic plays in general. This type of analysis should, however, avoid to fall back to the vicious circle of universalism, the fixation of ideas, and appreciate the exchange and negotiations of ideas about what could have been approaches towards comedy and fun in the Early Modern Period.

evolves in a jolly atmosphere of revelry and almost innocent revolt” (Laroque 2003, 34). 23 The very recent publication of Shakespeare’s Theatres and the Effects of Performance (2013), edited by Cooper and Stern, which we could not include in our study, can be seen as among the first responses to the need to look at Early Modern Drama from multiple perspectives in a single work. We hope that this initial work will trigger further responses and enable both students and academicians to look at Early Modern Drama, no matter how fragmented that will be, from a far more complex point of view.

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—. 2002. “The Comic Actor and Shakespeare.” In The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage, edited by Stanley Wells and Sarah Stanton, 137-154. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tillyard, E. M. W. 1950/1957. Shakespeare’s Problem Plays. London: Chatto and Windus. —. 1959. The Elizabethan World Picture. New York: Vintage. Trapp, Joseph. 1742. “Lecture XIX, etc.: Of the Drama in General.” In Lectures on Poetry: Read in the Schools of Natural Philosophy at Oxford: Translated from the Latin, with Additional Notes, 237-272. London: Hitch and Davis. Umunç, Himmet. 1994. “‘This Shepherd’s Life’: The Renaissance English Pastoral.” In Hacettepe University Journal of English Language and Literature 2: 127-142. Walwyn, B. 1782. An Essay on Comedy. London: M. Hookham, Miss Davies, and J. Fielding. Wells, Stanley. 2010. Shakespeare, Sex and Love. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wheeler, Richard P. 1981. Shakespeare’s Development and the Problem Comedies: Turn and Counter-turn. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Wickham, Glynne. 1963. Early English Stages: 1300 to 1660: 1576 to 1660, Part I. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Wiles, David. 1987. Shakespeare’s Clown: Actor and Text in the Elizabethan Playhouse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Williams, Penry. 1995. The Later Tudors: England 1547-1603. Oxford: Clarendon. Wynne-Davies, Marion. 2003. “Rubbing at Whitewash: Intolerance in The Merchant of Venice In A Companion to Shakespeare’s Comedies, edited by Richard Dutton and Jean E. Howard, 358-375. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Yates, Frances Amelia. 1975/1999. Shakespeare’s Last Plays: A New Approach. London and New York: Routledge.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO THE SPIRITUAL CARNIVALESQUE IN WISDOM OYA BAYILTMIù ÖöÜTÇÜ

Wisdom (c. 1460) 1 which is also known with the titles Wisdom, Who Is Christ (Bevington 1968, 124; Happé 1999, 83) or Mind, Will and Understanding (Davenport 1982, 79; Craig 1964, 344) is a great example of morality plays, the main plot of which is constituted by the conflict between good and evil or virtues and vices. As a typical morality play, Wisdom displays the psychomachia on stage. The play begins with the conversation between Wisdom, who is the representative of Christ, and Anima, who is the representative of Human Soul. The allegorical representation goes on with the introduction of Mind, Will and Understanding as the Three Faculties of man, which is, in accordance with the idea of Trinity, are associated with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Host. Likewise, these faculties are the representations of Faith, Hope and Charity. Yet, these significations are to be turned upside down through a carnivalesque transformation created by Lucifer and Three Faculties will turn into the enemies of man as World, Flesh and Devil, and become the representatives of worshipping, lechery and glory. This carnivalesque metamorphosis, reflecting the conflict between God and Devil as reflected through the conflict between Wisdom and Lucifer, creates a disorder within the Soul of Man, which can be defined as a spiritual carnival and will just be restored to its orderly status by Wisdom/Christ, who is the true master of the Soul. Thus, the aim of this paper is to present Lucifer as the quasi ‘Master Mischief’ of this spiritual carnival and to discuss the carnivalesque depictions of the temptation and fall claiming that Wisdom achieves its didactic aim displaying the temptation as a spiritual carnival.

1

Wisdom will be abbreviated as (W.) and all the references to the play will be to the line numbers.

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Bakhtin defines carnival as a “festive life” (Bakhtin 1984, 8) that “belongs to the borderline between art and life” and that “is life itself, but shaped according to a certain pattern of play” (Bakhtin 1984, 7). According to this definition, carnival implies an experience which comes from life in the form of play. Thus, it is both real and unreal at the same time. Contrary to the generally dark and serious depictions of medieval culture, in relation to the idea of carnival in medieval times, Bakhtin acknowledges that, “[a] boundless world of humorous forms and manifestations opposed the official and serious tone of medieval ecclesiastical […] culture” (Bakhtin 1984, 4). In line with this argument, Bakhtin claimed that “[…] morality plays acquired to a certain extent a carnivalesque nature” into which “[l]aughter penetrated” (Bakhtin 1984, 15) since laughter was already existent in morality plays, the main aim of which was to educate people in moral ideals. The idea of conveying moral messages was always at the centre of these plays since they were forms of “didactic drama” (Brockett 1991, 111). With this aim on the foreground, Wisdom presented fall into sin and restoration through allegory employing all the forms of carnivalesque presentations defined by Bakhtin. Bakhtin lists three forms of carnivalesque presentations. These are, firstly, “[r]itual spectacles” such as “carnival pageants”; secondly, “[c]omic verbal compositions” such as “parodies both oral and written, in Latin and in the vernacular”; and lastly, “[v]arious genres of billingsgate” such as “curses, oaths, popular blazons” (Bakhtin 1984, 5). In order to exhibit the spiritual carnival in the soul of man, Wisdom employs all these three modes by means of allegory and visual imagery as will be exemplified later on. Accordingly, the carnival would take place in the Soul of Man, during which the Soul will experience Fall and Repentance. Thus, it would be proper to define such kind of a carnival as a spiritual carnival. In this spiritual carnival, allegory as a signifier performs “a representational or symbolic function” in that it displays the experience of the central figure as an example and so “the key to both plot and character is not realism, probability or verisimilitude but the relationship to something which lies behind the external phenomena” (Happé 1999, 80). The aim is not to create realism in the traditional sense of creating life-like characters but to refer to an abstraction or symbol. However, this does not mean that the existence of allegory leads to unrealistic depictions. On the contrary, the representations of the allegorical figures on stage, such as Lucifer or Seven Deadly Sins “take on an additional level of reality” since “they are acted by human actors who make them respond in very human ways” and so embodying iconography, which has great symbolism, it

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makes the spectators have “the appearance of realistic figures and realistic scenes” (Davidson 1989, 7) in a disguise of symbolism through which “life could be all the more keenly analysed on a concrete rather than an abstract level” (Davidson 1989, 8), which would appeal to the understanding of physical and spiritual world for the medieval mind. Thus, reality is achieved through concretisation and iconography, which helps turn the spiritual and the abstract in the mind of man into the physical and the visible. Hence, it is clear that allegory is also functional for the didactic aim of the morality plays by “collapsing the eternal with the contemporary” to refer to an abstraction or symbol (King 2008, 235). As a result, while the religious treatises are believed to be written mainly for the rich reading laity, the target of such visual representation is the illiterate people as well as the literate (Davidson 1989, 87). Accordingly, allegory in Wisdom is functional to visualize the carnival within the Soul itself displaying the spiritual transformation that the Soul experiences through allegorical figures. Thus, it can be claimed that Wisdom “is not concerned with creating ‘life-like’ effects through its allegorical figures; if it has any quality of realism, it is simply the realism of a traditional psychology of the human faculties” (Davenport 1982, 82), or in other words, it is the realism of “a sacramental psychology” (Hardison 1965, 289). In accordance with the motive of morality plays, this carnivalesque spiritual transformation displays the fact that the morality plays lead the audience to the “experience of liminality that temporarily separated them from their ordinary lives” (Davidson 1989, 88), which also makes it easy to follow the spiritual carnival on stage. In line with these arguments about spiritual carnival in Wisdom, the plot can be divided into four phases: firstly “the soul in innocence [ll. 1324], secondly temptation and fall (ll. 325-551), thirdly life in sin (ll. 552876), and fourthly repentance (ll. 877-1168)” (Bevington 1968, 125), which can be resembled to the phases of transformation in this spiritual carnival. The first phase, that is soul in innocence, begins with the conversation between Wisdom and Anima about their marriage, which symbolizes the devotion of Soul to Christ and their spiritual unity. Wisdom and Anima are presented as the “figures of majesty and splendour” in opening scene and they symbolize “the purity of the love between God and the soul” (Davenport 1982, 79). Likewise, the depiction of Wisdom in the beginning is in accordance with the idea that he represents Christ since His garb has royal connotations with its rich purple cloth, His golden beard and His imperial crown with precious stones and pearl. He is holding a golden ball which has a cross on it in His left hand and a regal sceptre in his right hand. In this respect, the marriage metaphor

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is used to depict the expected unity of Christ and Human Soul in that the allegory of Bride and Bridegroom was used for the unification of Christ and Church referring to divine love. After the introduction of Wisdom and Anima, Wisdom talks about the dual nature of Anima, due to which Anima would be the centre of spiritual carnival. At this point, Anima’s dual nature is explained by Wisdom, who acts like “a kind of professor of moral philosophy, to whose lecture she [Anima] promises to pay careful attention” (Hill 1975, 123). While explaining the parts of soul as sensible and rational, Wisdom argues that the sensible part has the potential to fall into sin, as in the case of Adam, since it is the representative of “flechly felynge” under the influence of five senses (W. 136), which is reflected through Anima’s black coat. However, rational soul, or reason, is the embodiment of the image of God, which is reflected through Anima’s white dress. Because of this dual nature, the struggle between good and evil to have the control over soul, which, goes back to Prudentius’s Psychomachia, is indispensable. In this respect, Wisdom is an interesting play in that the Three Faculties who are to experience a spiritual transformation “are not the allegorical figures who represent a vice or virtue but they are the parts of Soul/Anima who embody the vices and virtues” (King 2008, 236). Thus, Anima is presented as embodying both the evil and the good, both the “foull and fayer” (W. 151). Following Wisdom’s speech on the dual nature of Anima, the Three Faculties come to stage as the parts of Anima. They introduce themselves and their depictions present them as the embodiments of the monastic ideals (Happé 1999, 83). Mind defines himself as “[t]he veray fygure of the Deyté” (W. 184), signifying God the Father, Will defines himself as “[o]f the Godhede lyknes and a fygure” (W. 214), signifying God the Son, and Understanding defines himself as beholding “wat Gode ys / In hymselff, begynnyng wythout begynnynge, / Ande ende wythout ende, that shall never mys” (W. 246-248), signifying God the Holy Ghost. Thus, they represent faith, hope and charity. In other words, the depictions of Mind, Will and Understanding exhibit the psychological reality of the Soul of Man since it comes from God and created in the image and likeness of God, as Wisdom explains (W. 103-104). Furthermore, the harmony within the Soul is reflected through the conversation among Mind, Will and Understanding during their entrance (W. 179-80), which can be resembled to “the vivacity of a music-hall trio” (Hill 1975, 125). They display the fact that there is harmony, order and peace within Anima. After the Three Faculties, Anima’s Five Wits, representing her five senses also come to stage as “non-speaking masque elements of the play”

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(King 2008, 251), which again draw attention to the sensuality of Anima. They come singing a part from Bible, which symbolizes their purity and closeness to God/Christ/Wisdom. At this point, W. A. Davenport emphasizes the symmetrical pattern in the depiction of characters and argues that […] the scene works through patterning. This is found in the symmetry of the figures and speeches and the sense that figures constantly being presented as part of numerical groups, as if to form a series of interlocking mathematical designs. Wisdom is part of the Trinity, is simultaneously God and man; the Soul has a dual nature of black and white, and has three powers; the sensible part of the soul in turn has its five senses. So the classification multiply and interlock by means of the reminders that man and his various faculties are all images of God and aspects of the soul. The patterning in the figures is reflected in the composition of the scene, in the use of speeches of similar length for Mind, Understanding and Will, in patterned rhetoric, in the rhyme-patterning in the stanzas. The stylised effect of such features is supported by literary diction, academic word-play and Latin lines. The imagination also responds to the quality of formal debate and exposition which begins to characterise the play as a drama of ideas; one recognises that the poet’s main aim is to express religious ideas in a tone which is heightened, sophisticated and literary. (Davenport 1982, 83-84)

Such kind of symmetrical pattern is also functional to depict the harmony among the parts of Soul. There is order and all three parts act according the expected norms, as observed in the opening speech of Mind, Will and Understanding, during which they all speak for the same length of time (W. 179-181). Moreover, their symbolic attire refers to their present condition, they are pure for now and so clothed in white. However, during the second phase of the plot, that is temptation and fall, this orderly status will be suspended under the influence of Lucifer, the quasi Master Mischief, whose aim is to present the fragility of human nature and to display the potential to sin. Imitating Wisdom, Lucifer also refers to the Three Faculties of Soul (W. 357-372) and claims that he can tempt Soul thanks to free will (W. 363-364) due to “the flesche of man that ys so changeable” (W. 360). Thus, Lucifer, using and abusing Scripture, subverts Biblical arguments, and accuses the Three Faculties of idleness (W. 393-397) and, in order to influence and tempt the Three Faculties, Lucifer says, “All thynge hat dew tymes — / Prayer, fastynge, labour — all thes; / Wan tyme ys not kept, that dede is amys. / The more pleynerly to your informacyon” (W. 401-404). All these become the examples of comic verbal compositions and billingsgate in Bakhtinian sense. By

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imitating and abusing Wisdom’s language, Lucifer presents himself as a distorted image of Wisdom, which becomes the source of laughter since the audience is aware of the fact that he is Lucifer, not Wisdom. In the following lines, he refers to Martha story in order to use and abuse this story. Martha is the sister of Mary and Lazarus, and represents the active life, and Mary represents the contemplative life (Mary Magdalene) (W. 414-417). Lucifer supports mixed life, vita mixta (W. 428) and claims that “Mertha plesyde Gode grettly thore” (W. 413) and tries to convince Mind, who will turn into the embodiment of the total subversion of monastic ideals. During the process of temptation, Lucifer also speaks to the audience and the interactions of Lucifer with audience goes on (W. 488, 433-40, 490, 518) drawing the attention of the spectators to the fact that they can also repeat the fall into sin like Mind, Will and Understanding. Through his use of abusive language, Lucifer tempts Mind, Will and Understanding “quoting directly from contemporary spiritual treatises” (King 2008, 247) such as Walter Hilton’s The Scale of Perfection and Epistle on the Mixed Life, the anonymous Seven Poyntes of Trewe Love and Everlastynge Wisdom and Henry Suso’s Horologium Sapientiae (Sargent 2005, 83-86), which makes Wisdom a “learned moral interlude” (Johnston 2008, 16). Thus, Lucifer proves that, due to its dual nature, “the soul can easily become like an unweeded garden” (Davidson 1989, 94) and the Three Faculties are thus easily tempted by Lucifer’s abusive language. As a result, the third phase, that is sinful life, begins and this is also the start of spiritual carnival on stage. At this point, the temptation by Lucifer displays “the denaturing of humankind’s soul as the image of God” (Beckwith 2009, 90) since the Three Faculties become the opposites of their virtuous nature in the beginning and they turn to sin. Language again creates comedy in that the Three Faculties, leaving Wisdom’s way, begin to imitate Lucifer’s style. Furthermore, increasing the carnivalesque effect, Mind claims that Lucifer has reason, “Truly, me seme ye have reson” (W. 445) and “Your resons be grete!” (W. 448). Thus, Lucifer assumes the role of Wisdom during the spiritual carnival as the quasi Master-Mischief and Mind yields to his reason. Ironically enough, Lucifer argues that this will be Mind’s “salvacyon” (W. 450). Lucifer now turns to tempt Understanding and then advices Will Maintenance, Pejury and Lechery, or in other words gluttony, richness and lust. Will also believes that he had “resons” (W. 480) and he is tempted. Following temptation, Mind turns to “worschyppys” (W. 512), Understanding to “worschyppys and glory” (W. 513) and Will to “lustys of lechery” (W. 514). Actually, the main aim

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during this carnivalesque transformation is to display the fact that man is “subject to time and change” (Saint Augustine 1963, 513). This change is the centre of disorder in the soul, which can be defined as a spiritual carnival in Wisdom. During the spiritual carnival, every signification in the allegory turns upside down, and God’s dwelling place, that is Soul, becomes the dwelling place of Devil. Mind, Will and Understanding return in a new costume (W. 550-561) implying their change and Mind says “Farwell, perfeccyon!” (W. 552), Understanding says “Farewell, consyens” (W. 562) and Will says, “Farwell, chastité!” (W. 567). Mind prefers “Kynde, fortune, and grace.” (W. 576). Understanding prefers “ryches” (W. 581). Will prefers “love” (W. 591). Mind is in search of “avaunte” (W. 596), Understanding is in search of “covetouse” (W. 600) and “govell and symony” (W. 601) and calls it “wysdom” (W. 603), Will is in search of “lechory” and considers it “no schame” (W. 607). Mind turns to “Curyous array” (W. 608), Understanding turns to “falsness” (W. 609), and Will turns to “lust” (W. 610) and says “No man dyspyes thes — they be but game!” (W. 611). They began singing (W. 612) and Mind becomes the representatives of Pride and Force, Understanding becomes the representatives of Avarice and Deceit, and Will becomes the representatives of Lust and Prodigality. It is clear that the temptation by Lucifer creates a spiritual carnival and destroys the order and harmony among the Three Faculties. Lucifer comes to foreground as a quasi-Master-Mischief of this spiritual carnival that he organises as a comic element. Actually, in morality plays, “[t]here was often a principal comic character” (A Dictionary of Medieval Terms and Phrases 2004, 207). In Wisdom the principal comedian is Lucifer since he becomes the “the prince of disorder” (King 2008, 251), or in Bakhtinian sense, a quasi-Master Mischief. His language is the basic element that leads to comedy in the spiritual carnival, which works not only through parody of Biblical language but also through “self-condemnation”, which is also functional in preaching salvation by the mouth of Lucifer himself (Pineas 1962, 161). Thus, Language creates both comedy and homiletic mission, displaying a carnival within itself. During the spiritual carnival, the Three Faculties become the representatives of the three enemies of man in that Mind becomes the representation of World, Will of Flesh and Understanding of Devil. Thus, they become the embodiments of “the very opposites of their godlike natures” (Bevington 1968, 125) and, through “distortions of identity”, Lucifer offers them “an alternative way of life” (King 2008- 249). In Bakhtin’s words, this is the “second life” for them (Bakhtin 1984, 8, 11),

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which is also reflected through the mock symmetry in style. As Pamela King argues, through “the controlled choice of lexis, syntax and register, as well as […] manipulation of stanza structure”, the style also exhibits “[t]he transformational nature of fall and redemption” since “fall into sin [following temptation] is characterised by fragmented lines, blasphemy and nonsense; virtue [before temptation], on the other hand, is characterised by high-style, latinate structures, characters more usually talking in complete stanzas” (King 2008, 237, 238) as is displaying the conflict between God and Devil through Wisdom and Lucifer. As W. A. Davenport argues, this part is believed to be the “most lively and inventive” part and this effect is created not through action but “the satirical specification of worldly sin is presented formally, with the speeches in a symmetrical pattern”, which can be defined as a mock pattern imitating the harmonious pattern before temptation (Davenport 1982, 87). This pattern will also be clearly reflected by the dance of three groups, that is the transformed Three Faculties and six their followers, each of which becomes the embodiment of seven deadly sins reflecting “the subclasses within sin” (Davenport 1982, 88). Thus, they display “a graphic representation of the corrupt soul, disfigured and foully dressed” in a ceremonious and festive dance, as in carnivals (Grantley 2007, 476). Masked six small devils come out from Mind’s livery symbolizing the dissipating sins. In Bakhtinian terms, the dance scene seems to be like “carnival pageants” with “[r]itual spectacles” (Bakhtin 1984, 5). As W. A Davenport argues, “[i]n Wisdom there are three elements which connect the play with the forms of pageantry and court entertainment from which the later masque grew: first, the use of elaborate costume; secondly, the use of non-speaking actors in allegorical tableaux and dances; and, thirdly, the use of the characters, speaking and non-speaking, in processions, stage patterns and other symbolic stage effects” (Davenport 1982, 101). Their dancing exhibits the fact that the “unruly dancing” has replaced the harmony and order before temptation (Davidson 1989, 95). In this respect, these “non-speaking” dancers are the representatives of the “dimensions of the psyche of the protagonist” (King 2008, 247). Furthermore, symbolising their fall into sin, each dancing group make use of a proper musical instrument to signify their sins: the first group dances accompanied by a trumpet which is “the instrument of pride” and the second group dances accompanied by a bagpipe which is the symbol of “popular dancing” with sexual connotations (Davidson 1989, 102). With these dancers and music, Wisdom exhibits a sort of “carnival pageant”, a sort of ritualistic spectacle, which is one of the important modes of the carnivalesque events in Bakhtinian sense (Bakhtin 1984, 5).

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During this spiritual carnival, Anima is “the centre of the spiritual conflict” and “[...] players move from one side of Psychomachia to the other, the play shifts scenically from serious and didactic instruction to an essentially comic and satiric portrayal of evil” displaying the “symmetrical pairing of opposites in the spiritual struggle” (Bevington 1968, 127). This shift symbolizes what Bakhtin defines as “temporary liberation from the prevailing truth and from the established order” in carnivals which “marked the suspension of all hierarchical rank, privileges, norms, and prohibitions” (Bakhtin 1984, 10). Accordingly, Wisdom provides the audience with a carnival during which s/he can experience freedom from all the obligations or limitations of the existing orders. Actually, Bakhtin claims that, “the official feasts of the Middle Ages, whether ecclesiastical, feudal, or sponsored by the state, did not lead the people out of the existing world order and created no second life” but “they sanctioned the existing pattern of things and reinforced it” (Bakhtin 1984, 9). However, it should be noted that Wisdom as a morality play uses and abuses the idea of second life in carnivals in that the aim of medieval carnivalesque situations as in the case of morality plays, is to convey a moral message with a ‘second life’ on stage. The aim is to convey the message that people should see and thus experience the second life without falling into sin. Thus, people could experience the fact that “[l]aughter penetrates the highest forms of religious cult and thought” (Bakhtin 1984, 13) through parody and carnivalesque transformations of spiritual signifiers and signifieds. In this respect, Wisdom can be defined as “a curious metatheatrical composite, in which the entire masque element is transposed as the play’s antimasque, to be assimilated as order is confirmed” (King 2008, 252). In other words, as in carnivals, the disorder is a controlled, if not planned, condition. The disorder created by Lucifer is to be restored by Wisdom/Christ, which confirms or re-affirms His own rule. The confirmation of the order starts the last phase, that is repentance and salvation, during which Anima will be restored to the orderly status at the end of which the marriage between Anima and Wisdom will be possible. While the Three Faculties are living in sin, Wisdom enters and confronts Mind, Will and Understanding as the true master of Soul and He leads them to repentance by returning them to their conscience (W. 892901). At this point, Anima enters “in the most horrybull wyse [manner], foulere than a fende” which represents the fall of Soul. Mind is afraid of Anima’s outlook, which seems to him “fouler than ony fend” (W. 903). In this scene, Anima displays the grotesque transformation that her body has experienced due to sin. Bakhtin argues that “[t]he essential principle of

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grotesque realism is degradation, that is, lowering of all that is high, spiritual, ideal, abstract; it is a transfer to the material level, to the sphere of earth and body in their indissoluble unity” (Bakhtin 1984, 19-20). In this respect, Wisdom displays “a vivid central image, that of the soul corrupted and made foul and ugly by the sins of the body” which becomes the embodiment of a “grotesque figure” (Davenport 1982, 92). The grotesque body has a great influence on spectators since, as Bakhtin indicates, “[o]ne of the fundamental tendencies of the grotesque image of the body is to show two bodies in one: the one giving birth and dying, the other conceived, generated, and born. This is the pregnant and begetting body, or at least a body ready for conception and fertilization, the stress being laid on the phallus or the genital organs. From one body a new body emerges in some form or other” (Bakhtin 1984, 26). In this respect, the visual representation is really important in that Anima is now the reflection of sin and in the likeness of Lucifer unlike her Godliness in the beginning. In relation to the impact of visual representation, Rainer Pineas indicates that “if a picture is worth a thousand words, the visual impact of the homiletic play must have been worth many sermons” (Pineas 1962, 157-158). The expected outcome is that when the audience sees the grotesque body of Anima, s/he is to realize the end of falling into sin and thus avoid sinning. Hence, although the morality plays were claimed to be “either entirely or overwhelmingly with straightforward moral exhortation” (Grantley 2007, 473), the message is given in Wisdom not only through sermonic dialogues but through the depiction of spiritual carnival on stage as an example. This is also in accordance with the fact that the presentation of grotesque image is functional in that as Bakhtin argues, “[t]o degrade an object does not imply merely hurling it into the void of nonexistence, into absolute destruction, but to hurl it down to the reproductive lower stratum, the zone in which conception and a new birth take place” (Bakhtin 1984, 21). As Bakhtin puts it, “[i]t is pregnant death, a death that gives birth” (Bakhtin 1984, 25). It is for this reason that only after seeing the grotesque Anima, the Three Faculties begin to realize their “lyff wyche that ys most synfull” (W. 929). Following this recognition, Anima wants mercy crying (W. 948-955) to restore order within her soul and “[w]hen she weeps, she begins to awaken from her spiritual slumber, and out from under her mantle come the boys impersonating the demons who are the Seven Deadly Sins” (Davidson 1989, 106) reflecting her restoration to God’s image and likeness (Davidson 1989, 109). As a result, Wisdom conveys the moral message that the true master is Wisdom/Christ and the order is restored by Him (W. 1070-1073). Thus, it also achieves a sermonic end

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leading the audience to repentance and a virtuous life (Briscoe 1989, 162). Likewise, language contributing to the idea of restoration that will mark the end of spiritual carnival, again turns to Latin without parody, and we see Anima speaking in Latin as a symbol of order and restoration (W. 1082). Hence, Wisdom displays its moral message for the spectators to follow Christ by creating catharsis through displaying the spiritual carnival on stage since as Bakhtin indicates, “[i]n fact, carnival does not know footlights, in the sense that it does not acknowledge any distinction between actors and spectators” and thus “[c]arnival is not a spectacle seen by the people; they live in it, and everyone participates because its very idea embraces all the people” (Bakhtin 1984, 7). Thus, the spiritual carnival in Wisdom is to be experienced by all the spectators and will achieve didacticism. To conclude, Wisdom, as a “devotional and doctrinal” play (Wilson 1969, 5), displays a spiritual carnival in which life is presented “in its twofold contradictory process it is the epitome of incompleteness” (Bakhtin 1984, 26), which will be completed by the spiritual carnival in Wisdom in that the spectators will see and thus experience a concrete representation of Fall and Restoration and thus turn to Wisdom/Christ without themselves falling into sin. Accordingly, Wisdom achieves didacticism through a carnivalesque transformation of Human Soul creating a second spiritual life for the spectators and guiding them in moral ideals through this carnivalesque transformation within the Soul.

Works Cited Primary Sources Two Moral Interludes: The Pride of Life and Wisdom. 2009. Ed. David N. Klausner. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications.

Secondary Sources Bakhtin, Mikhail. 1984. Rabelais and His World. Translated by Helene Iswolsky. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. Beckwith, Sarah. 2009. “Drama.” In The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Literature 1100-1500, edited by Larry Scanlon, 8394. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bevington, David M. 1968. From Mankind to Marlowe: Growth of Structure in the Popular Drama of Tudor England. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

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Briscoe, Marianne G. 1989. “Preaching and Medieval English Drama.” In Contexts for Early English Drama, edited by Marianne G. Briscoe and John C. Coldewey, 150-172. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. Brockett, Oscar G. 1991. History of the Theatre. Boston and London: Allyn and Bacon. Craig, Hardin. 1964. English Religious Drama of the Middle Ages. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Davenport, W. A. 1982. Fifteenth-century English Drama: The Early Moral Plays and their Literary Relations. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer; Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Littlefield. Davidson, Clifford. 1989. Visualizing the Moral Life: Medieval Iconography and the Macro Plays. New York: AMS Press. A Dictionary of Medieval Terms and Phrases. 2004 ed. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer. s.v. “Morality Play.” Grantley, Darryll. 2007. “Morality and Interlude Drama.” In A Companion to Medieval English Literature and Culture, c. 1350-1500, edited by Peter Brown, 473-487. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Happé, Peter. 1999. English Drama Before Shakespeare. London and New York: Longman. Hardison, O. B. 1965. Christian Rite and Christian Drama in the Middle Ages: Essays in the Origin and Early History of Modern Drama. Baltimore, Maryland: The John Hopkins Press. Hill, Eugene D. 1975. “The Trinitarian Allegory of the Moral Play of ‘Wisdom’.” Modern Philology 73.2: 121-135. Johnston, Alexandra F. 2008. “An Introduction to Medieval English Theatre.” In Medieval English Theatre, edited by Richard Beadle and Alan J. Fletcher, 1-25. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. King, Pamela. 2008. “Morality Plays.” In Medieval English Theatre, edited by Richard Beadle and Alan J. Fletcher, 235-262. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pineas, Rainer. 1962. “The English Morality Play as a Weapon of Religious Controversy.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 2.2: 157-180. Sargent, Michael G. 2005. “Mystical Writings and Dramatic Texts in Late Medieval England.” Religion & Literature 37.2: 77-98. Saint Augustine of Hippo. 1963. The Trinity (The Fathers of the Church). Translated by Stephen McKenna. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press. Wilson, F. P. 1969. The English Drama, 1485-1585. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE MAKING UP STORIES IN THE SECOND MILLENNIUM: THE RAW SHARK TEXTS, A MULTIMODAL NARRATøVE HODA KHALLAF

I Questions have often been raised around the status of the novel. Recently, as the rise of each new literary movement affected changes to the form, the question became whether the novel, as a genre, would be able to survive amid the competing, overwhelming advances in other forms of human expression, particularly the media and cyber worlds. Indeed, in her book, The Anxiety of Obsolescence (2006), Kathleen Fitzpatrick notes that "anxiety about the novel's role in an increasingly technological world [has] flourished throughout the century"1. Attempts to face this challenge gave rise to what Wolfgang Hallet terms "The Multimodal Novel", a genre that "denotes a type of novel that seems to have emerged visibly over the last twenty years and that is substantially different from the traditional novel which relies totally on the written word in printed form. While still relying to a considerable extent on the traditional language of the novel, multimodal novels incorporate a whole range of non-verbal symbolic representations and non-narrative semiotic modes."2

1

Kathleen Fitzpatrick, The Anxiety of Obsolescence: The American Novel in the Age of Television, Comment Press. www.anxietyofobsoloscence.com/chapter-1/ chapter-1-novel (accessed September 22, 2012) 2 Wolfgang Hallet, "The Multimodal Novel. The Integration of Modes and Media in Novelistic Narration", in Narratologia: Narrative in the Age of Cross-

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Such modes include photographs, graphics, diagrams, sketches or hand-written notes and even "discipline-specific symbolic languages like mathematical formulae or algorithms" 3 . All sorts of non-narrative representations would then be integrated as parts of the novel that help construct the narrative world and contribute to narrative meaning. So the multimodal novel would be composed mainly of verbal narrative discourse mixed with non-verbal symbolic representations and non-narrative semiotic modes that are directly connected to the experiences of the characters or narrators within the storyworld. That is why most frequently, Hallet points out, the characters in multimodal novels would be "occupied (if not obsessed) with documentation"4, with collecting all sorts of clues and documents that are not clearly explained in the narration and the plot becomes the story of collecting and deciphering those clues in an attempt by the protagonist to build up a comprehensible storyworld. Thus each non-verbal representation or mode is "contextualized" within the narrative, providing setting, theme, and plot junctures, or even clues to the personality traits of the characters involved.

II In 2007, Steven Hall published his first novel, The Raw Shark Texts, the story, basically, of amnesiac Eric Sanderson who discovers that his memory is being eaten by the Ludovician shark, a conceptual fish that feeds on human thought. While vacationing on a Greek island, Cleo Amis, Eric Sanderson's girlfriend, drowns. Shortly after this, while working with the Un-Space Exploration Committee, Eric releases the Ludovician shark thinking it would "undo" his girlfriend's death. Instead, it eats up his memory entirely and Eric wakes up one day as the Second Eric Sanderson. The First Eric Sanderson, while gradually losing his memory, wrote notes and letters and left parts of a coded text called "The Light Bulb Fragments" in which he recorded the events that led to his current state. The early notes of the First Eric Sanderson lead the Second Eric Sanderson to Dr. Randle, a psychiatrist, who diagnoses him as suffering from a dissociative amnesia.

Disciplinary Narrative Research, ed. Sandra Heinen and Roy Sommer (Berlin: Walter de Gruyer, 2009), 129. 3 Ibid, 131. 4 Ibid, 136.

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When the Second Eric Sanderson is attacked by the Ludovician shark, as advised by the letters of the First Eric Sanderson, he sets out to find Dr. Trey Fidorous, "the doctor of language", and a member of the Un-Space Exploration Committee, in search for answers. As Eric travels, he is contacted by a Mr. Nobody who turns out to be a member of a large, internet-based intelligence called Mycroft Ward that enlarges itself by planting objects in human brains. Mr. Nobody attempts to subdue Eric with a small conceptual fish, but both are attacked by the Ludovician. While Mr. Nobody is devoured, Eric escapes with the help of Scout, another member of Un-Space. Eric and Scout find Dr. Fidorous, and they all put together a conceptual hunting boat, the Orpheus, to hunt the Ludovician. After scenes of struggle reminiscent of Jaws, Mr. Nobody's laptop, connected to the Mycroft Ward database, is thrown into the gaping mouth of the Ludovician, destroying both. Trey Fidorous is accidentally killed and the Orpheus sinks. Eric shockingly discovers that the Greek island photo he had has become an interactive photo of the Second Eric Sanderson's house-- giving him the possibility to return there—and that an island similar to the Greek one is just a short swim away. He chooses not to go back, and then he, Scout, and Ian the cat swim to the island's shore. The novel ends with two displayed items: a newspaper clip saying Eric's body was found; and a postcard from Greece addressed to Dr. Randle, by Eric, saying that he is happy but will not be coming back. Reviewers of The Raw Shark Texts cast it as an adventure story [The Guardian], a pastiche on film, the diary of a madman, or simply, a thriller for the online generation [The Australian]. To me, the novel is a multimodal metafictional parody addressing the limitations and possibilities of narrative capacities for making up storyworlds. Hence, this paper will attempt a three-dimensional narratological analysis of The Raw Shark Texts: At one level, inspecting the text’s traditional and untraditional narrative techniques. At another level, examining the impact of “borrowed” narrative aspects. And finally, exploring the ways a Dissociative Amnesia diagnosis informs the narrative structure.

III As a multimodal novel, the 278 pages of The Raw Shark Texts include allusions [and sometimes literal referencing] to various films such as The Matrix, Memento, and Jaws; as well as to fish biology, to psychology, and to computer programming and systems. Moreover, the text is littered with story [other] fragments, myths, and typographical images; the latter being

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as extreme as occupying almost 50 pages with a flick-book of a “lettered” shark advancing dangerously too close. By definition, as Torben Schmidt points out, film noir has dark, bleak settings; is dominated by a mood of alienation and delusion; and features a male protagonist often accompanied by a femme fatale5. Indeed, Eric Sanderson, for the most part of the story, is seen within such gloomy settings: dark rooms, underground, deserted, alleys, and a bleak, dreary hotel in a stormy weather. His character profile fits that of the film noir protagonist; that is, a "loner hidden in metropolitan architecture who makes his daily way through desolate redlight districts and other filthy and ghetto-like areas of his environment looking for possible hints for his work" 6 —though, unlike such a protagonist, Eric eventually succeeds in his endeavour, as well as in finding a loving woman: the seductive yet aggressive femme fatale, Scout. Moreover, Schmidt, in analysing Memento, points to the use of a "sub-plot or parallel tale" 7 —a pattern repeated in The Raw Shark Texts through "The Light Bulb Fragments". Another non-verbal medium that The Raw Shark Texts borrows from is Cyberworld. Apart from the fact that Eric's enemy is a conceptual fish devised by an internet-based, autonomous, database called "Mycroft Ward"; a significantly considerable portion of the text deals with the Second Eric Sanderson's attempts at decoding what the First Eric Sanderson has coded [that is, "The Light Bulb Fragments"], using a QWERTY Keyboard (RST, p.58):

5

Torben Schmidt, "Christopher Nolan's Memento ֙ Analysis of the narrative structure of a noirish revenge film," christophernolan.net www.christophernolan.net/files/narrativeMementoSchmidt.pdf (accessed November 16, 2012) 6 Ibid, 4. 7 Ibid, 15.

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But Ericc's enemy is not n all digits: "lettered" typpography acco ompanied by biological diction givve description ns of the Luudovician and d its subspecies, the Luxophage. In I a chapter partly p titled "T The Crypto-Zo oology of Purely Concceptual Sharkks" (RST, Ch. 7), the First E Eric Sanderso on, in one of his letterss to his 'secondd' self, explain ns the Ludovi cian thus: "The Luddovician is a prredator, a shark k. It feeds on hhuman memories and the intrinsic sense of sellf. Ludovicianss are solitary, fi fiercely territoriial and L might select an inddividual human n being methodical hunters. A Ludovician as its preyy animal and puursue and feed on that individuual over the cou urse of years, unntil that victim m's memory an nd identity haave been comp pletely consumedd. Sometimes, the target's bod dy survives thiis ordeal and may m go on to livee a second twillight life after the t original selff and memories have been takeen. In time, suchh a person may establish a 'bollt-on' identity of o their own, but the Ludoviciann will eventuallly catch the sceent of this and return to compleete its kill." (RSST, pp.48-49)

And lateer, the Luxopphage is deffined by Mr. Nobody as an "idea lamprey", a "particular species [that]] feeds by fi finding its waay inside

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human beinggs and suckinng on their abiility to think qquickly, to reaact" (RST, p. 107):

Another major spheree of cross-refeerencing in Th The Raw Sharkk Texts is that of anciient Greek cuulture, history y, and mythollogy: Eric on nce has a recollection of his grandffather, "tall an nd Roman-nossed" (p.61); th he setting of "The Ligght Bulb Fraggments" is th he Greek islaand, Naxos, where w the descriptive narrative oftten drifts to either historrical accountts of the landscape orr explanationss of its modern n cultural actiivities; the pro otagonists name their conceptual revenge vesseel the Orpheuus after the legendary l ancient Greeek poet and musician m know wn for his pow wer to charm all living and non-liviing things wiith his music, and for his aattempt to rettrieve his wife back ffrom death 8 ; and near the end of the nnovel, the pro otagonists swim towardds a Naxos-likke island. Of all thhe non-narrattive modes th hat The Raw Shark Texts borrows from, psychhology stands out. Reviewers have noteed that the bo ook's title rings bells w with the "Rorsschach Test" or o "ink-blot" ppsychological test. Hall himself adm mitted the connnection: "I love thhe idea that the book b is essentiaally just black iink on white, ju ust like the ink-bblot test, and thhat everything you see is prretty much whaat you

8

Wikipedia, ss.v. "Orpheus" http://en.wikipeedia.org/wiki/O Orpheus

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project onto it. I like the idea of that being one of the central themes of the book--that half of what you see is coming from you."9

The turning events of the plot are connected, as will be shortly explained, to Eric Sanderson's Dissociative Amnesia, its symptoms, and its diagnosis. The question poses itself, then: How do all these sporadic borrowings and references connect? Do they contribute to an over-all meaning? In other words, could it be said that The Raw Shark Texts possesses a plausibly unified narrative structure? To me, the answer seems to be that the book does not offer a single, structurally unified narrative. Instead, its sporadic, diverse narrative representations are, metafictionally, weapons in a narratological battle. To see how this is so, a metafictional reading of the book is necessary.

IV The Raw Shark Texts begins with a nameless protagonist regaining consciousness from a mental fit and suffering the confusion of a lost memory and self. The Second Eric Sanderson starts looking for someone "who could see me as a real person […] or […] who could fit me back into my proper place" (p.10). Dr. Randle gives out the diagnosis of Dissociative Amnesia, explaining that "it's a type of memory suppression, not actual damage […] The trick will be in working out what's triggering the recurrence and finding a way to diffuse it" (p.16), while warning the Second Eric Sanderson not to "write or read anything like" the notes and letters of the First Eric Sanderson. If this is read metafictionally, the Second Eric Sanderson becomes simultaneously a character in search of its proper storyworld, and a parody on the author's work in creating a character; while the First Eric Sanderson reads as a metaphor for the traditionally built character, and his camouflaged, coded "Light Bulb Fragments", a symbol of the threatened traditional narrative form. The diagnosis given by the doctor/critic sends this would-be author/character on "a violent hunt for [his] own reference material"(p.20); while being aware that

9

Steven Hall, Quoted in Benedicte Page, "Ink Test", Literary Reference Center Database http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=2348 5117&site=ehost-live&scope=site (accessed August 14, 2012)

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His first attempts to find clues to his lost identity fail, and, as if surrendering to the pressure of non-verbal modes of expression, like a robot, or a hypertextual image, the Second Eric Sanderson sets up a meticulously calculated storyworld—"a minute but perfectly formed existence" (p.25), yet lacking in spiritual significance like a mathematical equation; as Eric puts it, "my heart was deep space, my head only math" (p.25). As he sets out on his journey of self/form quest, the storyworld that the Second Eric Sanderson moves into and the characters that inhabit them seem collapsed, empty. In total contrast to "The Light Bulb Fragments" which present a well-built, ordered, traditional storyworld, this one has characters like Dean Rush, "a man of scrapes and fragments. No links or rhythms to his conversation, everything lonely and spare"(p.78); and settings that "looked as if [they were] being dismantled to be taken somewhere else" (p. 80)—a dilapidated world. The call the Second Eric Sanderson gets displays no number or identity, the places he goes to are deserted, and even Mr. Nobody "dissolves" before his eyes—storyworlds and characters within the multimodal tradition lack substance enough to keep them "alive". In his fight to save his memory/traditional form from extinction, the First Eric Sanderson codifies "The Light Bulb Fragments" by means symbolic of some of the modes that seem to threaten its survival: namely, the flashing light bulb from film production tradition, and the computer keyboard from the more domineering world of cyberspace—that is, playing the game by the enemy's rules. However, in mistakenly letting the Ludovician out, the First Eric Sanderson symbolically opened up the gates of the confined traditional narrative form to the flow of human conceptual forms of narrative expression. That is, in attempting to save the form from decay, the author/character took part in its temporary downfall: the narrative collapses like Mr. Nobody and the entire multimodal form proves worthless, unsuitable to hold a great idea for a great deal of time—the only possible rescue is a subtle call for a second Renaissance: to stick to the tried and true values of the traditional form, symbolized by the protagonist's choice to stay on the Greek island, "Home"(RST, p.276). Steven Hall, then, sets up a comparison between a narrative form reminiscent of cyber emptiness and flatness, and the traditional form's

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immense capacity for representing life in full, for keeping memory alive. His message seems to be that if the multimodal novel mirrors the diversity of modes of narrative representation available through contemporary cultural output, then it comes with the package that inconsistency and a struggle to produce meaning and make sense of the world would be constant companions to such a form—the only solid, reliable form is the traditional one. Yet such a conclusion is not a clear-cut one as Hall ends the text with two perplexing "exhibits": A newspaper clip stating that the body of missing, mentally ill, Mr. Sanderson has been found by the police; and a postcard from Greece, addressed to Dr. Randle by Eric, saying that he is happy but not coming back. To solve this final riddle, I resort back to Psychology and the definition, symptoms, and treatment of Dissociative Amnesia.

V According to the Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders, in a case of Dissociative Amnesia, "the normally well-integrated functions of memory, identity, perception, or consciousness are separated (dissociated)" 10 . Applied metaphorically to The Raw Shark Texts, the elements of the traditional ["Light Bulb"] narrative are distorted through the intrusion of the non-verbal/non-narrative modes and media [the Ludovician]—the text itself becomes a case of Dissociative Amnesia, with the character/author trying to fix it back together by fighting off the trigger. Apart from the basic symptom of memory loss, a patient with Dissociative Amnesia also suffers from confusion, emotional distress, and/or mild depression—all are experienced by Eric as both a character in search of personal identity and an author in search of a proper narrative form. During psychotherapy sessions, "After the patient has recalled enough of the missing past to acquire a stronger sense of self and continuity in their life history, the second phase of psychotherapy commences. During this phase, the patient deals more directly with the traumatic episodes."11

10

Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders, s.v "Dissociative Amnesia" http://www. minddisorders.com/Del-Fi/Dissociative-amnesia.html (accessed November 11, 2012) 11 Ibid.

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Metaphorically speaking, thus, the decoding of "the Light Bulb Fragments" becomes the product of the first phase of psychotherapy, and the final confrontation with the Ludovician, the second. Chances of recovery from Dissociative Amnesia are "generally good. The majority of patients eventually recover the missing parts of their past, either by spontaneous re-emergence of the memories or through hypnosis and similar techniques. A minority of patients, however, are never able to reconstruct their past; they develop a chronic form of Dissociative Amnesia. The prognosis for a specific patient depends on a combination of his or her present life circumstances; the presence of other mental disorders; and the severity of stresses or conflicts associated with the amnesia."12

In light of all this, then, the two exhibits at the end of the novel end the text's narratological battle in favour of the traditional form: Patterned on both possible outcomes of psychotherapy for a case of Dissociative Amnesia, The Second Eric Sanderson, the protagonist of the multimodal narrative, loses memory, and is lost [plausibly commits suicide]; while the First Eric Sanderson regains full memory, and "lives" happily ever after; entreating the doctor/critic not to "feel bad"! (RST, p.278) It remains to note that Hall refused to categorize his novel: "But when people say to me: 'How would you describe this book?', I say: 'I don't really want to, because people come up with such wonderful, rich readings.' There are things in there that nudge you in one direction, and back in another, and it's really up to you to just trust your instincts."13

I hope I have rightfully done so.

Works Cited Books Hall, Steven. The Raw Shark Texts. Edinburgh: Canongate Books Ltd., 2007. Fitzpatrick, Kathleen. The Anxiety of Obsolescence: The American Novel in the Age of Television. Comment Press. www.anxietyofobsoloscence.com/chapter-1/chapter-1-novel

12 13

Ibid. Hall quoted in Page (Note 9).

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Articles Hallet, Wolfgang. "The Multimodal Novel. The Integration of Modes and Media in Novelistic Narration", in Narratologia: Narrative in the Age of Cross-Disciplinary Narrative Research, edited by Sandra Heinen and Roy Sommer, 129-153, Berlin: Walter Gruyer, 2009. Schmidt, Torben. "Christopher Nolan's Memento ֙ Analysis of the narrative structure of a nourish Revenge film.christophernolan.net, www.christophernolan.net/files/narrativeMementoSchmidt.pdf Guz, Savannah S. "Digesting The Raw Shark Texts". PopMatters. July 24, 2007. http://www.popmatters.com/pm/column/digesting-the-raw-shark-texts/ Sweeney, Seamus. "the raw shark texts". NTHPOSITION. 2008. http://www.nthposition.com/therawsharktexts.php Ness, Patrick. "Fishy Tales". The Guardian. March 10, 2007. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/mar/10/featuresreviews.guardianre view9 Mordue, Mark. "The Raw Shark Texts". The Australian. March 31, 2007. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/the-raw-shark-texts/storye6frg8no-1111113233376 Page, Benedicte. "Ink Test". Literary Reference Center Database. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=2348 5117&site=ehost Wikipedia. "Orpheus". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders. "Dissociative Amnesia". http://www.minddisorders.com/Del-Fi/Dissociative-amnesia.html Cleveland Clinic. "Diseases and Conditions: Dissociative Amnesia", http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/Dissociative_Disorders/hic_De personalization_Disorder.aspx Medspace Reference. "Dissociative Disorders: Dissociative Amnesia", http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/294508-overview#aw2aab6b3

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR V. S. NAIPAUL’S MAGIC SEEDS: JACK AND THE BEANSTALK REVISITED REYHAN ÖZER TANIYAN

Fairytales frequently occur in literature as a means of establishing intertextual relations. This has been particularly the case in recent decades, especially 1975–2005 1 , which may be described as a golden age of fairytales, a period that has seen Angela Carter’s novel The Bloody Chamber (1979) and the film Red Riding Hood (2011), directed by Catherine Hardwicke. Fairytales sometimes occur only as a metaphor, or as an intertextual reference, but they can also appear as the central theme of the work. They occur frequently in postmodern texts, and particularly in novels that incorporate biographical elements narrated by their protagonists in the form of storytelling. A significant example is V.S. Naipaul’s novel Magic Seeds (2004), which is a sequel, to Naipaul’s Half a Life (2001). Magic Seeds includes three chapters titled as “The London Beanstalk,” “The Giant at the Top” and ‘“An Axe to the Root”; each title refers directly to the fairytale Jack and the Beanstalk. This fairytale is studied from many perspectives, and in Tales, Then and Now2, Anna E. Altman and Gail De Vos have listed all the discussions of this fairytale chronologically. Brian E. Szumsky considers the original story to be an ideologically constructed text. He sees the fairytale as a “discourse on cultural and political socialization, one tied up in ideological and historical circumstance” 3 (Szumsky, 11). His perspective is very close to the 1

Kevin Paul Smith, “Introduction”, The Postmodern Fairytale: Folkloric Intertexts in Contemporary Fiction, Palgrave Macmillan, USA, 2007. 2 Anna E. Altman and Gail de Vos, Tales, Then and Now: More Folktales As Literary Fictions for Young Adults, Libraries Unlimited, USA, 2001. 3 Brian E. Szumsky, “The House That Jack Built: Empire and Ideology in Nineteenth-Century British Versions of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’” Marvels & Tales Vol. 13, No. 1, 1999, pp. 11-30.

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argument of the present discussion. In this study, the fairytale Jack and the Beanstalk will be examined as a literary reference that permits an intertextual deconstruction of Westerner’s grand narratives and in this particular instance allows Naipaul to satirize the discursive power arrogated by storytellers whose ideological position is imperialistic. Before examining how and why the fairytale in the novel is referred to in the novel, first of all it is necessary to have a glance at the definition of the term fairytale. According to Bruno Bettelheim, “fairytales are unique, not only as a form of literature, but as works of art which are fully comprehensible to the child, as no other form of art is” (12). Moreover, they are unique in that “unlike any other form of literature, fairytales direct the child to discover his identity and calling, and they also suggest what experiences are needed to develop his character further” (Bettelheim, 24). However, the main question here is whether or not these stories are handed down from generation to generation only for the sake of children and their fantasy world. Jack Zipes, a critic on the fairytales, concludes that “writers of fairytales for children acted ideologically [...]” (3). As Fredric Jameson asserts, it is the “political unconscious” that gives shape to the process of writing fairy tales as “part of social process, as a kind of intervention in a continuous discourse, debate, and conflict about power and social relations” (quoted in Zipes, 3). Although there appear variations of a fairytale, the core narrative remains unchanged with the purpose of structuring such cultural structures as good/bad and vice/virtue. Therefore, these are a society’s grand narratives. In the story of Jack and the Beanstalk a child, Jack, lives with his widowed mother; a cow is their only means of income. When this cow stops giving milk, Jack’s mother sends him to sell it. On the way, Jack meets an old man who offers him “magic” beans in exchange for the cow. Jack takes the beans but when he arrives home with the beans but without money, his mother becomes furious and throws the beans out of the window and condemns Jack to go to bed hungry. In the morning, Jack sees that the beans have grown into a gigantic beanstalk. Jack climbs the beanstalk and arrives in a land high in the sky where he follows the road to a house which is the home of an ogre. At the entrance of the house he sees the ogre’s wife and asks for food. She gives him some and warns him about the ogre, who eats children. When the ogre returns and senses that a human is nearby, he speaks the following rhyme: Fee-fi-fo-fum! I smell the blood of an Englishman, Be he alive, or be he dead, I’ll have his bones to grind my bread (Jacobs, 63)

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However, Jack is hidden by the ogre’s wife and watches the ogre counting out his money. Jack steals a bag of gold coins and escapes down the beanstalk. He repeats his journey up the beanstalk two more times, and each time he is helped by the ogre’s wife and each time he narrowly escapes with one of the ogre’s treasures. The second time, he steals a hen that lays golden eggs, and on the third occasion he steals a magical harp that plays by itself. This time he is almost caught by the ogre, who follows him down the beanstalk. Jack calls his mother to bring him an axe and he chops the beanstalk down, killing the ogre. The end of the story has Jack and his mother living happily ever after with their new riches. With its marvellous ending, like all other fairytales, in this fairytale, vice is punished and virtue is rewarded with an eternal happiness. Such a moral lesson is the hidden meaning or the hidden ideology of fairytales that are constructed by the cultures they are originated. This fairytale, Jack and the Beanstalk, is a British fairytale and it is constructed by the ideology of British imperial discourse. Keeping this in mind, Szumsky interprets the imperial discourse of this fairytale by identifying Jack as a colonialist and a capitalist Westerner (because of the gold stolen), and the ogre as the colonized and inferior East: If Jack’s actions cannot be justified along purely (good/bad) moral grounds […], they can be legitimized in the context of a capitalistic-colonial mindset, which must consume and exploit in order to remain viable, or in terms of a socio-political system in which amassing of capital/material becomes the measure of personal success. This is the nineteenth century colonial mentality (Szumsky, 19).

The overthrow of the ogre is legitimized in an implied moral binary of “good/bad” and this scene is “pragmatized through a typically colonial construction of an ‘us/them’ dichotomy” (Szumsky, 20). At this point, Edward Said’s argument can be invoked, to the effect that Europe may be conceived as the centre and everything else is outside, “residing with giants, savages, monsters” (117). In Said’s words, fairytales present an “imaginary geography,” with the known figures as “ours” and foreign unknowns as “not ours,” and these are consistently illustrated with the cannibalistic and barbaric portraits of an ogre eating English children: “My man is an ogre and there’s nothing he likes better than the boys broiled on toast” (Jacobs, 62). Thus, the fairytale of Jack and the Beanstalk can be commented on as the representation of “colonial ideology that highlights the civilizing (Western) benefits of imperial presence and domination” that is “predominantly a product of ‘imperial storytellers’” (Szumsky, 21).

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Why, then, does V.S. Naipaul use the fairytale? The story of the fairytales can be read from different perspectives, and Naipaul reads this story from a different point of view by totally deconstructing the characters’ roles and revisiting events in the fairytale to subvert both the grand narrative of these ‘imperial storytellers’ and to mock the discriminatory attitudes of Western ideology. In Magic Seeds the fairytale is revisited both stylistically and thematically. In the novel, there is a character named Willie Somerset Chadran who is shown as lazy and as dominated by the whims of his sister Sarojini, just as Jack is controlled by his mother early in the story. Willie has spent his 18 years in Africa with a wife who dominates his life. After he has had enough of living in Africa, his sister leads him to India in order to involve him with a band of guerrillas. Due to his lack of self-sufficiency, he accepts this mission to prove himself. This is like Jack who is eager to help his mother but does not know how to do so: “Cheer up, mother, I’ll go and get work somewhere”, said Jack “We’ve tried that before, and nobody would take you”, said his mother (Jacobs, 60).

Willie stays with the guerrillas because of the fear that they might kill him. He is captured, imprisoned and released with the help of his English friend Roger, who presented a copy of his book that can cause embarrassment to the Indian government. Willie moves to London, and there he finds himself to be upper-middle class and at this point there begins the story of Jack and the Beanstalk with the chapter titles already mentioned: “The London Beanstalk”, “Giant at the Top” and “An Axe to the Root”. By doing this so, Naipaul subverts the stylistic patterns of the fairytale by omitting ogres, gigantic plants and dream-like lands and instead inserting contemporary elements as the first phase of his deconstruction. Naipaul hides thematically-subverted ironies behind stylistic changes. In each chapter, he ironizes; at the end of the chapters, he achieves a satirical version of the fairytale with a different happy ending. In the chapter entitled “The London Beanstalk”, Willie Somerset Chadran starts his quest as an immature immigrant “like Robinson Crusoe living off the land” (Naipaul, 171). Naipaul’s implication here is a very cunning one since the phrasal verb ‘live off’ means “to depend on someone or something for the money or food that you need”4. With such an implication, he criticizes both Robinson Crusoe’s imperialist voyage and Jack’s in the fairytale as well as foreshadows Willie’s colonialist 4

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/live-off

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behaviours for Roger’s family with whom he lives for a while. When Willie goes to “big London house” (Naipaul, 173) of Roger, he is astonished by the appearance of the house just as Jack is when he sees the ogre’s big house. Roger’s “the little Marble Arch house was the seedcorn” and he has “been climbing up that property beanstalk all the time” (Naipaul, 175). Like Jack who sees “on the doorstep ... a great big tall woman” (Jacobs, 62), Willie meets Perdita, the wife of Roger, with whom he has sexual intercourse. There was Perdita having this relationship with this bounder with the big London house, everything satisfactory to all parties, the bounder having somebody’s wife as his mistress, Perdita intimate with a big London house and feeling quite adult (Naipaul, 173)

As we recall, the ogre’s wife answers Jack’s physical hunger by feeding him: “she took Jack into the kitchen, and gave him a hunk of bread and cheese and a jug of milk” (Jacobs, 62). Likewise, Perdita feeds Willie’s sexual hunger. Such an association is Naipaul’s justification for mocking the morality of the fairytales. In the fairytale, both Jack and the Ogre’s wife are shown to be the morally good and virtuous characters, because this moral judgement is also ideological, since Jack is the representative of the West and the ogre’s wife occupies the role of a supporter of the Westerners. Moreover, Willie’s reaction to Roger’s coming home after having sex with Perdita is just like Jack’s who is “bundled into the oven just as the ogre came in” (Jacobs, 63) while eating his supper in the ogre’s house: He heard Roger come in. He heard him talking later on the telephone. There was no sound of Perdita. Willie was not sure whether he should dress and go down. He decided to stay where he was; and like a child hiding, he was quiet as he could be (184).

Like Jack’s visits to the ogre’s house and his stealing, Willie has sexual intercourse with Perdita many times, and when “Perdita herself became a burden, her body too familiar” (Naipaul, 189), he decides to leave Roger’s home and look for a more stable life. When he talks with Roger about his decision Naipaul uses the adjective marvellous to indicate the fairytale: “you and Perdita have been marvellous, but I think I should leave” (Naipaul, 190). In fact, Jack in the fairytale is also fed up with climbing the beanstalk to take money and he wants to climb for a last time to try his luck: “Jack was not content, and it wasn’t very long before he

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determined to have another try at his luck up there at the top of the beanstalk” (Jacobs, 65). For this reason, the following chapter of the novel is entitled “The Giant at the Top”. Here, Roger takes Willie to the house of a banker who has a bigger house. Willie is introduced to this rich man at the top as “an outsider” (Naipaul, 193), and this makes him automatically a person who “can insult” the other one (Naipaul, 193). Contrary to the ideas of Szumsky and Said, in the Naipaul version, an outsider has an ability to insult the other, to satirize the general belief that Westerners have the right of insulting the outsiders. Moreover, the capitalist side of Westerners highlighted in the fairytale is totally subverted by Naipaul through his way of storytelling and in this manner he criticizes the ideological discrimination: I don’t wish to cultivate anybody or to be cultivated by them. It isn’t that I think they are more materialist than the Indian well-to-do. [...] I feel that these people don’t know the other side of things. The words came to him just like that. He thought, the words would have meant something. I must work out what the words mean. [...] Unless we understand people’s other side, India, Japanese, African, we cannot truly understand them (Naipaul, 202).

In this chapter, moreover, the ogre in the fairytale can be identified as the banker whose job is an allegory that implies the riches of both Naipaul’s banker and the ogre of the fairytale to draw attention to the capitalist side of Westerners. Up to that time there is Roger who has a big house and his wife is associated with the ogre’s wife. However, in this chapter, the banker, the representative of capitalism, has a bigger house compared to the Roger’s and moreover, Perdita also acts again as the wife of the ogre since she is a lover of the banker. Naipaul changes and mocks the process of the fairytale by changing all the patterned roles and by addressing the conclusion of the fairytale: He [the banker] is like a child. He doesn’t know about the real world. One day, someone with nothing to lose will insult him in the profoundest way, and then the magic will be broken. But until then, for people like me there’s an electric charge around the man (Naipaul, 203).

It is clearly implied that it will be Willie who will both dethrone the banker and insult him. Like Jack, Willie is the one who has nothing to lose and he is an outsider. In the fairytale and in the reading of the Szumsky, the Westerner insults, kills and dethrones the ogre or cannibalistic Easterner. However, in the subverted version of Naipaul, a Westerner, who

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uses a tactic of his admired leader, an Easterner Indira Gandhi 5, is insulted by an Easterner for the second time. Peter [the banker] has a story about Indira Gandhi. He never thought much of her. He didn’t think she was educated or knew much about the people in the wider world. He thought she was a bluffer. In 1971, [...], he went to Delhi and tried to see her. [...] She ignored him. [...] Her method is simple. All the time she is waiting to see what her visitor wants. Peter no doubt took the tip. He was waiting all the time to find out what you wanted from him, and you said nothing (Naipaul, 204).

Peter, the banker is insulted by Willie since he does not ask for anything else. It is again a satirical reference to the greediness of Jack in the fairytale which can be read as a critique of Westerners who colonized other societies for their own benefits. For the last section of the fairytale, Naipaul chooses the title “An Axe to the Root”. For this chapter, the references to the fairytale are the final stealing of Jack from the ogre and the cliché of fairytales ending which is living happily ever after. These are replaced respectively with Willie’s last sexual attempt to have sex with Perdita and with the triumph of Marcus. Willie, again, feeling in the emotional hunger calls Perdita whom he “is missing” and “need to make love” (Naipaul, 228). Like Jack who gets the golden harp of the ogre, Willie takes what he wants through the telephone: “He made love to her on the telephone; she yielded to him as she did when they were together” (Naipaul, 228). Throughout his quest, Perdita always helps him just like the ogre’s wife helps Jack in the fairytale. There is an unpaid help in both cases; therefore, Willie “felt a new respect for Perdita. On numberless occasions she had exposed herself to him” (Naipaul, 229) and he is “ready to run down the beanstalk and take an axe to the root” (Naipaul, 231). The fairy-tale-like ending of Naipaul’s version of Jack and the Beanstalk consists in the triumph of Marcus, from Africa, who has devoted himself to “inter-racial sex and wanted to have a white grandchild” (Naipaul, 230). He achieves his goal and he lives happily ever after like Jack who succeeds to “became very rich, and married a great princess and lived happy ever after” (Jacob, 67). Marcus has succeeded. His half-English son has given him two grandchildren, one absolutely white, one not so white. The parents of the two grandchildren are getting married. [...] Marriage after the children come. Marcus’ triumph (Naipaul, 230).

5

For further information, http://www.indiragandhi.com/index.html.

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Naipaul with such an ending compares the importance of the discursive power of the grand narratives with the happy ending scenes. In the fairytale Jack and the Beanstalk, as a representative of the grand narratives, goods – Jack and his mother - are rewarded while bad ogre – is punished, however, Naipaul subverts this thematically moral lesson. Willie is neither rewarded nor punished though in the novel he is in the role of Jack, instead of him, Marcus is rewarded with a happy ending and his wishes come true. He satirizes that Jack and the ogre in the fairytale are not rewarded or punished because of their vices and virtuous. Jack is rewarded because he is the representative of the West, capitalism and the colonial mindset while the ogre is punished because he is an outsider. Likewise, Marcus is both a good and bad character; first for Westerners a good one because he is a great admirer of West and white race while at the same time a bad one because he is an inferior, second for Eastern part, a good one because he breaks the magic, the cycle of the cliché of European, white and Western and a bad one because of his great admiration of Westerners. By this way, Naipaul shows that moral judgement is ideological and in the hands of discursive power of grand narration by choosing Marcus as the rewarded one or the one who deserves a happy ending. The concluding remark of the novel, in a chapter entitled “Magic Seeds”, is indeed the conclusion of the claims discussed in this paper: “It is wrong to have an ideal view of the world. That’s where the mischief starts. That’s where everything starts unravelling” (Naipaul, 280). Naipaul addresses the mischief that is the ideological point of view in the narratives with the example of the fairytale of Jack and the Beanstalk by subverting the roles and perceptions even that of Szumsky who blames the ideologically written Jack and the Beanstalk in which the giant becomes the other, a character who is set outside the norms of society and who must be conquered in order to bring civilization to the country. Here, Jack acts as a beneficent colonizer whose overthrow of the uncivilized Giant brings civilization to the region. The Giant is a cannibal, a brute and is even characterized as somewhat uncultured [...] and creates a kind of moral high ground for Jack’s overthrow of the giant and his wife (Szumsky 22-3). Naipaul creates a world in which all roles and characters of the fairytale are matched. Willie Somerset Chadran is in the role of Jack, Perdita acts as the wife of the giant or ogre while Peter, the banker is associated with the ogre and lastly, Marcus is shown as a fairytale character who lives happily ever after. He, Naipaul, satirizes the perception of grand narratives, especially fairytales, by associating Jack with an outsider and by matching the happy ending with a dream-like wish

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that subverts the egocentric European white race with a combination of an African oriented man and a white woman. Naipaul subverts not only the general stylistics of fairytales and their ideological Westerner mindset but also mocks with the thematic concern of fairytales constructed on moral lessons. He creates the characters Willie, Roger, Perdita, Peter and Marcus as the ones who are morally deformed. Willie sleeps with his friend’s wife who is also a lover of Peter while Marcus is obsessed with the thought of having sex with whites. He mocks and harshly satirizes the moral division of good/bad by axing the roots of Western family relations. By this means, he draws a deconstructed panorama of the fairytales by highlighting the idea that “the mischief starts” and “everything starts unravelling” (Naipaul, 280). To conclude, fairytales are a literary device that can be used in certain postcolonial and postmodern texts to deconstruct the discursive power of grand narratives.

Works Cited Bruno Bettelheim. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. USA: Vintage Books, 2010. Jacobs, Joseph. English Fairy Tales. London: David Nutt, 1890. Naipaul, V.S. Half A Life. London: Picador, 2001. Said, Edward. Orientalism. 1st Edition, 1979. USA: Vintage Books, 2003. Smith, Kevin Paul. “Introduction”, The Postmodern Fairytale: Folkloric Intertexts in Contemporary Fiction. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Szumsky, Brian E. “The House That Jack Built: Empire and Ideology in Nineteenth-Century British Versions of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’”. Marvels & Tales, Vol. 13, No. 1. University Press, 1999, pp. 11-30. Zipes, J. Fairy tales and the art of subversion: The classical genre for children and the process of civilization. New York: Routledge, 1983.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE AMERICAN HERO: THE COMIC BOOK ANTIHERO SEDA ùEN

The traditional literary American hero that used to be a depiction of the then-newly formed American society had its origins in the romanticized frontiersman portrayal in Frederick Jackson Turner’s “Frontier Thesis”, however as the American society expanded, the traditional hero failed to be the hero of the whole society. Interestingly, the traditional hero has not diminished but has transformed into a new being; the comic book antihero. The west, as Turner analyses, is in conflict with the urbanized, settled, and organized east until the frontiersman becomes the hybrid of east and west; the civilized and the rural. The frontiersman found himself standing in between; he became a mediator for the American society in conflict. Frederick Jackson Turner in The Frontier in American History uses the term frontier referring to the settlers expanding to the West1. In his work he highlights certain characteristics of the frontiersman and considers them to be bridge figures between the Wild West and the civilized eastern settlements and pinpoints the American frontiersman as the father of the modern American society: To the frontier the American intellect owes its striking characteristics: that coarseness and strength combined with acuteness and inquisitiveness; that practical, inventive turn of mind, quick to find expedients, that masterful grasp of material things, lacking in the artistic but powerful to effect great ends; that restless, nervous energy; that dominant individualism, working

1 Frederick Jackson Turner. 1986. The Frontier in American History. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1-39.

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As the field of Cultural Studies became more popular in the academia, so did the researches on comic books3. In this paper the aim is to trace the literary and graphic narrative of the comic book Ghost Rider, and compare it to the short story entitled “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” written by Washington Irving in terms of the new type of American hero emerging from the antihero. In Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud traces a narrative style that is specific to the genre. This is the type of narrative where the illustration and the panels tell different parts of the story, aiming at the participation of the reader visually and mentally4. The reader not only reads about the world the characters are set in, but also sees this world, which gives the comic book the power of luring a wider range of readers. The narrative of the comic book, combines words and images addresses multiple levels of the sense, making it a powerful medium to tell stories 5 . As McCloud argues, because the comic book uses images and words hand in hand, a sense of simplification arises that leads to the reader identifying with the characters easier than other word based genres such as the novel6. In the beginning of the 20th century, superhero comic books were popular in which the superhero was a benevolent and selfless character with all-perfect attributes7. After the Second World War Marvel comics presented characters with imperfect personalities lacking qualities that were associated with the superheroes of Detective Comics 8 . These characters, one of which is Ghost Rider, had fears, incapacities and extreme personality traits which aimed at deconstructing the traditional superhero. The new protagonists of the comic book were named as antiheroes who usually “found themselves in the middle of illegal actions, were rebellious or scandalous outcasts; yet although their methods were

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Turner, The Frontier, 38. Laurel Clark and Alan Clark. 1991. Comics: An Illustrated History. London: Greenwood Publishing, 12. 4 Scott McCloud. 1993. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 165. 5 McCloud, Understanding, 50-57. 6 McCloud, Understanding, 25-36. 7 Clark, Comics, 62. 8 Clark, Comics, 80-91. 3

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considered taboo, their goals were laudable”9. These characters appealed to the post-WW2 temperament and their ambiguous nature, their unconfident stance against the world made them popular amongst a population that faced at least one of the World Wars. The series Ghost Rider bears visual and narrative resemblances to the frontier hero first constructed by Frederick Jackson Turner, yet this new depiction came with a twist. Edited by Stan Lee, written by Gary Friedrich and Roy Thomas, Ghost Rider first appeared in 1967 with Carter Slade as its protagonist10. Carter Slade is a teacher who goes to Bison Bend, Ohio; a frontier town. Starting from the cover page, Ghost Rider is said to be “The World’s Most Mysterious Western Hero!”11 The setting is introduced through the narrative in the zip ribbon, relating the setting with American Civil War: In the days that followed the war between the states, greed and the lust for power bred hatred and lawlessness across the rolling hills of the west – and only a handful of brave men stood their ground to make the vast territory a safe place for free men to live! One such man was Carter Slade…A school teacher from Ohio who rode West, never dreaming he was destined to become he who rides the night winds…THE GHOST RIDER!12

As Carter Slade is on his way to Bison Bend, he is attacked by a group of outlaws disguised as Natives13. Injured while trying to save a boy from the attack, Carter Slade is found by actual Native Americans and taken to be healed. To pay his debt, Slade decides to fight against outlaws who defame the Natives with the help of the mysterious horse Banshee, a gift from the Natives. Be silent and listen! For, on this night is born he who rides the night winds…he whom the Great Spirit prophesized would come! And, as you can see, the Ghost Rider is not of the body – but rather of the spirit! Under the black cloak of night, I can separate my head from my body, so that all who see will know that the Ghost Rider is no mere mortal! From this day

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David A. Roach and Gina Misiroglu. 2004. The Superhero Book: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Comic Book Icons and Hollywood Heroes. Miami: Visible Ink Press, 26. 10 Gary Friedrich. 1967. “The Origin of the Ghost Rider.” The Ghost Rider. Issue: 1 (February), 1. 11 Friedrich, “The Origin of the Ghost Rider,” Cover. 12 Friedrich, “The Origin of the Ghost Rider,” 2. 13 Friedrich, “The Origin of the Ghost Rider,” 3-6.

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Here as Carter Slade underlines, the title of the Ghost Rider becomes a spiritual thing, almost a way of life. He separates his body and his head through tricks yet at the same time it can mean a distinction between the material way of life and choosing a spiritual, mental path. In the first issue of Ghost Rider, Carter Slade goes to Bison Bend where he disguises his new identity, the Ghost Rider, under his occupation as a teacher; by using this disguise he tries to protect his frontier town from future threats. However, his Ghost Rider identity is not a pleasant one. Although he looks like a frontier hero with his horse moving eagerly to the west, his ghost-like costume and rumours about the reasons of his defending the town are questioned by the settlers and Ghost Rider soon becomes an outcast 15 . In November 1967, the issues of the first Ghost Rider come to an end. However, changes in Carter Slade is observed; he is now governed by his vengeance after causing his loved one to get injured and vows to take her revenge16. After several years, in 1972, a new Ghost Rider series begin 17 . Different from the original Ghost Rider, the new series are set in the 20th century. Johnny Blaze, the protagonist, is adopted by a family doing motorcycle shows in a circus after he becomes an orphan18. His stepfather Crash Simpson becomes terminally ill; Johnny Blaze looks for a solution in dark magic and summons dark forces to sacrifice his soul in return for the betterment of his father19. His father is all better the following days, yet shortly after his recovery, he dies in a motorcycle accident20. Tricked into sacrificing his soul, Johnny Blaze becomes the slave of the devil as the Ghost Rider; after sunset, his head becomes a flaming skull21. In later years, in the issues which are not dealt with in this paper, Ghost Rider Johnny Blaze encounters Carter Slade as his ancestor22 and learns in

14

Friedrich, “The Origin of the Ghost Rider,” 9. Friedrich, “The Origin of the Ghost Rider,” 12. 16 Gary Friedrich. 1967. “The Macabre Mystery of Massacre Mountain!” The Ghost Rider. Issue: 7 (November), 24. 17 Gary Friedrich. 1972. “A Legend is Born!” Marvel Spotlight. Issue 5 (August). 18 Friedrich, “A Legend is Born!” 7. 19 Friedrich, “A Legend is Born!” 21. 20 Friedrich, “A Legend is Born!” 25. 21 Friedrich, “A Legend is Born!” 29. 22 Jason Aaron. 2009. “Trials and Tribulations Part 1: Once Were Ghost Riders.” Ghost Rider. New York: Marvel Publishing. 15

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other issues that he is actually summoned by heavenly forces as a spirit of vengeance, to condemn malevolent characters23. In his new appearance, Ghost Rider can be viewed as a reinterpretation of the American frontier hero. Though the horse is replaced with a motorcycle, Ghost Rider keeps moving just like the frontier in American history. The first issue in 1972, “A Legend is Born!” 24 uses a different approach compared to the original Ghost Rider. The second person narrative in the first frame and the zip ribbons indicate that the writers aimed at the identification of the reader with the protagonist. Rain…engulfing the city in a damp blanket of gloom… Rain… pounding down on the skull that once was the head of a normal man … Rain…combining with the black loneliness of night to beat a mournful cadence which cries: You are now – The GHOST RIDER!25

Placing an antihero at the centre in American prose is not a new thing; it can be traced back to Washington Irving whose protagonists were often outcasts or odd characters. One of the earliest writers of the newly formed nation, Washington Irving’s famous short stories “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” 26 presents a protagonist that is also quite different from the frontier depicted in Turner’s work. Irving tells the story of Ichabod Crane, a teacher from the eastern coast who comes to the haunted town, Tarry Town, also known as Sleepy Hollow. As a “tall, but exceedingly lank”27 person with “narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands”28 Ichabod Crane looks like a scarecrow. Due to his description, he does not bear the characteristics of the frontier hero as depicted by Turner. Both his appearance and his treatment of his pupils and his hunger for material assets, he grows more distant from the ideal hero expected in the eyes of the reader 29 . Moreover, just like Ichabod Crane, his horse Gunpowder is also not an ideal horse. Gunpowder is a horse that has Michael Fleisher. 1980. “Manitou’s Anger…Tarantula’s Sting!” Ghost Rider. Issue: 50 (November). 23 Aaron, “Trials and Tribulations Part 1: Once Were Ghost Riders” 24 Gary Friedrich. 1972. “A Legend is Born!” Marvel Spotlight. Issue: 5 (August). 25 Friedrich, “A Legend is Born!” 1-3. 26 Washington Irving. 1983. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” In Washington Irving, 1783-1859 History, Tales and Sketches, edited by J. W. Tuttleton, 10581088. New York: Penguin Books The Library of America. 27 Irving, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” 1061. 28 Ibid., 1061. 29 Ibid., 1060-1063.

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Chapter Twenty Five “outlived almost everything but viciousness […] gaunt and shagged, with an ewe neck and head like a hammer; his rusty mane and tail were tangled and knotted with burrs; one eye had lost its pupil, and was glaring and spectral, but the other had the gleam of a genuine devil in it”30.

According to the narrator, Ichabod Crane is fit to ride a horse like Gunpowder31. However, there are other characters in the story that bear a resemblance to the frontier hero. Brom Bones and the Headless Horseman are characters who blur the definitions of the hero, villain and the antihero alongside Ichabod Crane. The Headless Horseman the ghost of an anonymous warrior in the American War of Independence who visits his place of burial near the church every night. The Headless Horseman looks as if “to be commander in chief of all the powers of the air”32 and because of the references to the historically significant War of Independence, the Headless Horseman becomes a part of the American history providing him with a realistic background. His presence in the story legalizes the story as part of the American history. Brom Van Brunt, or Brom Bones, is defined at first as a hero in Sleepy Hollow, yet there are traces in the story that the narrator favours Ichabod Crane as a hero rather than Brom Bones. Although Brom Bones is the perfect example of Turner’s frontiersman, the narrator of the story from which Diedrich Knickerbocker hears these accounts, it is clear that Ichabod Crane is the real hero in the story. With his anti-heroic qualities, he appears unconventional to be at the centre of the story as a protagonist. When the battle to win Katrina Van Tassel’s heart begins between Ichabod Crane and Brom Bones the narrator says: “He who wins a thousand common hearts, is therefore entitled to some renown; but he who keeps undisputed sway over the heart of a coquette, is indeed a hero”33.

Irving’s depictions of the two characters reveal that Ichabod Crane is closer to being a heroic figure despite Brom Bones’s popularity as a hero. Irving’s portrayal of Ichabod can be read as a critique to the traditional frontier hero. It can be said that the frontiersmen depicted by Turner is not a new notion for Washington Irving; his “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” can be 30

Ibid., 1073. Irving, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” 1073. 32 Ibid., 1059-1060. 33 Ibid., 1071. 31

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read as a three layer portrayal of the frontier hero. His depiction can be read as the seeds of the antiheroic protagonist in American culture who emerges in later works such as the Ghost Rider. As a result of the antiheroes being placed as the protagonists in these stories and comic books, the frontier hero –before depicted as a hero protagonist – is embedded once again into the contemporary American literary experience. This untraditional depiction, juxtaposed with the untraditional narrative of the comic book, creates a frontier experience that is up-to-date, and still completely American. The frontiersman thus continues its presence in different forms; he is not the traditional, perfect hero anymore, but an antihero with his pros and cons.

Works Cited Aaron, Jason. 2009. “Trials and Tribulations Part 1: Once Were Ghost Riders.” Ghost Rider. New York: Marvel Publishing. Clark, Laurel and Alan Clark. 1991. Comics: An Illustrated History. London: Greenwood Publishing. Fleisher, Michael. 1980. “Manitou’s Anger…Tarantula’s Sting!” Ghost Rider. Issue: 50 (November). Friedrich, Gary. 1967. “The Origin of the Ghost Rider.” The Ghost Rider. Issue: 1 (February) —. 1967. “The Macabre Mystery of Massacre Mountain!” The Ghost Rider. Issue: 7 (November). —. 1972. “A Legend is Born!” Marvel Spotlight. Issue: 5 (August). Irving, Washington. 1983. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” In Washington Irving, 1783-1859 History, Tales and Sketches, edited by J. W. Tuttleton, 1058-1088. New York: Penguin Books The Library of America. McCloud, Scott. 1993. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. Reynolds, Richard. 1994. Super Heroes: A Modern Mythology. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Roach, David A. and Gina Misiroglu. 2004. The Superhero Book: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Comic Book Icons and Hollywood Heroes. Miami: Visible Ink Press. Turner, Frederick Jackson. 1986. The Frontier in American History. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX IDENTITY IN MOTION: THE PROBLEMATICS OF BLACK AND BRITISH IDENTITIES IN HANIF KUREISHI’S THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA AND ZADIE SMITH’S WHITE TEETH SEZGø ÖZTOP

By the end of the Second World War, the dissolution of the British Empire and thereafter the successful attempts for independence by several British colonies led to migration of former colonial subjects to the postcolonial Britain. This remarkable expansion in population challenges the propriety of the “inclusive British identity” 1 since South Asian and Afro-Caribbean immigrants tend to identify themselves as British in spite of their experiences of racism and exclusion by the British. Despite the presence of ex-colonial subjects or the descendants of them in “postcolonial”2 Britain, the centre versus periphery division continues to influence the relationship between the British and the immigrants in the postcolonial period. At this point, the primary division between the white and the black will be the skin colour as the indication of racial identity and it still has a significant impact on the lives of everyone, particularly the black people3. Accordingly, the first generation of young immigrant black people born and educated in Britain experienced the identity crisis which resulted from being exposed to both British and native culture. In this manner, the problem of being both black and British comes to existence. In order to 1

Joppke, Christian. Citizenship and Immigration. (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2010), 120. 2 Loomba, Ania. Colonialism/ Postcolonialism. (London: Routledge, 2005), 16. 3 Loomba, 105.

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cope with the pressures of cultural identity in multicultural Britain, the black immigrants need a self-identification by which identity is constructed. In this sense, the realization of the interaction between British and black immigrants’ cultures help to constitute a new hybrid identity, a selfidentification which possesses the characteristics of both cultures without depending on the essentialist vision of either of them4. In this respect, Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) and Zadie Smith’s White Teeth (2000) will be examined in order to present the cultural interaction and exchange between the blacks and the whites in contemporary multicultural Britain from Afrocentric perspective. Based on his personal experiences in Britain as a biracial individual, Kureishi examines the changing definition of what it means to be British in his novel The Buddha of Suburbia (1990). In this respect, this novel examines the concept of Britishness from the eyes of the protagonist, Karim Amir, who caught between black and British identities. In this manner, the opening sentence of the novel indicates Karim’s central conflict: “My name is Karim Amir, and I am an Englishman born and bred, almost”5. Here, he sees himself as an Englishman; however, there is something different about him that does not quite fit in his own understanding of what it means to be English. Therefore, Karim constantly fluctuates between his Indian heritage from his father and his own country and environment, England. At this point, he all the time struggles against the prejudice of the British that he is stereotyped as Indian due to his skin colour as a racial signifier. However, throughout the novel, Karim illustrates his British identity by means of his understanding of the individuals around him, his inadequate knowledge about India and its language, and his cultural and linguistic knowledge about England and his desire to participate in British culture. In this sense, one of the remarkable components of his British identity comes into existence through his relationship with his Indian father and his white English mother, uncle and aunt. For instance, Karim feels admiration for his uncle Ted due to his involvement in the British culture, from which Karim’s father Haroon is excluded. At this point, he associates his uncle with the ideal English father. In addition, the presence of his mother Margaret as a white Englishwoman strengthens Karim’s British identity. At the same time, he speaks only English without any knowledge of Indian languages. Karim’s Britishness is also connected with his desire for personal and cultural transformation. In this sense, he constantly struggles to be transformed into Charlie, one of his white friends, whom he regards as the 4 5

Bhabha, Homi. The Location of Culture. (London: Routledge, 1994), 159-160. Kureishi, Hanif. The Buddha of Suburbia. (Toronto: Penguin, 1990), 3.

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attribute of suburban, white British culture: “I preferred him to me and wanted to be him. I coveted his talents, face, and style. I wanted to wake up with them all transferred to me”6. Subsequently, his desire for Charlie is reflected in Karim’s relationship with Eleanor, the upper-middle class white actress. This relationship allows his awareness to open to the world of the upper middle class and thereby he wants to mimic them. Accordingly, his desire for inclusion into their world leads Karim to ignore his own past to be transformed into their image: “it was Eleanor’s stories that had primacy, her stories that connected to an entire established world. It was as if I felt my past wasn’t important enough, wasn’t as substantial as hers, so I’d thrown it away”7. Once again, Karim desires to be Eleanor’s socio-cultural equivalent. On the other hand, Jamila, the second generation daughter of Karim’s uncle Anwar, is the antithesis of Karim regarding his desire for being socially and culturally equivalent to the British, white people. For instance, In the face of the racist attitudes of the white people around her, she refuses to take part in the Eurocentric education system. Eventually, both Karim and Jamila abandon their Western education. However, when he is in contact with Eleanor, Karim feels uneasy about his abandonment of his Western education. In fact, the central conflict results from Karim’s fluctuating identity; which is to say, he is an Englishman restricted by his skin colour. For instance, in order to fulfil his desire to be a successful actor, he has to yield to racist stereotyping, restoring himself in accordance with the white expectations of his blackness in spite of his displeasure with the racist attitude. That is to say, in order to take part in the notion of Britishness by means of socioeconomic success, he has to take the role given by the white English man. Significantly, however, Karim does not have a noticeable Indian identity until Anwar’s death. At Anwar’s funeral, he has his first real inclination for the Indian identity. Here, Karim expresses a wish for an Indian past, but he is almost an Englishman. The tags of an Indian identity are in pieces. More importantly, his desire for an Indian past does not take the place of his desire to reshape himself in accordance with the white standards. In this sense, he wants to possess the British and Indian identities simultaneously, yet the Indian identity is put in an inferior position as an “additional personality bonus”8.

6

Kureishi, 15. Kureishi, 178. 8 Kureishi, 213. 7

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Karim is, undoubtedly, not the only character in the novel struggling with the racist attitudes toward his identity. Different from Karim, his father Haroon and his childhood friend from Bombay, Anwar as first generation immigrants reject British culture in support of a diasporic Indian identity. Haroon and Anwar then represent the first generation immigrants whose initial intention to adapt and participate is shaken by racism, and who attempt to return to essentialized homeland which presents, in the end, no comfort at best and complete disappointment and devastation at worst. After all, Karim represents the second generation immigrant, absorbed himself fully into the British way of life and thereby self-identifying himself as an Englishman, who is unable to realize fully his English identity due to the racism. However, he is able to find personal and Professional success by reconstructing his identity in accordance with the racist expectations of white authority. In this respect, only biracial immigrants in the novel seem to have a possibility of succeeding in multicultural Britain. Eventually, Karim’s constant fluctuation between his inner English identity and the external Indian roles pave the way for Karim’s realization that he needs to be neither exclusively English nor Indian. In this respect, under the right circumstances, he can choose to be either English or Indian or both English and Indian as well as neither of them. However, the neo-conservative period Karim is about to enter has the possibility to reverse his self-identification as British and his socio-economic success he has gained. Zadie Smith’s debut novel, White Teeth presents the hybrid representation of the Britishness together with the insertion of various cultures, religions, races and ethnicities. Smith tends to provide an optimistic vision of British multiculturalism in her novel; at the same time, she warns against the dangers of dependence on the essentialist aspects of ethnicity and culture in the course of the establishment of a space for self-identification in a multicultural Britain. Smith represents the potential success of establishing such a space by means of the experiences and conclusions of Irie Jones, who is second generation biracial child of Englishman Archie Jones and a young black Jamaican mother, Clara Bowden. On the other hand, the dangers of essentialism in a multicultural society are represented by means of the characters such as the first generation Bangladeshi immigrant father Samad Iqbal and his twins Milat and Magid. Regarding the identity formation of the first and second generation immigrants in their host country, Magid Iqbal can be depicted as the subject of assimilation. In this respect, Magid tends to assert his desire to reject all signs of his inherited culture and reconstruct himself in accordance with the white British norms. Obviously, Magid desires to be white, British, and the

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member of the middle class. However, Magid’s desire is shaken by Samad’s intention to send his son Bangladesh to be a proper Bangladeshi Muslim, uncorrupted by the British culture. In his forced exile, instead of constructing himself as a Bangladeshi Muslim, Magid undertakes a task of self-identification himself as “more English than the English”9. Accordingly, he shows respect to British colonial practices, but he shows disregard for native cultural practices. When Magid interacts with the Chalfens, the middle class third generation white Jewish immigrant family, he further involves himself in British middle class practices and decides to return to London to study English law. In addition, upon his return to London, he visits his father’s favourite place to eat, O’ Connell’s Pool House, and breaks the sacred rule of his Muslim identity by ordering a Bacon sandwich 10 . In this respect, Magid’s new identity is unstable since it is related to that of the Chalfens. The Chalfen identity is depended on essentialist bases regarding the Notion of Britishness. Accordingly, they consider themselves as part of the British society in contrast to the Joneses and Iqbals. At first, Irie shares Magid’s desire for assimilation. In this respect, she wants to change her physical appearance in order to adapt better to the British concepts of beauty as well as to attract attention of Millat Iqbal. Despite her biracial heritage, she does not achieve the British standards of beauty and cannot conform to culturally established standards. Therefore, Her self-identification within the British cultural standards seems frustrated by the inconsistency of her appearance and the cultural expectations imposed upon her. When Irie first encounters with the Chalfen family, she is shaken by the huge difference between her own family and the Chalfens. In fact, she is so fascinated by them that she desires to be a part of their family, their class by discarding her black racial identity. However, this new identity formation turns out to be unstable and unholdable once again. Irie reconstructs her identity by mimicking the Chalfens. The further she inserts herself into the Chalfen family within the process of assimilation, the more she is rejected by them. Rejected by Joyce and moved to a position of less importance within the middle class professions, Irie does not lose her hope for her desire regarding self-identification by using the components of the British social and cultural ideals. Accordingly, she adapts herself into the role assigned and shaped by Marcus Chalfen as well as his racist expectations. Irie’s attempts at self9

Smith, Zadie. White Teeth. (Toronto: Penguin, 2001), 407. Smith, 450.

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identification in accordance with the white ideals ultimately lead her to a realization beyond attachment to one identity or the other, but to a constant and changeable transformation of the self. In case of Samad, Samad’s identity is confined with his position as an immigrant and thereby as the Other within British society. When Samad’s wish to be recognized as more than an immigrant and a waiter is prevented, Samad wishes to return his essentialized Bangladeshi soil in the face of racist attitudes. He regards his essentialized Bangladeshi cultural practices as permanent and thereby applicable to any circumstances. However, the more he prevents himself from the corrupting influences of the British culture, the further he falls into impure practices such as his sexual desire for his son’s white schoolteacher. Eventually, Samad’s belief in cultural essentialism is shaken and he falls into disheartenment. With regard to Millat, like his father Samad, Millat’s identity is corrupted by cultural essentialism. In the face of British culture, Millat’s “feeling of belonging nowhere” and thereby his feeling of alienation leads him to Muslim fundamentalism. Moreover, Millat desires to act in accordance with unchangeable, rigid doctrine inherited from his homeland On the other hand, Irie’s interaction with both the British culture and Jamaican culture is remarkably different from Millat’s. Irie wishes to become a dentist in response to the pressures of British cultural expectations and thereby she opens a space for self-realization and self-identification created by the “perfect blankness of the past.”11 Accordingly, her interaction with both the British and Jamaican culture provides Irie with significant freedom; which is to say, she can construct her own identity, borrowing traits from both culture. In that case, she can construct multiple, flexible identities. Regarding the possibility of being simultaneously black and British in multicultural Britain, each novel’s conclusion serves a problem. Karim’s realization of his identity as fluid and malleable in the multicultural society and his optimistic view of his own future is shaded by the threatening rise of Thatcherite conservatism, a period that would see the establishment of racism within the British policy as reflected in the 1981 Immigration Act12. Likewise, Irie’s transcendence from racist expectation and thereby her establishment of a space for self-identification is seemingly incomplete because of the risk of “biological determinism.”13 11

Smith, 463. Brah, Avtar. Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities. (London: Routledge, 1996), 21-25. 13 Larsen, Clark Spencer. A Companion to Biological Anthropology. (John Wiley & Sons, 2010),111. 12

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Despite the complexities of the interrelation between class, gender and race, the point shared by these two novels is apparent. The black British can establish a space for self-identification in spite of the racist attitudes by rejecting the fixity of cultural, racial and national identity since such identities are flexible constructs to be altered and rejected 14 . They also obtain a new vision of what it means to be British in a multicultural era. As Hanif Kureishi points out It is the British, the white British, who have to learn that being British isn’t what it was. Now it is a more complex thing, involving new elements. So there must be a fresh way of seeing Britain and the choices it faces: and a new way of being British after all this time. Much thought, discussion and self-examination must go into seeing the necessity of this, what this ‘new way of being British’ involves and how difficult it might be to attain15.

Works Cited Bhabha, Homi. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge, 1994. Brah, Avtar. Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities. London: Routledge, 1996. Hall, Stuart. “Cultural Identity and Diaspora.” Ed. Jim Pines. Framework 36, 1988. Joppke, Christian. Citizenship and Immigration. Polity, 2010. Kureishi, Hanif. The Buddha of Suburbia. Toronto: Penguin, 1990. —. “The Rainbow Sign”. My Beautiful Laundrette and The Rainbow Sign. Boston: Faber and Faber, 1986. Loomba, Ania. Colonialism/Postcolonialism. London: Routledge, 2005. Larsen, Clark Spencer. A Companion to Biological Anthropology. John Wiley & Sons, 2010. Smith, Zadie. White Teeth. Toronto: Penguin, 2001.

14

Hall, Stuart. “Cultural Identity and Diaspora.” Ed. Jim Pines. Framework 36, (1988):222-25. 15 Kureshi, Hanif. “The Rainbow Sign”. My Beautiful Laundrette and The Rainbow Sign. (Boston: Faber and Faber, 1986), 38.

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN PHYSICAL VIOLENCE FUNCTIONING TO REFLECT AN EPIC AND MARXIST WORLDVIEW: EDWARD BOND’S LEAR SøBEL øZMøR

Edward Bond, one of the great dramatists still alive, is certainly among the playwrights whose upbringing and social environment, when fused with his insight, observation and intellect, have not only shaped his worldview but also his art. As a son of an agricultural worker, Bond, undoubtedly, has identified himself with the majority of Englishmen who belong to the working class, a fact that has had a deep influence not only on his plays but also on his theoretical views (Free, 80). Just like Bertolt Brecht who was deeply influenced by what he had seen during his military obligation, Bond was affected too: “His experience with the brutality and dehumanization of army life helped form his image of force as a controlling social instrument” (Free, 80). As a Marxist thinker and playwright, Bond has been both admired and criticised because of his views of the truth about human life. He has two basic anchoring points in his convictions: Firstly, he believes that justice is what humankind needs biologically since “being treated fairly is as important to Bond as food, clothing, and shelter” (Free, 87). In other words, for Bond, no tranquillity or peace can be achieved without justice. Secondly, Bond supports the idea that injustice has been historically created by authority. Because of that, people have social roles which bring them close to injustice. The natural outcome of injustice is violence. As William Free explains, Bond’s poem entitled “On Violence” clearly shows: “...in a class society violence exists both to enforce the class system and as an expression of the frustration and aggression felt by members of society, especially in those who are too inarticulate to express

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their frustration in any other way” (87). For Bond, violence can be stopped only by having more fairness in the world and his plays are there to create an understanding of that truth. Understanding this truth and taking an action is at the core of Bond’s theatre which he labels as “rational theatre”, by which he means “a theatre of ideas and action” (Barnes, 43). He is “capable of striking a deeply destructive and tragic chord in his plays whilst always upholding humanistic values and maintaining an awareness of the dramatist’s social and moral responsibilities in a world of increasing cruelty” (Barnes, 43). This is what made him to be labelled as “the most successful Brechtian playwright in English” (Styan, 188). He took the techniques of the Brechtian epic theatre and adopted them to his own in order to reflect his political views. As Reinelt pointed out, Bond has both learned from and followed Brecht “but at the same time he developed his own specific style” (49). The vital concern for Bond is the relationship between society and its subjects. As Richard Scharine clarifies, Bond “believes that society destroys its children in a number of ways. Primarily, they are not allowed to function in the way for which they were evolved. Designed to live biologically, human beings are forced to live technologically. That is, they are treated as parts of a commercially competitive cycle” (256). Thus, Bond is of the opinion that mental, moral and spiritual health of human beings has no value in the modern world. Man is forced to work at jobs and under conditions which he has not been designed to and which are both physiologically and psychologically unsuited for him. In order to keep this dehumanizing cycle going on, man has to consume what has produced. It is very ironical to note that the worker has no relationship with his production, which is one of the dehumanizing consequences of industrialization. Man “bears no responsibility for the total end-product and the quality of the end-product itself has no immediate bearing on the quality of his life. Even the part of the product for which the worker is responsible requires automatism from him rather than skill” (Scharine, 257). Bond has always had a Marxist understanding of life and art. Marx’s declaration that “It is not the consciousness of men that determines their life, but, on the contrary, their life determines their consciousness” (51) can be seen in every line of Bond’s plays. He portrays the inevitable outcomes of the capitalist system and mechanisms of authority over individuals since for him there is no individual without society. Capitalism is basically “an economic and social system for organizing production which is based upon the institutions of private property and the market (that is, the voluntary purchase and sale of goods, services and factors of

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production such as land, labour and capital), and which relies upon the pursuit of private profit as its driving force” (Bowles, 8-9). Since a class society is an unavoidable consequence of the capitalist system in which the rulers/capital owners and the ruled/workers have a mutual relationship, so is the class conflict. To quote Marx, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles: Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word oppressor and oppressed...” (200). Having this point as his departure, Bond claims that the capitalist system fosters an unfair class distinction and inequality in terms of wealth and power. Therefore, human values in this system are no longer humane. The individual is reduced to an object with no value since, according to Marx, “The worker becomes poorer the more wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and extent. The worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity the more commodities he produces.” (324). At this point, the authoritative system should be mentioned which is on the side of the ruling class. Bond believes that social institutions, such as family, law, educational, governmental and economic systems, all represent authority. He maintains that such institutions corrupt the individual to create ductile and conformist citizens, a belief analogous to Michel Foucault’s theories. In such a system, the individual cannot help being alienated. They get alienated both from themselves and from the rest of the society. Alienation brings dehumanization and selfishness in order to survive in the capitalist society. The chain in the process after dehumanization is violence. Bond rejects the idea that human beings are evil or violent by birth. On the contrary, he claims that they are biologically and instinctively good creatures. However, thrown into the capitalist society, some of them are not strong or able enough to resist the repressions. Therefore, they either become violent or accept the power by which they are ruled (Scharine, 196). In other words, the individual develops some self-defensive strategies to be able to survive and this results in alienation, dehumanization and violence. This “savage” journey from alienation to violence appears in Bond’s drama, especially in Lear, which is a way for Bond to assert his Marxist ideology and epic technique. Written in 1971, Bond’s Lear depicts the unavoidable process an individual goes through in the capitalist, repressive and class-conscious society. An epic rewriting of Shakespeare’s King Lear, Bond’s play is set in an indefinite time and place. Bond’s version is basically concerned with the portrayal of the self-realization of a ruler. Lear, believing that his country will be attacked, controls the construction of the wall. He believes that this wall will protect his country from his enemies, especially from the

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Duke of Cornwall and the Duke of North, whose fathers had been killed by Lear himself. Psychological, if not physical, attack comes from his daughters, Bodice and Fontanelle, who have married his two enemies. The daughters do not waste time to overthrow their father. However, their regime is not less irrational than Lear’s. Meanwhile, King Lear’s third daughter, Cordelia, in the Shakespearean version, is presented as the wife of a gravedigger’s boy in the Bondian version. She is raped and her husband is killed before her eyes. She soon becomes the guerrilla leader and proves to be as violent as the previous rulers in the country. However, Bondian drama is not pessimistic: Lear gains self-realization about the fact that the chaos and violence in the country are the outcomes of his irrational regime. Thus, at the end, he seeks for political alteration although he cannot see it in his life span. In other words, “Lear dramatizes the overthrow of an oppressive regime by a revolution which itself develops its own rigorous ethic. The arbitrary cruelty of Lear is carried further in the indiscriminate savagery perpetrated by his daughters when they seize power; but the new order led by Cordelia soon establishes a more efficient system of terror which suppresses all opposition or criticism” (Hirst, 139). In line with Bond’s theory of violence, this paper attempts to show that in the play the holders of power, Lear, Bodice, Fontanelle and lastly Cordelia, experience the process of becoming violent though in different ways. Bodice and Fontanelle begin the play already thrown into the corrupt authoritative regime governed by their father. Thus, they have a clear affinity to violence since they have been raised in this governmental system. If violence creates violence, it is true for Fontanelle and Bodice; they learn how to become violent mainly from their father and exercise it firstly on the one who has taught it to them, that is, Lear. Although we do not see their alienation as the play begins, it is sure they have already gone through such a period. Dehumanization and violence mark their ends. As far as Cordelia is concerned, it can be claimed that she has gone through the opposite direction. As a naive and ordinary woman, she has been exposed to harsh violence. Had she not been raped and her husband not been slaughtered before her eyes, most probably she would have stayed in her village and live happily ever after. But, as she seized power, what she experienced, after alienating and dehumanizing her, has turned her into a creature as violent as Bodice and Cordelia. For example, when she becomes the guerrilla leader, she does not recruit a soldier since she finds him lacking hatred. In this respect, it could be claimed that Cordelia and Lear seem to couple each other: while Cordelia is depicted as transforming from a young naive woman to a violent and brutal one, Lear

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is seen to be altering in the opposite direction; from a bloodthirsty violent leader, he turns into a sensitive and self-realized individual. The key point here is self-realization. The paradigm for Lear works reversely: From a violent leader, he proceeds to the stages of dehumanization (mirror scene) and alienation. But this reverse paradigm “humanizes” him and he attains his self-realization and realizes fully that his regime was irrational. Lear, as most critics agree, is a play not only about revolution but also about violence. It is true that revolution and violence are often complementary themes, but they are not synonymous. The excessive amount of physical violence in Lear was harshly criticized by reviewers and the public (Hirst, 132). However, Bond justifies himself in the Preface of the play: I write about violence as naturally as Jane Austen wrote about manners. Violence shapes and obsesses our society and if we do not stop being violent we have no future. People who do not want writers to write about violence want to stop them writing about us and our time. It would be immoral not to write about violence (Plays Two 3).

For Bond a work of art reflects the time it is written since it is a cultural product. Violence is a fact of the world whose existence no one can deny. In this respect, his reassessment of Brechtian V-effect and renaming it aggro-effect is of significant value because aggro-effect, for Bond, functions to represent aggression and violence (aggro referring to aggression). Scenes of violence that are disturbing and shocking are an inseparable part of Bond’s theatre who aims to enable the audience to experience realization concerning the social ills and thus become alert. For example, Lear executes a worker who has caused the death of another man. Even his “devilish” daughters try to show Lear that it is cruel and unnecessary. The man’s death is delayed because Lear is interrupted. Thus, a sense of suspense and tension is built up in the audience. This is the first “aggro effect” in the play (Hirst, 133). Bond’s use of aggro effects is noteworthy in the scenes of the torturing of Warrington, the rape of Cordelia and the death of the Gravedigger’s boy, the removal of Lear’s eyes and the anatomising of Fontanelle. These scenes are undoubtedly as disturbing as they have been aimed to. Hirst claims that the violent scenes in Lear are “direct representations of the cruelty of oppressive regimes. And whilst there is irony in these scenes it is more inescapably savage. The violence of Lear’s own regime is exceeded by that of Bodice and Fontanelle” (135). Both of them are responsible for the torture of Warrington and the attack of the soldiers which leads to the rape of Cordelia and the death of the Gravedigger’s boy. What is more, the

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blinding of Lear, which is a political act, is preceded by the ruthlessness of Cordelia’s revolutionary regime. All these imply that there is no escape from violence because “each society outdoes the oppressiveness of the previous one” (Hirst, 135). Another alienation effect in Lear occurs when the audience learns the name of Cordelia at the end of Act I when she is being raped. The Gravedigger’s boy calls her name twice before being shot. The audience here is over surprised by the fact that her name is Cordelia (remembering Shakespeare’s Lear). Cordelia, who is suffering as a result of the violence she and her husband have gone through at the beginning of the play, will be hardened through her pain. The suffering figure turns into the “tough guerrilla fighter” (Hirst, 135) who turns Lear down to compromise in Act III. Here, Bond springs another V-effect. It is true that Cordelia has never liked Lear but “her rejection of the truth of his humanist plea is the more savage as we are forced to adjust to her new-found strength, a strength which denies basic human needs” (Hirst, 136). It is also vital to note that although extreme violence is prevalent in Lear, a sense of ironic humour exists too. For example, in Act I Scene when Warrington is tortured, the attitudes of the two sisters are contrasted in a humorous way. While Bodice is calm and keeping her knitting by uttering “Plain, pearl, plain”, she comments her sister’s attitude who wants to sit on the lungs of Warrington. The response of the audience is complex since “the emotional effect of the scene is disturbing but our empathy is prevented by the comments of Bodice who comes between us and the action” (Hirst, 138). Such opposing attitudes of Fontanelle and Bodice presented side by side make the audience evaluate the violence and understand its outcomes. The audience can neither go through a sort of catharsis nor is he allowed to ignore the cruelty. “The laughter Bodice elicits from us both makes us accomplices and yet shock us into a more considered response” (Hirst, 138-139). To conclude, as a Marxist playwright Bond announces “We have to correct the false views on which our culture is founded [...] A false culture sustains itself by a false idea of human nature [...] Our own culture is based on the idea that people are naturally violent. It is used to justify the violence and authoritarianism that saturate our state although in fact it is the state that provokes violence and authoritarianism.” (The Worlds 13). Bond seems to subvert and correct the views on violence in Lear and he achieves this through the dramatic strategies and in line with his political views discussed in this paper.

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Works Cited Primary Source Bond, Edward. Plays: Two. Lear, The Sea, Narrow Road to the Deep North, Black Mass, Passion. London: Methuen, 1977.

Secondary Sources Barnes, Philip. A Companion to Post-War British Theatre. London: Croom Helm, 1986. Bond, Edward. The Worlds with the Activist Papers. London: Methuen, 1980. —. Introduction. Plays Two: Lear, The Sea, Narrow Road to the Deep North, Black Mass, Passion. London: Methuen, 1977. Bowles, Paul. Capitalism. New York: Pearson, 2007. Free, William. “Edward Bond”. British Playwrights, 1956-1995 (Ed. by William W. Demastes). Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1996. Hirst, David L. Edward Bond. London: Macmillan, 1985. Marx, Karl. Selected Writings in Sociology and Social Philosophy (Trans. and ed. by T. B. Bottomore). New York: McGraw-Hill Inc., 1964. Reinelt, Janelle. After Brecht. Ann Arbor: Univ. Of Michigan Press, 1994. Scharine, Richard. The Plays of Edward Bond. London: Associated Univ. Press, 1976. Styan, J. L. Modern Drama in Theory and Practice: Expressionism and Epic Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1981.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT CONTEMPORARY BRITISH THEATRE ‘A-LA-MODE’ IN TURKEY (1990-) SILA ùENLEN GÜVENÇ

Introduction: Post-1990s British Drama At the turn of the 21st century, the main new writing theatres in Britain such as the Traverse in Edinburgh, and the Royal Court, the Bush, the National and Royal Shakespeare Company in London renewed their historic commitment to developing new work. In this respect, artistic directors including Ian Brown, Dominic Dromgoole and Stephen Daldry started looking for new provocative plays to stage or changed their programming policies to include dramatic works composed by new writers, which directly or indirectly led to Sarah Kane, Anthony Neilson, Mark Ravenhill, Philip Ridley, Martin Crimp etc. In a talk delivered to the Society for Theatre Research (Art Workers Guild, London) in 2010, Aleks Sierz has indicated that close to the end of the 20th century the United Kingdom was literally “drowning in new writing”. With relation to the predominant atmosphere and state of British theatre in this decade, he noted that if the 1990s were “the Quantum decade, with everything happening at the same time and all over the place. British theatre resembled a nuclear reactor: inside, everything is bouncing off the walls; common sense flies out the window; paradox rules okay”. Consequently, such inclinations and efforts led to dramatic works that have been grouped under the term ‘in-yer-face’ theatre. In his influential work entitled In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today, Sierz defines ‘in-yer-face’ theatre as “any drama that takes the audience by the scruff of the neck and shakes it until it gets the message” (2001: 4). In practice, these are post-1990s plays displaying a harsh reaction to the spirit of the age, focusing on taboo or controversial subjects such as violence, victimization, sex, incest, rape, war crime, mental

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illnesses, asylums, drugs, overdose and employing a series of theatrical techniques –raw, biased, coarse language, shock tactics, deliberate attacks on audience prejudices, and stage imagery emphasizing severe pain or vulnerability without relief. Now, it would be incorrect to say that the 1990s were completely composed of in-yer-face, but it definitely dominated the decade and continued to shape British drama even after it lost ground around 1999. Although some of the sensibilities, techniques and subject matter present in in-yer-face theatre have prevailed on to the next era, there have also been certain innovations. As a broad way of categorizing, two kinds of theatre have been produced after 1999, “literal theatre”, a nonexperimental kind of drama with social commentary showing the British nation to itself and “metaphysical theatre” –drama that is heavy on metaphor, visionary imagination and experimentation– that provides highly provocative examples of contemporary drama (Sierz: 2010). Further than that, it is impossible to group them due to their individualistic nature. For example, Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis (2000), Joe Penhall’s Blue/Orange (2000) and Anthony Neilson’s The Wonderful World of Dissocia (2004) all take up the theme of mental illnesses, but their form, style and the way they deal with this subject matter is very different; while Blue/Orange criticizes Britain’s health policies through two male doctors’ (senior Robert and junior Bruce) disagreement about the treatment of the possibly schizophrenic patient Afro-Caribbean Christopher, Dissocia questions the state of Lisa torn between an imaginary world (Dissocia) and real life (hospital) due to a dissociative disorder created by the trauma of childhood rape, and 4:48 Psychosis illustrates the condition of a patient experiencing clinical depression. Among these three plays, especially Kane’s 4:48 proves to be distinct in its style, employment of poetic language, use of repetition, countdown, dialogue, monologue etc., A few examples from the play are as follows: I am sad I feel the future is hopeless and that things cannot improve I am bored and dissatisfied with everything I am a complete failure as a person

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91 84 81 72 69 58 44 37

38

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unpleasant unacceptable uninspiring impenetrable irrelevant irreverent irreligious unrepentant dislike dislocate disembody deconstruct

(2001: 221-2)

Even though it is impossible to classify new dramatic works in Britain, as mentioned earlier, the predominant dramatic inclinations of the last decade have been the portrayal of various sensibilities and voices – Muslim, Caribbean, gay, transvestite etc., in plays set all over world. Perhaps as an extension of this, politics –especially relating to 9/11 and its after-effect, war crime and trauma, war on and fear of terror, the culture of fear, problems relating to the Middle-East and Africa– have been presented through individual experience or by means of verbatim or plays resembling reality T.V. Of course, there have also been a vast number of plays concerning Britain, relating to national identity, class, social problems caused by Thatcher’s policies in the 1980s, racial tensions and poverty, segregation etc., but as Sierz has pointed out, there weren’t many ‘rebels’ “who were able to reinvent the old radical spirit of anger and criticism”. By referring to John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger, he rightfully asks “Who can name this decade’s Jimmy Porter?” (2010).

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British Drama ‘a-la-mode’ in Turkey Having given a brief outline of British drama at the turn of the century, it would be appropriate to move on to Turkey. British drama – predominantly plays by Shakespeare– has always gathered a large crowd of spectators in Turkey, but in-yer-face theatre has become extremely popular. Turkish theatregoers, largely composed of young spectators, want to see provocative plays that express their generation. In addition, even classical plays, such as Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus (Semaver Kumpanyas-2010) are being staged by the employment of ‘in-yer-face’ techniques. Since hot versions of in-yer-face require small spaces, enough for 50-200 spectators, this has, in turn, led to the increase of what I term as ‘flat theatres’, that is, small-budget theatres that entertain audiences in apartment flats or small venues, also called ‘fringe’ or ‘black box’. Many of these theatre groups in metropolitan cities have or are currently staging new British plays, especially in Istanbul; however, some might be surprised to learn that Turkish spectators were officially introduced to in-yer-face theatre in 1999, not by a private theatre company, but the Turkish National Theatre. They staged Martin McDonagh’s Beauty Queen of Leenane in 1999, continued with the Cripple of Inishmaan in 2007 and are currently staging Pillowman (2012-) and The Lieutenant of Inishmore (2013); Lieutenant of Inishmore was also staged by Kent Oyuncular in 2003. The year 2005 proved to be very significant in terms of British drama, because it witnessed the rise of post-1990s British drama and underground-fringe theatres in Turkey. That year, Semaver Kumpanyas staged the controversial play Trainspotting. Also, the same year a theatre company that was going to have a vast influence on contemporary drama in Turkey had been established–DOT. DOT, starting in a 180m2 flat at Msr Apartment, was the first theatre company that made post 1990s British Theatre popular in Turkey. They have literally dedicated themselves to contemporary drama, especially those by British playwrights; some of the plays they staged up to 2013 include Joe Penhall’s Love and Understanding (2005), Anthony Neilson’s The Censor (2006), Tracy Letts’s Bug (2006), Caryl Churchill’s Faraway (2006), Philip Ridley’s Mercury Fur (2007), Mark Ravenhill’s Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat (2008) and Shopping and F***ing (2009), David Harrower’s Blackbird (2008), Simon Stephens’ Pornography (2009), Simon Stephens’ Punk Rock (2010), Dennis Kelly’s Orphans (2011), Bryony Lavery’s Beautiful Burnout (2012), David Greig’s Yellow Moon: The Ballad of Leila and Lee (2012) and Ali Taylor’s Overspill (2013).

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Perhaps due to DOT’s success, many young theatre groups lacking proper funds, space or cast preferred staging similar plays that require small locations enough for a small number of spectators. This has led to an increase in the number of alternative theatres in Turkey; some of these venues are økinci Kat Tiyatrosu, Kara Kutu, Oyuncular Tiyatro KahveCem Safran Sahnesi, Tiyatro Art, Kubarac50, Oyun Kutusu, Domus Sanat Çiftli÷i and Dip Sahne. The next topic to address might be the British playwrights staged in Turkey. Martin McDonagh, the first one to be staged, has already been covered in connection to the National Theatre and Kent Tiyatrosu, but it should be added that Yan Etki theatre group is currently staging The Lonesome West (2013). Sarah Kane is, without a doubt, the most popular of such playwrights; all of Sarah Kane’s published work have been staged in Turkey apart from her screenplay Skin; Crave together with 4.48 Psychosis at Maya Sahnesi in 2003 and by Tiyatro POT in 2012, Peadra’s Love (2006) by Tiyatro Oyun Kutusu, Cleanced by a group of drama students of Ankara University at Domus Sanat Çiftli÷i in 2010 and Blasted by Karakutu the same year. Another British playwright that has swept Istanbul is Anthony Neilson; after the Censor was staged in 2006 by DOT, three of Neilson’s plays are being staged this season (2013); Normal by Ölü Aktörler, Penetrator by In’Tackt and The Wonderful World of Dissocia by økinci Kat Tiyatrosu. Philip Ridley seems to be yet another favourite among young directors; following DOT’s staging of Mercury Fur in 2007, økinci Kat Tiyatrosu staged The Fastest Clock in the Universe in 2011, Tiyatro Yan Etki staged Leaves of Glass in 2012, and økinci Kat is currently staging Pitchfork Disney) this season. Next we have Joe Penhall with two plays-Love and Understanding and Some Voices, Simon Stephen-Pornography and Punk Rock and Mark Ravenhill –Shopping and Fucking and Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat. Of course there are others, but these seem to be the most popular. Now, theatres in Turkey are moving on to the next step. They are looking for new provocative plays to stage composed by young Turkish playwrights, most of who have been greatly influenced by in-yer-face. Some examples are Özen Yula’s Gözü Kara Alaturka (Bakrköy Belediye Tiyatrosu-2007) portraying the lives of various underdogs of the backstreets of Harbiye, Sami Berat Marçal’s Limonata (økinci Kat Tiyatrosu 2011) –a commentary on topics such as military service, homosexuality and violence, Ebru Nihal Celkan’s Kimsenin Ölmedi÷i Günün Ertesiydi (Kumbarac50-2013) about transvestites’ lives and Nerede Kalmútk? (ùermola Performans-2012) presenting a soldier’s difficulty adapting to normal life after returning from military service in

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South-Eastern Turkey, Bu÷ra Gülsoy’s Pragma (Garajistanbul-2011) on pragmatism and serial killers, Aut by Alper Kul and Özgür Özgülgün drawing parallels between football and violence (økinci Kat-2011-), Yi÷it Sertemir’s Katilcilik (Kumbarac50-2013) about three women who initially meet on the internet and end up committing a murder, Ahmet Sami Özbudak’s øz (Galata Perform-2013) following the lives of different characters in the 1950s, the 1980s and around 2000s, who have lived in the same house at different times etc. Of course almost all of these plays have not been published yet and must be viewed directly on the relevant stage. Similar to post-1990s British drama, the majority of the plays produced by a new generation of Turkish playwrights, take up taboo subjects, employ shock tactics to show the violence, obscenity, cruelty that people are subjected to and address issues relating to the world in general, and especially to the social and political history of Turkey. In conclusion, in-yer-face theatre and post-1990s British drama has attracted the attention of numerous theatre companies, especially fringe theatres, and young theatre spectators in Turkey. As a result, many plays by contemporary British playwrights such as Sarah Kane, Anthony Neilson, Mark Ravenhill, Philip Ridley etc. have been staged by Turkish theatre companies in metropolitan cities including økinci Kat Tiyatrosu, Kara Kutu, Oyuncular Tiyatro Kahve-Cem Safran Sahnesi, Tiyatro Art, Kubarac50, Oyun Kutusu, In’Tackt, Domus Sanat Çiftli÷i, Dip Sahne etc. This popularity has, in turn, led to the composition of controversial plays by a new generation of young Turkish writers that show a great influence of post-1990s British drama.

Works Cited Crimp, Martin. “Attempts on Her Life”. Plays Two. London: Faber and Faber, 2005, 197-285. Gibson, Harry. “Trainspotting”. 4 Plays Irvine Welsh. New York: Vintage Books, 2001. 9-65. Kane, Sarah. Complete Plays. London: Methuen Drama, 2001. Neilson, Anthony. Plays 1: Normal, Penetrator, The Year of the Family, The Night Before Christmas, The Censor. London: Methuen Drama, 1998. —. The Wonderful World of Dissocia and Realism. London: Methuen Drama, 2007. McDonagh, Martin. The Beauty Queen of Leenane. New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1996. —. The Cripple of Inishmaan. New York: Vintage Books, 1998.

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—. The Pillowman. New York: Faber and Faber, 2003 Penhall, Joe. “Blue/Orange”. The Methuen Drama of Twenty-First Century British Plays. Edited by Aleks Sierz. London: Methuen Drama, 2010. 1-119. Ravenhill, Mark. Shopping & F***ing. London: Methuen Drama, 1996. Ridley, Philip. Mercury Fur. London: Methuen Drama, 2005. Senlen Güvenç, Sla. “Anthony Neilson’un Kurbanlar”. Tiyatro Tiyatro (242). 29-32. Sierz, Aleks. In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today. London: Faber and Faber, 2000. —. “Blasted and After: New Writing in British Theatre Today”. 16 February 2010. Talk delivered at a meeting of the Society for Theatre Research, at the Art Workers Guild, London. http://www.theatrevoice.com/2491/new-writing-in-british-theatretoday/ (voice recording)

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE DEFOE AND HOLLAND: THE CASE OF ROXANA MARGARET J-M SÖNMEZ

All reading is interpretation, and when we study literature at university we learn to make our interpretive strategies conscious, and to theorize them, and to apply them with methodological rigour, knowing that different strategies or practices will yield differing results. In this paper I use three interpretive strategies in an investigation of the same question in the same text: what do they tell us about the representation of Holland in Defoe’s Roxana? This paper presents interpretations based on the perspectives of place identity, speech analysis and Thing Theory. “Place identity” refers to ways of discussing places as they relate to the people experiencing them: how the place projects itself in itself: its situation, its size, its appearance and so on; how places are parts of people’s inner, or self-identities—how we feel about them; and how places may even take on importance through themselves representing the insides of our minds (Bachelard 5, Hernandez et al. 310 ff., Lewicka 211, Prohansky 147, Stryker and Burke 284 ff.). In our novel the narrator, Roxana, concentrates almost exclusively on her “interior drama” (Blewett 9), and not much on her exterior settings, and one result is that places are only depicted as physical entities when their description is relevant to the narrator’s story.1 Various critics have 1

This in spite of the possible expectations of some readers’ for whom Defoe is linked with the emerging sense of a nation state, with national identity and early imperialism This novel may not present much evidence of these new ideas, but the character Roxana does have a rudimentary national consciousness, however, and this is shown in her repeating that although she lived in France up to the age of ten (Roxana 38), she “esteems” herself to be an English woman (149). She also makes some (very few) comments about behaviours typical of France, England or Holland.

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agreed, furthermore, that the countries in this novel are represented primarily as parts of a “spatial semiotic economy” (Sorensen2 84, qtd in Gabbard 240). The descriptions of countries and other physical spaces in them that Roxana gives us are, as in most eighteenth century English novels, both different from what later novelists tended to provide (Wall Details of Space, 390) and indirect, although “physical, spatial detail is actually far more present than is usually recognized” (Ibid.). In Roxana Holland is presented physically as it presented itself politically in history,—that is, as a sanctuary accessible to those who fled persecution. It “had Harbours on every Coast, so near, that [travellers are] seldom in Danger of being lost “ (Roxana, 206), From her inward-looking view- point Roxana repeats this association of Holland with refuge when she later refers to a friendly Dutch merchant as her “safe harbour” (245). Roxana finds that Holland is generous in welcoming guests, having large and comfortable residences, which provide a homely comfort and also spaces for business.3 It is also described as a physically quiet place, for “the noise of Horses [. . .] is not very common [. . . ] where every-body passes by Water” (203).4 If, following Bachelard, we look at the spaces we inhabit as representative of the spaces that inhabit us – that is, if we see this house as a representative of what happens inside Roxana during her stay in Holland, we note that it gives her not only safety and comfort but also a space (and time) for her to take stock of her physical, social and financial situation in life, and an opportunity to learn the practical skills she needs to conduct her own affairs and become a “She-Merchant” (198), should she wish;5 in other words, Holland and the house recommended to her by the Dutch merchant’s friend (another merchant) provide for her a 2

Sorensen, “’I Talk to Everybody in Their Own Way’: Defoe’s Economics of Identity,” The New Economic Criticism: Studies at the Intersection of Literature and Economics. Ed Martha Woodmansee and Mark Osteen (New York, Routledge, 1999). 3 from the perspective of a comfortable and large house, for the house in Rotterdam where Roxana stays is large enough to lodge her as a guest for nine months, and the Merchant as another guest in his own room for six of those nine months (203); it is also large enough to contain a separate part or room known as the “Counting-house” (173), which implies that it is a place of business as well as of residence. No details of the house or its furnishings are provided, but it lacks nothing and provides a setting of wealthy and at the same time homely comfort. 4 This is the only reference in the novel to Holland’s canals, perhaps the most outstanding of its physical characteristics. 5 Although Gabbard argues that she nevertheless remains financially illiterate (241ff)

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watershed in her life. Up to now she has moved from husband to lover and then to second lover more or less as desperation or opportunity offered, but now she is financially independent and also out of the hurly-burly of life within society (and she has been through a terrible storm at sea, always emblematic of God’s warning followed by an emblem of redemption), and she is free now to choose whichever path in life she decides to follow. She owes no allegiance to the owner of the house in which she resides, and Rotterdam provides her with spaces that keep her financial, personal, social selves separated from each other. The “very honest, good house” (Roxana 204) where she stays in Rotterdam very effectively keeps apart “the I from the not-I” (Bachelard 5), or at any rate it separates the different “I’s” that comprise Roxana’s identity. Unlike “[t]he whore [who] skulks about in lodgings” (199), as a respectable widow she may stay or leave her rented accommodation as she prefers, openly. Her acquisitive, financial identity is physically removed from her social self, because for business matters she uses the “counting house” in her merchant’s friend’s house; when she sees her Dutch merchant returned from France she moves to the door of this house (204), and the Merchant soon after decides to take lodgings in the same place as Roxana, where they have use of (at least) a sitting room (in which they sit and talk about many things, and in which he proposes to her) and separate bed chambers on the same floor (215). In the sitting room matters of finance as well as matters of marriage are discussed between them: Roxana wants to pay off her debts to him with money, he wishes her to satisfy those debts with love and marriage, “seek[ing] to absorb the economic into the realm of morality”, as Conway puts it (122). It is in this sitting room that she is given the chance to satisfy both her socio-sexual needs and her desire for control of her own finances, by becoming a Dutch wife, because6 being a Dutch housewife in Defoe’s lifetime was thought of as being an efficient “Woman of Business” (Roxana 197).7 The resolution lies not in the sitting-room marriage proposal, but in a bedroom move: payment through sex. The image of the two facing bedchambers in this lodging house, and the fragile space between them, denotes the autonomies of Roxana and her 6

According to Gabbard This interpretation is contrary to that of Conway (121), who sees that what the Dutch merchant is proposing is a marriage in which Roxana is a “trophy wife”, with no control over her money. This is correct, of course, in that the husband would have ultimate possession and direction of the finances, but it is very specifically not what the Dutchman promises, especially in his second proposal eleven years later.

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Dutch merchant, and also their intimacy with each other: “the room he lay in opened, as he was within it would, just opposite to my lodging-room, so we could almost call out of bed to one another” (205). She seduces him across that space: “I . . . went into my chamber but did not shut the door, and as he could easily see that I was undressing myself, he steps to his own room, . . . and in a few minutes undresses himself also, and returns to my door in his gown and slippers.” Tantalizingly (she explains that it was because she thought he was only jesting, but a paragraph later admits that “I resolved from the beginning he should lie with me”) she has now closed—but not locked—her door. He enters, locks the door behind him, and jumps into bed with her. She has compromised her spatial and sexual autonomy but does not regret it; her decision has been made by enticing someone else to act as agent, someone who has to transgress the space between the two rooms, and enter into her own lodging-room. It is he, however, who is hurt by the move, because with that move he has committed himself emotionally and morally to her, especially with the conception of a child, while she has merely allowed him a few metres of physical space, and has not allowed him to enter into her emotional or social life at all (he still believes her to be a respectable widow, he does not understand her desire to avoid marriage). Apart from her plans to make more money the best way she knows, she thinks of marriage (as she tells him many years later) as “captivity, and the family [as] a house of bondage,” and the role of a wife to be that of “an upper servant” (352). The facing bedrooms scene in the Rotterdam house is behaviourally echoed when they reunite eleven years later. Roxana is now keen to discover the Dutch merchant’s whereabouts (Amy has been sent to seek him in Europe), and at the same time he has crossed the space between them (the English channel) and come to London to look for her (341), but when she does see him, with ambivalent behaviour similar to her closing but not locking her bedroom door in Rotterdam, she hides her face in her carriage and refuses to acknowledge to her companion that she has been looking for him (330), all the while longing to know where he is (331).8 It 8

He has been staying in “Laurence Pountney’s Hill” – on a later page changed to “St Laurence Pountney’s Lane: (359 computer ed), a district of merchants’ residences (two of which, dating from 1703, have been well restored (QEB Holby Whitman “History of 1-2 Laurence Pountney Hill”. Web. Jul 2013). The district was named after a fourteenth century member of the Drapers’ Company (Duncan, 158). In this part of London there are very few houses remaining from the 1666 Great Fire, but the remains of one of them have been found in the 1678 Rectory, in Laurence Pountney Hill (Lonsdale, Sarah,. “Sweet Serenity of the city life,” The Telegraph 16 Oct 2004. Web. . Jul 2013).

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is of course in the less intimate spaces of her lodging house (a parlour and a back kitchen) that they meet, but as in the Rotterdam bed-chamber scene, they see each other across a space or margin delineated by doors: Roxana is hiding herself, in confusion, in a back kitchen next to the “very handsome parlour below stairs” (338) in which her merchant has been shown, when her landlady and friend “on a sudden unlocks the folding doors, which looked into the next parlour, and throw[s] them open, . . . ushering him in” (338). Over the next few weeks Roxana both encourages and discourages the man, for she learns that she may have the chance to become a German princess, and this cools her ardour for the Dutchman. When royal title becomes unavailable to her, she turns back to her Dutch merchant. Her meetings with him will result in another bedroom scene, months later, but this time one with no guilt or secrecy in it for anyone: a wedding night, followed by the Quaker landlady bringing them cakes and making them drink chocolate in bed the following morning (369). Her first visit to Holland has given Roxana space to think and to make plans, and a chance to lead a respectable life either independently or through marriage (both of which she turns away from). The country offers “the prospect of safety” and through the novel “Holland provides a leitmotif suggesting security” (Gabbard 241). Indeed, we find this suggestion or association whenever Holland is mentioned: towards the end of the novel, it is with her Dutchman that she again finds safety and respectability. Married in reality, he brings her not only further wealth but two titles: in England he makes her a Lady, in Holland a Countess.9 She will live there, in “a kind of Magnificence that I had not been acquainted with” (393), for “some few Years of flourishing” (493).10 Holland is again acting as a refuge, for her return is prompted by the need for to escape persecution.11 Holland and its towns appear in Roxana’s mind throughout the novel in relation to their banking and business functions. Her narration is full of references to international transfers of money (Roxana 2, 48, 74, 80, 167, 9

(“The first thing which happen’d after our coming to the Hague, . . . was, that my spouse saluted me one morning with the Title of Countess”, 306-7) 10 [We are then, of course, told that there will be some unspecified “dreadful Course of Calamities” (379). Exactly what Defoe might have had in mind as a continuation we do not know, for the continuations that are sometimes appended are not considered authoritative.] 11 (she fears that her daughter will find her and identify her past as a famous courtesan). In her desperation she admits that “I was safe nowhere, no not in Holland itself” (358). Nevertheless, she “resolved to . . . go over to Holland; there, [she] believed, [she] would be at rest” (366).

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169 et passim), or Bills of Exchange taken out at banks in Amsterdam or Rotterdam, a monetary service used by most of Europe at the time (81, 168-9, 178, 181 et passim; Blewitt 302; n. 203). She uses Holland and Dutch Merchants as bankers (R 198, et passim), and continues to handle Dutch Billseven when settled in England. When a much older Roxana wishes to give up her life as a courtesan her disappearance from fashionable London is accounted for by saying that she has “gone over to Holland upon extraordinary business” (317). The association of Holland with banking and business is extended to an empowering role for women in the family: she refers (367) to the earlier-mentioned reputation of Dutch wives as the managers of family financers, and as excellent householders, “bargainers, book-keepers, and money managers” (Gabbard 241). Furthermore, when Roxana and the Dutch merchant are discussing where to live, she comments that he cannot live in the remote countryside of England, because “bred to business and used to converse among men of business, [he] could hardly tell how to live without it; at least it appeared he should be like a fish out of water, uneasy and dying” (Roxana 351), and again she repeats “he would always love to be among business, and conversing with men of business” (365), and therefore Roxana (who is keen to avoid London and the possibility of “the kind of life I had led at Pall Mall and in other places” (347) being disclosed) thinks that an English seaport might be the best place for them to settle in. Eventually, though, she asks him to move to Holland, where they might have all of the things that they both desire: wealth, status, both family and a business environment (for him), and freedom from persecution (for her). The next way I chose to look at how the Dutch Republic is represented in this novel was to analyse the ways in which Dutch speakers are presented – taking ideas from social psychology, sociolinguistics, postcolonial studies and discourse analysis, 12 we can sum them up by saying that reported speech indicates the narrator’s attitudes towards the speakers: we remember for example that a major reason for Chinua Achebe calling Conrad a “bloody racist” was the fact that in Heart of Darkness Conrad (in fact Marlow) did not give Africans any human voice at all, only drummings in the jungle and wailings from the darkness. Similarly, Subaltern Studies have identified the silencing of characters or populations as a distinct and identifiable form of suppression in texts. Roxana has an excellent language learning ability; during her 9 months in Holland she learns the language and still remembers it many years later, and it is further implied that Dutch is accessible even to uneducated 12

See SĘnmez 2007.

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English people. 13 However no character is given Dutch words and the language is nowhere directly represented— nor is it in any way ridiculed or presented as “other”. Rather, Roxana’s initial inability to understand it is presented as her failing, her outsiderness to the Dutch community. Communication with Dutch people is usually made easy for her because they also speak other languages (French and/or English). There is only one character weakly associated with Holland and whose speech habits are ridiculed as foreign, and this is a Jewish trader who accompanies the honest merchant during their first meeting, and who is depicted in such a crudely and conventionally anti-Semitic way as to make him entirely “Jewish”, and not at all “Dutch”. 14 Her inability to understand his conversation is perhaps indicative of her lack of understanding of international trade. It was, after all, foolish to attempt to sell jewels associated with a murdered man. She is only saved from the consequences of this mistake by the kindness of her new, Dutch admirer, speaking French with her, the language that is throughout associated with feudalistic economics15 and cavalier sexual relations. Roxana returns to the disadvantages of not understanding a language when she is on a storm-stricken boat escaping France. She cannot understand what the Dutch sailors are saying (185), and it is only their gestures, when they start to pray for deliverance, that communicates to her the very real danger of shipwreck. This scene is indicative of Roxana’s own othering from the Dutch community, or rather her inability to understand the spiritual message of trial, prayer and salvation that the storm at sea and potential shipwreck represent,16 and thus also her inability to grasp the spiritual language of the reformed religion that was the major political characteristic of Holland. The speech of Dutch characters is represented in an unmarked, nativelike English, and mostly indirectly reported. When Roxana’s Dutch merchant reappears many years later in London he seems to have lost his 13

Roxana finds in the port town of Harwich a maid who speaks Dutch (169), and she learns the language herself within 9 months. 14 He is the only character in the novel to be thoroughly caricatured through his speech habits. He is pictured as “jabbering” (150) in a Dutch so odd that it may as well be Portuguese, and gesticulating in a grotesque fashion. 15 As pointed out by both Raymond Williams and Dijkstra, according to Gabbard 241. 16 In Dutch literature narrations of storms and shipwreck had been conventional tales of spiritual trial and deliverance for over a hundred years. See Schama, REF. Gabbard (247) pursues the trial and salvation ‘arc’ of plots in Defoe’s novels and its twist in Roxana.

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fluency in English, (he “speak[s] but broken English” (335)); but this is speedily overcome, and their ensuing conversation is indirectly reported in fluent English, with one French term17 indicating that they have reverted to their initial strategy of communicating in French. There is later evidence18 that when they are in London the couple continue to speak French, and it seems to me that this is not unconnected with the fact that they have at the same time resumed illicit sexual relations. They could speak in Dutch, for Roxana has not forgotten the language,19 but they do not seem to do this until they are married and on their way to Holland, and perhaps not even then: it is not mentioned.20 Although Dutch characters are frequently depicted as speaking, their speech is never presented in a way that others them or that could indicate a lack of respect for the speakers; apart from the strange words of the Jewish trader, the utterances of Dutch speakers do not seem foreign at all. This is unlike the narrator’s reporting of the speech of French people, who pepper their talk with foreign (French) expressions, or of the Jewish trader who is the only character to be caricatured through his language (169). The third approach this paper uses to access the novel’s attitudes towards Holland and the Dutch is related to objects and Things. With the onset of Thing Theory the terms are used differently: “objects” refer to material entities with their functions or symbolic values, broadly speaking. A Thing, in the words of Hobbes, is a “material Body” which represents “nothing” (qtd in Lamb, xi-xii). Analyses of things in literature have pursued investigations into what such entities—without reference to their functions or values—are made to “tell” us in a work of literature.21 That is, while representing “nothing” for the characters in the novels, they nevertheless carry a literary meaning to the reader. I initially hypothesized that Thing Theory would be applicable to Defoe’s fiction because his 17

He is reported as saying that he did not want “to add Une Miserable, (that was his Word) to the World” (271) 18 They call Amy “cherry”, French chérie (353; see n. 353 [sic], p. 404). 19 As we know from her ability to understand the men in the part (261) and to speak Dutch to a boy in a boat (325), later. 20 I cannot help seeing the Dutch merchant’s broken English on his third appearance in Roxana’s life as an inconsistency in Defoe’s writing of the character, for earlier on we had learned that this character’s English was “pretty good” (152) and it was reported, sometimes at length, very fluently. 21 Even what undescribed things which are nevertheless present in scenes, add to their stories. Brown’s discussion of Henry James’s Poynton Place is a clear example of this. It is well to be warned that “[t]here is no single method, orientation, or approach underlying the various examples of [. . .] ‘thing theory’” (Felski, 185).

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novels so often specify material objects. We have seen, however, that this novel is characterised a narrator-protagonist who relates only what she deems important to herself, and there is a concomitant description of things and places only as their representations inside this remarkably unintrospective mind (Lamb, 162-3)). Although many objects (and places) are named, very few are described, and their descriptions centre on their value to Roxana. It is when objects have no value for her, or even represent some sort of negative value, that they are presented as mere things.22 Her description of “this Thing called a husband” (Roxana 3), who becomes “such a useless thing” (142) in France is notable in this respect. The things that I have found to be most closely associated with Holland in Roxana are very susceptible to an investigation of the slippage of boundaries between things and humans, and also exhibit forms of consubstantiality as discussed above, it is this aspect of the theory I refer to in this part of the analysis. The majority of objects that are specifically related to Holland in Roxana are things that are by definition – in themselves – negotiations between the subjects that own, handle or interact with them and their material existences. There is space to discuss only two of these in this paper the fetus conceived by Roxana with her Dutch Merchant, and the many instances of the Dutch monetary Bill of Exchange. To look at the fetus first, we may note the doubt that immediately springs to mind as to whether we can call a potential human a thing. Roxana has no such doubts, and she has anyway, as we have seen, already recognized a human as a mere thing: her husband. The pregnancy is first introduced by Roxana as “a bastard in my belly” (Roxana 247). As she describes it, this burden that she carries away from Holland with her conforms exactly to the ambivalent status that Plotz described of things that display a disturbing slippage between subject and object, human and non-human: “at once the essence of a person and yet at the same time utterly material, devoid of all the spiritual qualities that an actual person

22

Her enjoyment of the “Sense of things”(Roxana 304) that Lamb elaborates upon is, I would postulate, not so much a worshipping of the thing’s “fullness” (Lamb xii), or an idolatrous and “voluptuous satisfaction in beholding things purely as they are” (xiii) as delight in both their complete independence from the subject (they have no social, financial or moral claim upon her), and in recognizing the (symbolic and exchange) values of these things. The things that Roxana enjoys are all things that have an ultimate social and financial value (her beautiful face, silver items, carriages, clothes, estates, food and drink, for instance).

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would have” (Plotz 113)23; it also inhabits the liminal region between the “I” and the “not I” where abjection arises, and making of Roxana at the same time a mere object, a container or home for the fetus, for whom she serves the function of being the “not-I that protects the I” (Bachelard 5). She distances herself from this disturbing objectification by specifying that it is her “belly” that the bastard inhabits, not her self. Turning now to the Dutch Bill of Exchange, and to the many other financial things associated with Holland through the Dutch Merchant’s gifts after their marriage, we may illustrate this section with one small part of one of Roxana’s lists of objects: boxes and Bundles . . . full of Books and papers and parchments. I mean Books of Accompts , and Writings, . . . Goldsmith’s Bills, and Stock in the English East-India Company, about sixteen thousand Pounds Sterling . . . Nine Assignments upon the Bank of Lyons in France, and two upon the Rents of the Town-House in Paris . . . the Sum of 30000 Rixdollars in the Bank of Amsterdam; . . . (Roxana 302-3).

These are splendid examples of what Brown and others mean when they talk about meanings residing in and ultimately in excess of, or beyond, things (or their objectified forms).24 The meaning of a bill of exchange in commodity terms is, evidently, its exchange value, which is always something beyond and separate from the physical object of the bill, and in Roxana, I would argue, the emphasis is to be placed on “exchange”, although by giving prices for some of these things she claims to be thinking about an ultimate monetary value. In a chain of exchanges similar to the familiar concept of an endless deferral of linguistic meaning, there is in fact no ultimate value for these objects. This novel shows us that their exchangeability is their value and their meaning, it is in the circulation of endless exchange, not fixed price, that their value resides. This (to cut a longer argument short) is also how Roxana experiences her career after she has left Holland and made the first exchange of her wealth in bills and – significantly - jewels25 into a more liquid form: she

23

Plotz is here talking about Victorian photographs that were supplemented with human hair. 24 In literature, he says, the question is “how are [things] made to mean?” (18). 25 It is in Holland that Roxana is able to make another sort of exchange involving things: ... Jewels, all but the fine Diamond Ring . . . the Diamond necklace . . . a Pair of Extraordinary Ear-Rings,. . . a fine casket . . . and a small case with some Rubies and Emeralds, etc., ... I sold them at the Hague . . . (202).

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will choose to keep her body in circulation in different forms (disguises, activities) in order to exchange it repeatedly and for different things, which are themselves only productive of further exchangeable things (her financial investments in England are monstrously productive of interest). As with financial deferance, there is no end to this economics of the body in which she has invested her identity and her actions too heavily to pull out of the system. Consciously or not, Roxana describes her body as another jewel or bill or exchange, displaying “the slippage between having (possessing a particular object) and being (the identification of one’s self with that object” that Brown (13, emphasis original) finds in consumer culture. And she herself expresses a lack of understanding as to exactly what it is that she is seeking in her obsessive circulation, for after her first lover’s death she has always had enough wealth to avoid being a whore. Another meaning of the Bill of Exchange that we find demonstrated in the novel is that it enacts, causes and enables mobility: commerce with other people and journeys to other places, for in some cases the exchange value can only be “realised” (exchanged for another token of value such as coins) somewhere else, and a more transportable form of monetary object is the outcome of the exchange26 27 Here we have the clearest example of how the narrator is not finding or giving meanings to the describable forms of things: what, for instance, was so extraordinary about the earrings, and what so fine about the ring and the casket?); their meaning lies beyond them, in the currency she can exchange them for and, with which she can again travel: 26 : it is while he is travelling to get a “foreign Bill . . . from Amsterdam” accepted that Roxana’s first lover is murdered (86), and Roxana’s Bills of Exchange later take her to Holland in order to effect or fulfil their exchange value; indeed, she admits that “I had not come [to Holland] myself, if the Bills ... had not been payable in Holland” (175). In Rotterdam Roxana converts one sort of thing (the jewels being “items of value representative of pre-capitalist systems of value, wealth and exchange”)in Defoe’s mind, according to Dijkstra (Defoe and Economics, 43; qtd in Gabbard 241.) into another, in order as she puts it “to get this Treasure to England” (R 202). 27 When she gets to England what does she do? She exchanges it for another sort of money; and thence it is exchanged for property and goods, “a substantial safe Mortgage” and “some other Securities” which remain unspecified (204). She seems addicted to this form of exchange, constantly perhaps seeking the ultimate “Thing” beyond these mortgages and securities, but finding only an endless succession of complicated and profitable schemes for ‘putting out’ her money at interest, and meanwhile she is “still for getting Money, and laying it up too, “ as “a kept Mistress [with] a handsome Maintenance” (210). So she goes on, her capital producing ever more money, ever exchanging her body for gifts whose exchange value she notes in monetary terms; their object forms do not matter: bills of

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What we have seen here is that the association of Holland with things is in large part an association of the place as a commodity entrepot: Roxana’s bills of exchange and jewels are converted into more suitable items of exchange. At the same time we note that in converting her jewels to money or to bills payable in London she is converting “items of value representative of pre-capitalist systems of value, wealth and exchange” (Dijkstra (Defoe and Economics, 43; qtd in Gabbard 241.)) into a form that she will then carry to England to invest in the most up to date capitalist schemes of investment, mortgages, securities and so on. So Holland is also, for Roxana, a half-way house in her financial career and a place where she could opt out of body-economics and choose to take on the role of a “She-Merchant” or the wife of an “Honest Merchant”. As a conclusion, we may note that place identity and thing theory readings showed the extent to which the narrator’s external world is presented in this novel not in its own objective terms but in terms of how it impacts upon Roxana’s abstract psychological needs. The implications of Holland within this mind are mostly positive, standing as it does for novel “economic discipline” (Gabbard 240), reliable business, a degree of female economic autonomy and an urban, trading environment. It is not, though, a place conducive to the sinner’s comfort, because like the Dutch merchant, it “seeks to absorb [the economic] into the realm of morality” (Conway 122). Holland is not taken by Roxana as more than a convenience, a half-way house or entrepot, even at the end of the novel where we learn that she will only have “some few years” of flourishing there. A reading of the representation of Dutch speech in this novel provided evidence in support of a kind of egalitarian treatment of Holland with England – neither is othered linguistically. Even when we are told that the Dutchman’s speech is not fluent, we are not given any material for ridicule, and like the narrator herself, he is able to communicate easily in French, with all and any of the implications that this may have for the reader. Supporting the representations of place in Holland, Dutch speech and speakers emphasized the accessibility and international qualities of exchange, jewels, caskets, cloth or coins, they are all things whose meaning lie in their potential to be exchanged for other goods or for more investments that will make more interest, her social activities taking her ever closer to being the King’s lover that may seem to be her ultimate object of desire but that turns out to be just one in her series of lovers, also leading to nothing but the next lover, and then the next. Her money accumulates, but her body, being an organic object, starts to depreciate. Her money and her body can be exchanged for other things, but she does not find any other meaning in them at all.

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Holland and, being linked to the issue of communication and exchange of ideas, indicated openness to and ease of commerce of various kinds. Understanding or not understanding Dutch could also be interpreted as ability or inability to learn the spiritual lessons of the Reformed Church, and the fact that the language was presented as easy to learn, even by maids with little education, can be seen as indicating an ease of access to these spiritual lessons. Quantitatively, the Place Identity reading provided the greatest number of significances that Holland has in the novel: physical, financial and social security, honesty, goodness and the chance of spiritual renewal are all indicated from this reading; Thing Theory was also productive of many meanings, though selecting the “Bastard in my Belly” and the Dutch Bill of Exchange for analysis led to a focus on “thingified” humans and on exchange and circulation. In this novel Defoe uses the reported speech of his Dutch characters very subtly; the implications of Dutch speech are mostly made indirectly and without the caricature or ridicule that can sometimes accompany the directly reported foreign speech in his works.

Works Cited Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space. Trans. Maria Jolas. New York, Orion Press, 1964. Print Blewett, David. “Introduction” in Daniel Defoe Roxana. London: Penguin, 1982; 9-25. Print. Brown, Bill. A Sense of Things. The Object matter of American Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Print Clark, Katherine. Daniel Defoe: The Whole Frame of Nature, Time and Providence. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Print. Defoe, Daniel. The Fortunate Mistress. New York: The University Press, 1904. Web. Project Gutenberg. Mar 2013 Duncan, Andrew. Walking London: Thirty Original Walks in and around London. 6th ed. London: New Holland Publishers, 2008. Web. Google Books. Jul. 2013 Felski, Rita. “Object Relations.” Contemporary Women’s Writing 1:1/2, December 2007. Web. Oxford Journals. Mar 2013 Gabbard, D. Christopher. “The Dutch Wives’ Good Husbandry: Defoe’s Roxana and Financial Literacy.” Eighteenth-Century Studies, vol. 37, no. 2. 2004; 237-251. Web. Project Muse. May 2012 Lewicka, Maria. 2008. “Place attachment, place identity, and place memory: Restoring the forgotten city past.” Journal of Environmental Psychology. Number 28; 209-231. Print.

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Plotz, John. “Can the Sofa Speak? A Look at Thing Theory”. Criticism, 2005. Vol 47,Iss 1; 109-118. Web. . Mar 2013 Proshansky, Harold M. 1978. “The City and Self-Identity”, Environment and Behaviour, June 1978 Vol. 10 Number 2; 147-169. Web. Jan 2013.

Sattaur, Jennifer. “Thinking Objectively: An Overview of ‘Thing Theory’ in Victorian Studies.” Victorian Literature and Culture, 40. 2012; 347357. Online. Cambridge Journals. Mar 2013 Schama, Simon. The Embarrassment of Riches. An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age. Second edition. New York: Vintage, 1997. Print SĘnmez, Margaret J-M. “Evaluating the Foreignness of Foreign Speech in English Prose Fiction : Towards a Scale of Affective Devices”. Ulusararasi VII Dil, Yazn, Deybiúbilim Sempozyumu 02-05 Mays 2007, 2 vols. Konya: TC Selçuk Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi & Mevlana Araútrma ve Uygulama Merkezi. 2007. Vol I, 387-395. Print Stryker, Sheldon and Peter J. Burke. “The Past, Present, and Future of an Identity Theory”. Social Psychology Quarterly. Vol 662, No 4. 2000; 284-297. Web JSTOR Jul 2013

CHAPTER THIRTY EPIPHANY IN POP SONGS VICTOR KENNEDY

Popular song lyrics use all of the devices of poetry to create their effects, even though most song lyrics are simpler than most poems (Goldstein 1969; Chabon 2013). Like poems, popular songs often use the device of epiphany. Everyone has experienced moments of insight, but as Wim Tigges points out, in literature the words enhance the experience of the moment (Tigges 1999).From the “spots of time” in Wordsworth’s Prelude(Wordsworth 1964)to Joyce’s Dubliners(Joyce 2006)and beyond, literary epiphanies, both secular and religious, have been at the heart of the reading experience. One of the reasons songs are so effective is that, although the lyrics tend to use fewer literary devices than poems, the music enhances the lyrics (Kennedy 2013, 2013). Music has been shows to affect emotions, including receptive states (Juslin and Västfjäll 2008; Grocke and Wigram 2007). Epiphany is the definitive motif of pop because it defines the teenage discovery years. What reads like cliché to adults can be heard and recognized as epiphanic truth by those in an age group still defining their lives by a list of “firsts.” I will discuss examples of epiphany in three popular songs, Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman’s “This Magic Moment” (1960), Mick Jagger and Keith Richards’ “No Expectations” (1968), and Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Eyesight to the Blind” (1951) that use a variety of strategies to create their effects. One of Wordsworth’s main prescriptions for poetry is that, in his view, the ideal poem contains a concise description of an image so vivid that the telling of it affects the reader or listener as deeply as the experience did the author or singer (Bishop 1959). There are in our existence spots of time, That with distinct pre-eminence retain A renovating virtue, whence… …our minds Are nourished and invisibly repaired (Wordsworth 1964)

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By this standard, Pomus and Shuman’s “This Magic Moment” contains an archetypical epiphany: This magic moment, so different and so new Was like any other until I kissed you And then it happened, it took me by surprise I knew that you felt it too, by the look in your eyes

Like Wordsworth’s “spots of time,” this magic moment is unlike any other, containing a sudden realization that will remain in the speaker’s mind forever: “This magic moment while your lips are close to mine/Will last forever, forever till the end of time.” Ashton Nichols defines epiphany as having three main qualities: “expansiveness, “atemporality” and “mysteriousness” (Nichols 1987), while Martin Bidney modifies these criteria slightly, replacing “atemporality” with “heightened intensity” (Bidney 1997). “This Magic Moment” makes use of all three, with “magic” corresponding to mysteriousness, “expansiveness” in “different,” “new” and “surprise,” and “atemporality” or “heightened intensity” in the moment that “will last forever.” The pronoun “it,” repeated three times, is part of the effect. What is “it”? It is mysterious, almost unnameable. That the moment “took me by surprise” also removes it from time, emphasizing the feeling of atemporality. It was unanticipated, so has no past, only a present, and therefore it is as Beja describes it, “a moment of illumination, transcending time” (Beja 1971). The unspoken but obvious meaning of the lyric is that the speaker has experienced the realization of “love at first kiss.” In contrast to the discovery of love in “This Magic Moment,” Jagger and Richards’ “No Expectations” describes a negative epiphany at the moment two lovers part. The word “never” in the last two lines of the second verse, “But never in my sweet short life/Have I felt like this before” ironically sets up the atemporality of the epiphany, pointing out the uniqueness of this moment, which is now set in time: he can see where it fits in his sweet short life. The first two lines of the third verse “Your heart is like a diamond/You throw your pearls at swine” combines the simile “heart like a diamond,” standing for hardness, with “pearls before swine,” an old idiom that combines the meanings of something precious wasted, building on the sense of the inversion of something precious in the previous line. The last two lines of the third verse, “And as I watch you leaving me/You pack my peace of mind” creates a paradox, concretizing the abstraction of “peace of mind.” The fourth verse adds two more similes, “Our love was like the water/That splashes on a stone” and “Our love is like our music/It’s here, and then it’s gone” that emphasize the

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atemporality of the epiphany, both in the temporal shift from past to present and in the metaphor equating love and music. A mirror image of “This Magic Moment,” “No Expectations” captures the moment when the speaker realizes that his love is dead.1 Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Eyesight to the Blind” contains no direct atemporalities, but it does contain three mysteries: “Every time the little girl start to loving, she bring eyesight to the blind”; “Every time she start to loving, the deaf and dumb begin to talk”; “Man in the next room adying, stopped dying and lift up his head, and said/‘Lord, ain’t she pretty, and the whole state know she fine!’” The epiphany here asserts an ongoing blessing from this love, more time-bound than “This Magic Moment.” Although these are secular miracles, they recall Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus (Acts I: 1-19). The fact that they are impossibilities takes them out of normal time. Along with the mystery that causes the speaker to be infatuated with her, there is a deduction, “Her daddy must been a millionaire, because I can tell by the way she walk,” that shows that while he may be infatuated, he is still a shrewd observer, still in possession of his reasoning faculties despite his incredible good luck. Sharon Kim distinguishes between literary and religious epiphany, defining the former as occurring when “a character encounters what he or she recognizes as an undeniable truth of being” (Kim 2012), compared to the traditional view of religious epiphany, which involves a spiritual apprehension of the divine. Williamson’s epiphany uses both in the metaphor, “eyesight to the blind,” which resolves to “sight is understanding.” George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s Metaphors We Live By(Lakoff and Johnson 1980) shows how metaphors are related, and how any metaphor can be traced back to what they call a “root metaphor.” Looking at figures of speech in this way lets us see the relationship not only between figures of speech, but in contexts as well. The concept of bringing “eyesight to the blind” is not new to Williamson’s blues song; it goes back to John Newton’s hymn, “Amazing Grace” (1779): “Was blind, but now I see.” Newton’s epiphany came while the sinking ship he was on miraculously remained afloat, an event he attributed to divine intervention. Williamson’s use of the allusion shows how much closer the blues was to its gospel roots than the early 60s pop/rock lyrics of Pomus and Shuman and Jagger and Richards. Williamson’s three miracles go even further back than Newton’s hymn, however: Jesus gives eyesight to the blind in Matthew 20:29-34, Mark 8:22-26, 10:46-52, Luke 18:35-43, and John 9:11 The song has been covered by female singers as well, including Joan Baez (1970) and Leah Siegel (on Jim Campilongo’s Orange (2009)).

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12, heals a deaf mute in Mark 7:31-37, and brings the dead back to life in Luke 8:40-56 and John 11:1-44. The recognition of the allusions in “Eyesight to the Blind” to an eighteenth-century hymn and the Bible takes the song out of the secular present (1951) and sites it firmly in the eternal present of epiphany. Not all pop/rock lyricists confined themselves to the secular, however; the divine qualities of Williamson’s girl prefigure the beloved in The Eurythmics’ “There Must Be an Angel” (1985): “No-one on earth could feel like this/I’m thrown and overblown with bliss/There must be an angel/Playing with my heart.” That “no-one on Earth could feel like this” places the moment firmly in the expansive and mysterious category of epiphany, and the divine reference into the mode of atemporality. Other blues-influenced rock musicians, such as Jimi Hendrix, also used religious symbolism, for example in the song “Angel” (1971), a modern-day dream vision (Shapiro and Glebbeek 1991). The speaker is visited twice by an angel, and the song ends “Fly on my sweet angel/Forever I will be by your side.” The trope appears again in Robbie Williams’ “Angels.” Popular music deals with popular themes, and in the second half of the twentieth century, western pop music reflected the concerns of a secular society. In the 1950s and early 60s it was rare for a rock and roll song with a religious theme to break the pop charts.2 Most blues and rock songs were about love and/or rebellion.3 As Joseph Campbell points out in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, for many people in the twentieth century, religions and myths had been rationalized away, so many turned to substitutes for meaning in their lives, including love and hero-worship (Campbell 2004). Williamson’s girl in “Eyesight to the Blind” is a miraculous lover; Pete Townshend adapted the song for the fake miracleworker in his rock opera Tommy, and added a further level of irony to Williamson’s. 4 The look of love creates a spot of time in “This Magic Moment,” and the moment of realization that love is gone creates a devastating feeling of emptiness in “No Expectations.” For those to whom love is everything, its loss creates a moment of existential crisis. In all three songs, the epiphanies are secular, although Williamson’s is deepened by religious allusions. 50s rock reflected the realism of the novels, drama and poetry of the era; by the late 60s,however, psychedelia had embraced the imagery, metaphors and themes of magic realism, and by the 1980s, 2

Country music was a different matter. Some, like Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues” (1958) combined the two. 4 Tommy is a deaf, dumb and blind boy whose faculties are restored, no thanks to the Acid Queen whose pimp sings this song about her. Townshend’s epiphanies are often ironic. 3

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New Romantic lyrics like “There Must be an Angel” reflected the New Age fusion of Eastern and Western spirituality.

Discography Cochran, Eddie and Jerry Capehart. “Summertime Blues.” Liberty, 1958. Hendrix, Jimi. “Angel.” The Cry of Love. Track/Polydor, 1971. Jagger, Mick and Keith Richards. “No Expectations.” Beggar’s Banquet. (Recorded by The Rolling Stones). London/Decca, 1968. Lennox, Annie and David A, Stewart. “There Must Be an Angel (Playing With My Heart).” (Recorded by Eurythmics). RCA, 1985. Miller, Aleck “Rice” (Sonny Boy Williamson). “Eyesight to the Blind.” Trumpet Records, 1951. Newton, John. “Amazing Grace.” Olney Hymns, 1779. Pomus, Doc and Mort Shuman. “This Magic Moment.” (Recorded by Ben E. King and The Drifters). Atlantic, 1960. Townshend, Pete. Tommy. (Performed by The Who). Polydor/Track, 1969. Williams, Robbie and Guy Chambers. “Angels.” Chrysalis, 1997.

Works Cited Beja, Morris. 1971. Epiphany in the Modern Novel. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Bidney, Martin. 1997. Patterns of Epiphany: From Wordsworth to Tolstoy, Pater, and Barrett Browning. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press. Bishop, Jonathan. 1959. Wordsworth and the ‘Spots of Time’. ELH 26 (1):45-65. Campbell, Joseph. 2004. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Commemorative ed. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Original edition, 1949. Chabon, Michael. 2013. Let it Rock. The New York Review of Books, July 11, 27-28. Goldstein, Richard. 1969. The Poetry of Rock. New York: Bantam. Grocke, Denise Erdonmez, and Tony Wigram. 2007. Receptive Methods in Music Therapy: Techniques and Clinical Applications for Music Therapy Clinicians, Educators and Students. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Joyce, James. 2006. Dubliners. 1st ed, A Norton Critical Edition. New York: W.W. Norton. Original edition, 1914.

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Juslin, Patrik N., and Daniel Västfjäll. 2008. Emotional Responses to Music: The Need to Consider Underlying Mechanisms. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 31:559-621. Kennedy, Victor. 2013. Strange Brew: Metaphors of Magic and Science in Rock Music. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars’ Publishing. —. 2013. Very Like a Whale: The Paradox of Postmodern Pop. In Word and Music, edited by V. Kennedy and M. Gadpaille. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars’ Publishing. Kim, Sharon. 2012. Literary Epiphany in the Novel, 1850-1950: Constellations of the Soul. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. 1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Nichols, Ashton. 1987. The Poetics of Epiphany: Nineteenth-Century Origins of the Modern Literary Moment. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. Shapiro, Harry, and Caesar Glebbeek. 1991. Jimi Hendrix, Electric Gypsy. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Tigges, Wim. 1999. The Significance of Trivial Things: Towards a Typology of Literary Epiphanies. In Moments of Moment: Aspects of the Literary Epiphany, edited by W. Tigges. Amsterdam; Atlanta, GA: Editions Rodopi B.V. Wordsworth, William. 1964. The Prelude; or Growth of a Poet’s Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Original edition, 1850.

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE THE SENSE OF AN ENDING: FRANK KERMODE AND JULIAN BARNES ZEKøYE ANTAKYALIOöLU

Julian Barnes’s 2011 Booker Prize winning novel The Sense of an Ending is a memoir which focuses on a particular period in the life of the narrator, Tony Webster. Tony Webster is a retired historian, in his sixties, the ex-husband of Margaret; father of thirty-four year-old Susie and the grandfather of a boy and a girl. He has a peaceful life and he judges himself “average at life; average at truth; morally average”, a man who lacks charm and glamour (100). As an old man he knows that his end is close, and that he now has little time to live. He contemplates on “how time holds and moulds us.” (3) Tony starts his narrative with his school days, not because he feels any nostalgia for them, but because it is where it all began (2). He talks about his friends Colin and Alex, and how everything changed after Adrian Finn joined to their group. Adrian soon proves to be an outstanding figure in the group, with his intellect, his interest in Camus and Nietzsche, and with his answers to the questions of the poetry and history teachers. From his earliest days at school, the teachers took notice of Adrian and saw his philosophical brilliance. Tony, Colin and Alex all respected, admired and envied him. He had the daring and glamour which the other three lacked. One day, Adrian defined history as “that certainty produced when the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation” (17), which was so brilliant an answer that Old Joe Hunt, the history teacher, expressed his wish to give him a reference for a scholarship. Tony remembers that his own definition of history as “the lies of the victor” was a cliché. Later, Tony studied history at Bristol and Adrian studied philosophy at Cambridge. Adrian, following Camus, believed that suicide was the only true philosophical question in life. These four friends keep on seeing each other during their university years, but as they age they lose contact. Tony meets a girl, Veronica, a literature student at Bristol and

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they start dating. Tony remembers their relationship as a typical one back in 1960s, an affair without full sex. He loved Veronica, or he thought he loved her then. He even visited her family for a weekend, and was examined by them. He also remembers introducing Veronica to his best friends and bitterly recollects how he was jealous of Veronica’s interest in Adrian. Tony and Veronica break up after a year. During his last year at Bristol and while he was hanging around with other girls, easy ones, Tony receives a letter from Adrian informing him that he is now going out with Veronica and gently asking his permission for this. Tony remembers writing them a card in which he made it clear that he did not want to see either of them again for the rest of his life. After finishing school, Tony goes to America for an adventure trip for six months. When he returns, he learns that Adrian committed suicide leaving a letter behind. In the letter he says that, life is a gift bestowed without anyone asking for it; that the thinking person has a philosophical duty to examine both the nature of life and the conditions it comes with; and that if this person decides to renounce the gift no one asks for, it is a moral and human duty to act on the consequences of that decision (48).

Tony remembers discussing with Colin and Alex how even while killing himself Adrian was a poetic, heroic and philosophically consistent figure. By killing himself in his prime, Adrian becomes a fixed memory all throughout Tony’s life, “a fucking terrible waste”. Although he was furious of Adrian’s affair with Veronica, he only blamed Veronica, “the bitch” for this. He had no grudge against Adrian. After describing the memories of his twenties in around 55 pages, Tony adds the summary of his life span of the last 40 years in just one page from which we learn that he married Margaret, three years later Susie was born; after a dozen boring years Margaret took up with a fellow who ran a restaurant, they divorced, the custody of Susie was shared; Tony had a long career as a historian; after the marriage he had affairs, but nothing serious, Susie grew up, got married, had two kids. Tony is retired now, still seeing his ex-wife as a friend, has a flat with his possessions, and a few hobbies. From this brief summary we understand how insignificant and dull his whole life has been. The second section of the book portrays the recent circumstances, involving an unexpected bequest, which, we realize, have prompted Tony's memories of his adolescence as narrated in the first part. He receives a letter from the lawyer of now deceased Mrs. Susan Ford, Veronica’s mother, which says that Tony was left a legacy of £ 500 and

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two documents. He is sent the money and a letter from Susan Ford ending with a postscript saying “It may sound odd, but I think the last months of [Adrian’s] life were happy” (65). The other document was Adrian’s diary but the lawyer says that it is withheld by Veronica. Tony wants to have the diary because it is supposed to be his possession now. This disruption of his present life by the long forgotten ghosts of his past fills Tony with too many questions: Why should Veronica’s mother know about Adrian’s last months? Why did she leave him £ 500? Why did she keep the diary and wish Tony to take it? Why does Veronica withhold it? And why, after forty years, is there the need to leave him these things now? Obviously, Tony’s memories do not reveal any answers to these questions. Tony tries to resurrect his memories of Adrian and Veronica, but such simple evocations are not enough to find explanations. He has to recall the memories purposefully, but he knows that this is his reading now of what happened then, or rather his reading then of what was happening at the time (41). Tony is conscious of the imaginative and subjective aspect of memories, and he is now on the verge of writing the past keeping Adrian’s definition in mind: History is that certainty produced where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation. To correct the imperfections of his memory and overcome the inadequacies of documentation, he needs the corroboration of a witness for the truth value of his version of the past. He decides to get in touch with Veronica who might help him find answers to his questions. It may, initially, at least, seem easy for the reader to guess why this book is entitled The Sense of an Ending. We may assume that it is called this because the narrator is an old man who acutely senses his approaching end. However, we soon notice that the title of the book is a tricky and allusive one. It has been borrowed from a work by Frank Kermode on the theory of fiction. Julian Barnes deliberately chooses Kermode’s text as an external reference point, and asks us to take it as the shadow text without which the message of his novel would be incomplete. Kermode’s book, The Sense of an Ending, which was published in 1967, is a critique of fiction; Barnes’s book, on the other hand, is a fiction as critique, which illustrates Kermode’s theories on the relationship between reality and fiction, time and memory, genesis and apocalypse. For Kermode, the attribution of meaning to a life or event is always a way of fictionalizing it. He states that all kinds of fictions –literary, political or religious- essentially depend on the concept of Apocalypse, a fundamentally teleological worldview. For him, “apocalyptic thought belongs to rectilinear rather than cyclical views of the world” (5). There are ends in the sense of aims, in the sense of cessations, and in the sense of

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terms and boundaries. To talk about ends, one has to be involved in beginnings and middles (Burke 1969, 77). All apocalyptic discourses, from the parodic to the deadly serious, emphasize eschatology, or a theory of ends. These discourses locate meaning within a narrative structure that presupposes the resolution provided by a conclusion (Gunn & Beard 2000, 269). This might be illuminating for Barnes’s work if we remember that when Tony is prompted to re-evaluate the past, he is at a stage of his life which is about to end. To make sense of his past, he has to rewind his memories in chronological sequence, minding the rules of causality and the dynamics of teleology. Kermode thinks that form and plot are the best ways for us to make sense of time and reality. Once time is fictionalized, transformed into narrative emplotment, it becomes human time. We listen to the tick-tocks of time when we try to shape our lives. Fiction, therefore, stems from our need for order and meaning. Meaning, however, depends on having a proper sense of Genesis and Apocalypse. Tony explains this by our daily perception of everyday time as tick-tocks. For Kermode, time flows not as tick-ticks, but as tick-tocks; “tick stands for a humble genesis and tock stands for a feeble apocalypse” (45). Traditional apocalypse, for Kermode, is the imminent one which offers a model of a prediction that is continually invalidated without ever being discredited, hence of an end that is itself constantly put off (Ricoeur 1984, 23). For example, at the beginning of both millennia humanity expected an apocalypse, but it did not happen. However, although it is invalidated, it has not been discredited. The traditional, imminent kind of apocalyptic discourse is a religious model which “springs from a desire to know the end of the plot before its time, to arrive before the arrival, to fill the uncertain time of our wandering through history with the certainty of a definitive and immutable conclusion” (Woodland 1997, 37). What we forget, however, is that all those beginnings, middles and ends are fictions; life can be re-written with thousands of different versions, which will not arrive anywhere. This is one side of the coin. On the other side, we face the challenge of memory in telling a story and constructing it meaningfully, because all stories are about the past. Ricoeur, in Memory, History and Forgetting examines the nature of memory. First of all, memory does not operate according to the rules of chronicity. Although we associate memory with the past, the past of memory is always about the present of the rememberer. As Saint Augustine puts it, time is only present time, and we can only talk about the presence of the past, the presence of the present and the presence of the future. A remembering person is always and only active in the present. Ricoeur also states that, “to remember something is at the same time to remember oneself because memory is fundamentally

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reflexive and egological” (2004, 4). Another thing is our tendency to forget, specifically those moments in which we feel humiliated, unsuccessful or resentful. Forgetting, as much as remembering, is a function of memory. This is how we construct not only our stories, but also our self-consciousness. Ricoeur, following the ancient Greek philosophers, mentions two kinds of memory: 1- Mneme which is simple evocation; memory as appearing; ultimately passively popping into mind, as a stocked image spontaneously remembered, and 2- Anamnesis which is an effort to recall; memory as an object of a search ordinarily named as laborious recollection. When memory is in search of recalling, it is always imaginative and purposeful (2004, 4). The first part of Tony Webster’s narrative is a mixture of his mneme and anamnesis. We witness his simple evocations of the past, in fragments. Certain images and fancies come to his mind as they are retained in the storage of his memory. The book opens with photographic images remembered in no particular order. Some of them are: -a shiny inner wrist; -steam rising from a wet sink as a hot frying pan is laughingly tossed into it; -a river rushing nonsensically upstream; -bathwater long gone cold behind the locked door.

But what you end up remembering isn’t always the same as what you have witnessed (1). After receiving Susan Ford’s letter, Tony starts to search his memory purposefully in the form of anamnesis or laborious recollection. It is at this point where the question of imagining and fictionalizing the past arises. When we construct plots for our stories, we do not merely organize the events; we also select certain events as we omit others. Narratives all serve a rhetorical choice and purpose. Tony’s life, from the death of Adrian to the present day, has passed exactly as planned. Nothing unexpected or catastrophic has happened, no risk has been taken, no radical change in career has occurred, time has always moved forward. He had, then, no specific reason to remember the details of those days in his twenties. He has sometimes reminisced about Adrian, how charming he was, how sad it was to lose him at a young age. However, until the day on which he received Veronica’s mother’s will, he did not choose to remember Veronica at all and went on living as if she had never existed. The crisis arises, in the second part of the book, when the things Tony made sense of his past turn out to be nonsensical, shockingly fictive and deficient. When Tony tries to get Adrian’s diary from Veronica they start to correspond via e-mail. He learns that £500 was “blood-money”. But it

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does not make sense. There must be something in his past which must have passed unnoticed. One day, Veronica and Tony meet at Wobbly Bridge, and there she gives him the letter he wrote to Adrian forty years ago. After reading that letter at home, he drinks whisky to reduce the pain as all he could plead was that he had been its author then, but not its author now; how malign and jealous he was while cursing and insulting Adrian and Veronica. Moreover, he learns that his memory of writing them a cool card was totally incorrect. In the letter, among many other resentful curses and insults he says, Well you certainly deserve one another […] I hope you get much involved that the mutual damage will be permanent. I hope you regret the day I introduced you […] Part of me hopes you’ll have a child, because I am a great believer in time’s revenge (95).

Tony shamefully realizes that he has erased this incident from his memory, distorted the truth and moved on with his life. The younger self who wrote these lines seems a complete stranger to him now. He learns that forty years ago, he wrote a letter which doomed the lives of his friends and he chose to forget about it. One day Veronica drives him to a place in London where he sees a group of mentally retarded men in their forties, guided by a nurse. At first, Tony does not notice that among the group was a man who had the eyes and facial expression of Adrian. How could Tony ever know that the mentally retarded man was Adrian’s son? Veronica says: “You don’t get it, do you? But then, you never did!” Tony thinks that after his curse, Veronica gets pregnant and Adrian commits suicide, the baby was born with a syndrome and named after Adrian. But, no! This does not explain Veronica’s mother’s function or the apparent “blood-money” situation. The truth is revealed to Tony at the end of the book by the young minder of Adrian’s son, Terry. He says to Tony that Veronica is not the mother but the sister of the mentally retarded Adrian. Tony remembers that in his letter he advised Adrian to go and see Veronica’s mother because he believed that Veronica was hiding damage from her past. How Adrian meets Veronica’s mother, how they become lovers, how Adrian breaks up with Veronica or commits suicide –after or before the birth of his son- left unanswered. Tony never receives the full diary of Adrian, but only one page from it is given to him by Veronica. In that page we see Adrian’s propositions about the nature of human relationships and certain equations with the integers b, a1, a2, s, and v… Forty years later, Tony is learning, with us as his readers, that all of his curses came true. Feeling a deep remorse he says,

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I did not believe in curses. That’s to say, in words producing events. But the very action of naming something that subsequently happens –of wishing specific evil, and that evil coming to pass-this still has a shiver of otherworldly about it. The fact that the younger me who cursed and the old me who witnessed the curse’s outcome had quite different feelings –this was monstrously irrelevant (138).

Tony, who has been living a peaceful and restful life, is now in a very tragic situation, a totally restless state, feeling a deep remorse for the new version of a past which cannot be undone. He experiences a moment of crisis which creates in him a new, enlightened consciousness, a new meaning without which his life story would be incomplete. He finally gets it, but it is too late. This crisis deprives him of a restful sense of an ending. Apocalypse depends on a concord of imaginatively recorded past and imaginatively predicted future (Kermode 8). Now that Tony’s recorded past turns out to be a false or deficient one, he is unable to predict a future, and this fact locates him in a present of perpetual crisis. Kermode states that apocalyptic discourse has changed in our time and has begun to function in ways that deny resolution or final ends. He terms the emergence of this kind of discourse the “immanent” apocalyptic, which he claims operates as if the end were already present (Gunn & Beard, 272). Paul Ricoeur, profoundly sharing Kermode’s conviction, says that “the invalidation of the prediction concerning the end of the world has given rise to a truly qualitative transformation of the apocalyptic model. From being imminent, it has become immanent. The Apocalypse, therefore, shifts its imagery from the last days, the days of terror, of decadence, of renovation, to become a myth of crisis (23). Crisis, as we see in Tony’s situation, replaces the end, where it becomes an endless transition. At this point Kermode introduces two concepts: kairos and chronos. For him, the interval between the tick-tocks of human time must be purged of simple chronicity, of the emptiness of tock-tick, humanly uninteresting successiveness. It is required to be a significant season, kairos poised between beginning and end. Kairos is a temporal integration –our way of bundling together perception of the present, memory of the past and expectation of the future, in a common organization. Kairos is a moment of crisis, the fate of time, a boundary situation which has to do with personal crisis –death, suffering or guilt; a season in life, a point in time which is filled with significance, charged with a meaning derived from its relation to the end. Chronos is simply the passing time, waiting time, which one day, shall be no more. Kairos is critical time whereas chronos is quantitative time (Kermode, 46-47).

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In Barnes’s story, we see a crisis which stems from peripety (the day he receives the letter) and discovery (each moment he learns something new about the past) resulting in a version of tragedy which is devoid of catharsis. The book ends with total unrest, no resolution is offered. Tony’s kairos permeates his consciousness and his chronos is reduced to a ticktock signalling the end of a false, meaningless sense of life. This is Tony’s doom. Barnes’s novel, following Kermode’s theory, becomes “a set of discontinuous epiphanies where there is the denial of all causal relation between disparate kairoi making the form in the novel impossible” (Kermode, 139). This is the type of novel which does not lie, and Barnes presents to his reader a fiction which is truer than any reality we can name. Tony, as an ordinary man, was one of those “who muddle along, who let life happen to them gradually building up a store of memories” (88). He does not envy Adrian his death, but envies him the clarity of his life (104). He says, When you are in your twenties, even if you are confused and uncertain about your aims and purposes, you have a strong sense of what life itself is, and of what you in life are, and might become. Later…later there is more uncertainty, more overlapping, more backtracking, more false memories. (104-105). The longer you live, the less you understand (131).

Tony learns that his former, rectilinear perception of life which put certain lived and remembered experiences in proper order as a progressive accumulation “simply adding up and adding on of life” (88) is now meaningless. Tony now knows that “life wouldn’t turn out like Literature…Real literature was about psychological, emotional and social truth as demonstrated by the actions and reflections of its protagonists; [traditional realist novels were] about character developed over time” (15). In real life our attitudes and opinions change, we develop new habits and eccentricities; but that is something different, more like a decoration (103). Tony realizes that age does not mellow us. We adjust, embellish and make sly cuts while telling our life story. And the longer life goes on, the fewer are those around to challenge our account, to remind us that our life is not our life, merely the story we have told about our life. Told to others, but – mainly-to ourselves (95). He asks, “Had my life increased, or merely added to itself? There had been addition and subtraction in my life, but how much multiplication? And this gave me a sense of unease, of unrest” (88). To put this in Kermode’s terms, Tony learns that by collapsing linear temporality onto a prolonged experience of the present, a punctuated intense moment, he feels that history and eschatology are then the same

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thing. Whereas the imminent apocalyptic anticipates endings, in the immanent apocalyptic one realizes he is already dwelling in the end period. Tony is filled now with despair and remorse, and he knows that he cannot change anything. His life has been an accumulation of ignorance, “not an increase but a dilution”. His only sense of ending is that of the end of any likelihood of change, which causes a break with the past and a great unrest. He can only feel ambivalence and confusion in his relation to the past and future. Crisis replaces the end, where it becomes an endless transition, an immanent end. To put it in Ricoeur’s terms, “The result is the decline of the paradigms –hence the end of fiction; the impossibility of ending a poem – hence the ruin of the fiction of the end” (Ricoeur, 24). We traditionally tend to take meaning and telos as inseparable. Unless we postulate an end towards which our efforts are tending, or which will relieve us from our suffering, our life becomes meaningless and even unendurable. Tony learns “how time first grounds and then confounds us”, and says, “we thought we were being mature when we were only being safe. We imagined we were being responsible but were only being cowardly. What we called realism turned out to be a way of avoiding things rather than facing them” (93). To conclude, Barnes, in The Sense of an Ending, illustrates how, by the transformation of imminence to immanence, we learn that reality has always and already been fictive. The novel is not about Tony Webster’s life, or memories. Rather, it is about the making sense of the ways we make sense of our lives, which is the opening sentence of Kermode’s book. This sense of an ending shares a lot with the poet who said “This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.”

Works Cited Barnes, Julian. The Sense of an Ending. London: Vintage Books, 2012. Burke, Kenneth. “Kermode Revisited”. NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction, Vol 3, No:1, Duke University Press, 1969, pp: 77-82. Gunn Joshua, David E. Beard. “On the Apocalyptic Sublime”. Southern Communication Journal, 65:4. Routledge, 2000, pp:269-286. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10417940009373176 Kermode, Frank. The Sense of an Ending. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Ricoeur, Paul. Time and Narrative. Vol. II. Çev. Kathleen McLaughlin & David Pellauer. London: University of Chicago Press, 1984. —. Memory, History, Forgetting. Çev. Kathleen McLaughlin & David Pellauer. Chicago &London: The University of Chicago Press, 2004. Woodland, Malcolm. Wallace Stevens Version of Apocalypse. PhD Thesis.

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO CONFRONTATION OF REALITY VIA BECOMING AN “OTHER VOICE” OF THE SOCIAL CONTEXT øN DICKEN’S HARD TIMES ZENNURE KÖSEMAN

In self-defence, you know, all life eventually accommodates itself to its environment, and human life is no exception. ʊJacob A. Riis Passionate revolt against the whole industrial order of the modern world.1 ʊGeorge Bernard Shaw

As the world marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens's birth, this article highlights his timeless relevance of analysing the moral extremities of his age as a social commentator and underlines his functional role of being a social reformer while criticizing his living circumstances in his well-known fictional masterpiece Hard Times2. In a critical outlook of considering Dickens’s fictional masterpiece throughout deconstructive literary basis, there will be an interest in his success of the reflection of “the otherness” or “the difference” in social context. In 1913, George Bernard Shaw wrote an “Introduction” for the Wavery Edition of Hard Times and expressed his critical outlook for Charles Dickens’s evaluation of the industrial world in terms of effectively revolting against the economic, social, and moral abuses of the Victorian Period. Shaw expresses Dickens’s insightful view of reaction toward the social injustices of his period via the revolutionary writings that imply his reformist 1

In 1913, George Bernard Shaw wrote an “Introduction” for the Wavery Edition of Hard Times to express his critical outlook for Charles Dickens’s evaluation of the industrial world. Reprinted in Shaw on Dickens, edited by Dan H. Lawrence and Martin Quinn. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1985. 2 Hard Times will be given as HT throughout this article.

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policy.3 The middle class of the time reads industrial novels that reflect the anxiety and the individualist morality focused on hard work ethic for personal fortunes in great towns at the first half of the nineteenth century, Dickens becomes critical of any better future of the inhabitants of Coketown (Morgan 516)4. He indicates the thematic basis of injustices in all his fictional masterpieces written in a tone of journalism and expresses his social reformist side: Any capitalist . . . who had made sixty thousand pounds out of sixpence, always professed to wonder why the sixty thousand nearest Hands didn't each make sixty thousand pounds out of sixpence, and more or less reproached them every one for not accomplishing the little feat. What I did you can do. Why don't you go and do it? (Dickens, HT, 105).

Developing a strong social conscience, Dickens writes about London’s poor by stressing the experience of the metropolis in the context of realistic description of class divisions, bad sanitation and poverty. He, thereby, manifests his ironical outlook for the reformist tendencies of his era and warns about the moral depravity and the difficulty of labour circumstances as entrepreneurs struggle hard for their own fortunes. Similar to Jacob A. Riis who reports “how the other half lives” in New York’s East Side slum districts in How The Other Half Lives, Dickens becomes the “other voice” of London in the Victorian era basically known as the period of prosperity and focuses on the thematic basis of the “otherness”. Riis depicts injustices through the graphic descriptions, photographs and sketches in his famous book and, thereby, sets fire the social reform movement in 1890s in the United States, Similarly Dickens depicts strong class divisions formed of the lower middle class that involve the workers of the industrial life and the middle class that owns power to possess their own fortunes5. Riis admires Dickens’ accounting 3

George Bernard Shaw, Preface to Great Expectations, vii. (quoted in Mazzeno 55). 4 In 1850s, England was increasingly urban and secular, i.e., non-Anglican in tone. Mid-Victorian policy portrays these tendencies which imply their inclination for Liberalism. Being a Protestant dissenter, Mr. Gradgrind in Hard Times just manifests secular philosophy and explains his hard work individual morality as “a fact” of life (Morgan 521). He expresses the necessity of the pursuit of the same ethic by his children. This indicates his interest in the maintenance of the material possessions in his life. However his ethical pursuit is to acquire material success rather than a moral achievement. 5 In the nineteenth century, the middle class expanded more than previous years and involved prosperity, social position and various types of work. It included

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the historical context of his period due to his emphasis on the poverty of the working individuals. In the era of industrial triumph and progress, he reflects an ironical perspective in prosperous social living styles of the Victorian era and portrays how his realist fictional characters encounter social problems in their lives in his timeless fictional narrative of Hard Times. As a social critic who underlines the significance of the prejudices of his time, Dickens responds Riis who writes his book for no other purpose than to take attention towards the tremendous living conditions of the poor in New York City and to insist on the necessity for actual attractive reforms (Riis ix)6. Writing at the same periods, both Riis and Dickens deal with the same thematic basis of “how the other half lives” in two different settlements of London and New York City, thereby, they manifest the requirement of urgent social reforms in their environments. Their focus on writing about the state of otherness reflects an emotional response to the inequality in social living circumstances. Depicting through graphics and photographs, Riis’s book demonstrates its mission in the early pages of the introduction: “one half of the world does not know how the other half lives” and “the half that was on top cared little for the struggles, and less for the fate of those who were underneath” (1997: 5). Dickens reflects his reformist policy to imply the struggle for survival of the poor in their social environment as Riis does in his famous critical book. “Otherness” in social context refers the analysis of anything quite different from what it appears to be. This emphasizes that Dickens deconstructs his social setting in his literary texts and becomes contradictory to Victorian prosperous happy life style. The deconstructive criticism owes much to the theories of the French philosopher Jacques Derrida whose theory also involves the key distinction of “difference.” Although Dickens does not directly call the workers as “the others,” he describes their social lives in a deconstructive overtone as post-structuralist Jacques Derrida emphasizes in his theory. Dickens indicates that “the inherent, subversive, self-contradictory and self-betraying elements in a text ‘include’ what is not in the text, what is outside the text” (Cuddon 211). Identifying some in the context of “the working individuals from different professions like the Church, the law, medicine, the civil and diplomatic service, Merchant banking, the army and the navy (McDowall 139). Thus, they were all from the top of society, especially the industrialists and the factory owners as in Hard Times. 6 In Jacob Riis’s How the Other Half Lives, it is possible to view the decline of the nineteenth century mental philosophy of “moral character” and the advance of a modern psychology of self-made man, the weakening of the nineteenth-century sentimentalism and ethics (Gandal 10).

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other and marginal,” post-structuralist outlook for the discoveries of reality emerges as a result of going beyond the social context and interpreting it in new dimensions (Barry 64-65). This is Dickens’s critical intention, i.e., while focusing on Victorian socio-economic conditions that primarily revolve around wealth and power, Dickens shifts his attention toward some others leading a separate way of life style. Beginning in the 1960s and continuing to the present, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Jean Francois Lyotard and Richard Rorty declare the decay of objective truth and ultimate reality. This signifies that each writer’s interpretation of reality appears to be apparently different than the other literary spokesperson (Bressler 99). Dickens deconstructs the organization of the working system and values the morality of the workers rather than the self-esteem of the factory owners and industrialists. This implies that he reconstructs the system in his own literal mentality after deconstruction. Structuralists believe that the study of reality and meaning highlights social and cultural practices. They deconstruct the text when they practice the act of interpretation. As a social reformer and commentator, Dickens deconstructs his social setting when he interprets through the construction of the halves. When Dickens is considered in this context, then he goes beyond “the meaning within the literary text or the codes of the various sign systems within the world of the text and the reader” (Bressler 116-117). Considering his social environment as his text, deconstructor Charles Dickens has multiple interpretations countless times in his literary masterpieces and new discoveries of interpretations of the social context signify new contradictory reconstruction. Dickens critical social readings produces his fictional literary texts and when he interprets he underlines two contradictory formations at the same time: deconstruction first and, then, reconstruction. Being critical of the reformist policy of the time, he suggests reformation in education, a new construction. Dickens examines the disorder in social and economic life while viewing a gloomy perspective in his fictional works that include high-priority on the institutions of school, church, government, and family. Most major characters in his fictional works become insensitive not to feel any sense of love in their struggle for survival in working conditions and are unable to foresee the world’s being governed by love and emotions (Hornback 86, 88). This indicates that the moral extremities happen to be the subject matter of study for Dickens as emphasized in his realistic masterpiece, Hard Times. Rather than approaching the social matters in sentimental manner, he overviews the whole society in terms of the existence of injustices and

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inequality. In addition to his critical outlook for the moral order in social and economic life, his concern with social reforms led him to work on some charitable projects to end the disorders in his life (Dickens, DC: 11). Suffering in his early childhood had been an experience for him to be sensitively aware of “the other half,” composed of the oppressed, the lonely and the alienated individuals (Blount 14). Similar to the presentation of Hard Times, experimental narration in David Copperfield infers how the other half lives in London and demonstrates in the form of male Bildungsroman –the narration of the process of maturity— David Copperfield’s finding his way in between power and class relations in society. At least five of Dickens’s novels belong to the category of the novel of enlightenment. Education plays a crucial role in Dickens’s perception of reformation. He considers it as a vital means to prevent criminality social context (Schwan 306). This indicates that living by following the education ethics via the moral conduct regulates all the malfunctions in communal life. Lack of education is the reason for all the inequal and injustice cases in life for Dickens. Dickens’s novels manifest romance-like adventures of their heroes in the conflicts of lower middle classes in cities (Levine 88; Parrinder 217-218). ”Dickens’s own experiences imply his awareness of the realistic objective truths and children’s struggling earnestly to support themselves and their families in return for inconsiderable range of payments. Dickens’s London is a commercial centre in which clerks, lawyers and bankers are the fictional characters, however, his Hard Times is the only industrial novel, with an industrial metropolis that involves industrial workers and manufacturers (Eagleton 143). Such a commercial and the industrial setting of the same socio-historical circumstances indicates the existence of the power of material things such as money, institutions, commodities and power relations of different class divisions (Eagleton 146). This implies the tendencies for strife to acquire material achievement in social context rather than pursuing a life of moral success in living circumstances. Dickens is not directly an urban writer that depicts the hard living conditions of cities, but a social historian that reflects how the “hands” of that social context suffer because of the injustices that disturb the working public. He emphasizes the actuality of both good and evil characters in the same working conditions. Dickens overviews city in a sense of being a prison or underworld different from the ordinary urban life surrounding it. The city does not involve the ideals of wealth, happiness, educational improvement for most individuals but a place of anxiety, fear, poverty, and danger (Parrinder 226). However, despite the reality of various problematic working conditions, workmen lead their

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lives in moral pursuit. Whereas the workers are portrayed as ethically good ones, there are the others that continue life through absolute quality of material circumstances that indicates the gap between the morality and living conditions. Such kind of reality reminds the Utilitarian coldheartedness of the Victorian industrial life. According to McGowan “realism is essentially hostile to time” and its “most fundamental desire is to regain the past” (149). Dickens reflects his being an “other voice” of London by his critical outlook to the industrial period. McGowan’s critical evaluation of Dickens’s reformist policy supports the argument of this article. Becoming reactionary towards the actual living standards by pursuing an antagonistic approach for the injustices denotes his longing for the moral construction of the period before the Industrial Revolution that involves philanthropy which respected the poor despite their lack of donations of wealth and property. However, as seen in Dickens’s novels, the rich use their minds and wealth to benefit the community and the needy. Although there is the recognition of reforms which would echo a philanthropic activity, unequal payments for different “halves” signify a hostility towards some “others,” called the prosperous middle class or the ones on top of industry. Dickens exemplifies a contrast in between the moral and the material earnings at the end of the Victorian era: whereas the ones after good fortunes support material possessions in life, the others –Dickens’s major characters— try to improve themselves by leading a life formed of proper moral activities in working conditions. Although this article basically focuses on Hard Times, David Copperfield supports the argument of this study in the context of how young workers follow hard work ethic morally rather than becoming prosperous by pursing moral extremities: I have been very fortunate in worldly matters; many men have worked much harder, and not succeeded half so well; but I never could have done what I have done, without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one object at a time, no matter how quickly its successor should come upon its heels, which I then formed. . . . My meaning simply is, that whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well; that whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself to completely; that in great aims and in small, I have always been thoroughly in earnest. (DC, 671-672)

Dickens reflects the sense of innocence of the poor in their working circumstances despite all the hardships. It is clearly put forward how the needy of the time pursue “punctuality, order, and diligence” in their labour conditions. Such moral orders emphasize how the other half on the top of

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working opportunities is in lack of those rules in working situations. Some fictional characters, Tom, Louisa, Sissy and Stephen Blackpool, in Hard Times signalize the virtues that Dickens implies in his reformist policy to regain the purity and honesty of previous pious working principles. They suffer in their social environment as a result of the corrupting power of money which influences both the physical and the emotional parts of human lives. Valuable work is maintained via following moral conduct in labour as Dickens explains in his fictional masterpiece, Hard Times. Thomas Gradgrind says at the beginning of the novel and emphasizes how new industrial circumstances are possible to be regulated through becoming away from fancy at schools: Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts; nothing else will ever be of any service to them. (Dickens, HT, 1)

The Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth century in Victorian England influenced most individuals to gain social progress and to possess great fortunes in their living styles and encouraged big entrepreneurs to employ children in return for low wages. A huge gap between the poor and the rich appeared and most individuals moved from country into city in search for opportunities to attain social mobility via being employed in various working conditions. Hard Times, which is set not in a real English city, but in the fictitious Victorian industrial Coketown—a Northern English mill-town— depicts Dickens’s pessimistic writing style regarding the social and economic gap between the mill owners and the poor working class. Portraying the horrors of newly mechanized society through the employment of the children and the adults in hard working conditions, Hard Times reflects the enslavement of workers without personal individual rights in their living and labor circumstances. In the time of prosperity of the Victorian era, the ultimate goal of the individual and society is to acquire social welfare. Dickens reflects how Mr. Gradgrind becomes a man of fact throughout reflecting his policy of being a self-reliant and self-made man through following the philosophy of individual morality of hard work ethic for personal gains: THOMAS GRADGRIND, sir. A man of realities. A man of facts and calculations. A man who proceeds upon the principle that two and two are four, and nothing over, and who is not to be talked into allowing for anything over. Thomas Gradgrind, sir — peremptorily Thomas — Thomas Gradgrind. With a rule and a pair of scales, and the multiplication table always in his pocket, sir, ready to weigh and measure any parcel of human

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nature, and tell you exactly what it comes to. It is a mere question of figures, a case of simple arithmetic. You might hope to get some other nonsensical belief into the head of George Gradgrind, or Augustus Gradgrind, or John Gradgrind, or Joseph Gradgrind (all supposititious, non-existent persons), but into the head of Thomas Gradgrind - no, sir! (2). . . . In such terms Mr Gradgrind always mentally introduced himself, whether to his private circle of acquaintance, or to the public in general. In such terms, no doubt, substituting the words ‘boys and girls,’ for ‘sir,’ Thomas Gradgrind now presented Thomas Gradgrind to the little pitchers before him, who were to be filled so full of facts (Dickens, HT, 2).

Dickens’s commentary in his Hard Times presents how the fictional characters are disturbed by their social environment. Dickens becomes annoyed with the unequal distribution of social opportunities especially in the educational phase in this well-known masterpiece (Mazzeno 55). Being discontent with the reforms of the period, Dickens reflects how the government is insufficient to respond the demands of the factory workers. Dickens describes the Coketown workers as belonging to a separate social division. In Hard Times, complex human life is given via the presentation of the rigid opposition of the “system” and the “fact,” as exemplified in Gradgrind’s school and Bounderby’s mill. There is the controversy of “life” and “fancy” in the same living circumstances (Connor 91; Moye 94). The thematic basis of fact and fancy also represents how people portray different attitudes and behaviours in their living styles and demonstrates the different halves in the same social context. Dickens values the recognition of the reading public about the significance of the contradiction between reality and its delusion by means of manifesting both the wealthy and the poor as well as the moral and the immoral in the same social environment (Moye 101). Dickens recounts this contradiction in Hard Times: In the hardest working part of Coketown; in the innermost fortifications of that ugly citadel, where Nature was as strongly bricked out as killing airs and gases were bricked in; at the heart of the labyrinth of narrow courts upon courts, and close streets upon streets, which had come into existence piecemeal, every piece in a violent hurry for someone's purpose, and the whole an unnatural family, shouldering, and trampling, and pressing one another to death; in the last close nook of this great exhausted receiver, where the chimneys, for want of air to make a draught, were built in an immense variety of stunted and crooked shapes, as though every house put out a sign of the kind of people who might be expected to be born in it; among the multitude of Coketown, generically called 'the Hands,' - a race who would have found more favour with some people, if Providence had seen fit to make them only hands, or, like the lower creatures of the

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Here, what Dickens introduces is a new contrast character when he explains the ones under the name of “the Hands” in Bounderby factory. Stephen Blackpool leads a life of poverty and strives hard to maintain his honour, sincerity and kindness in the hardship of his working circumstances. His morality of humanity contrasts with Bounderby’s selfinterest. He reflects his honest living without joining a workers’ union. Through Stephen, –a specific Christ-like figure— Dickens manifests that industrialization brings forth different halves in the same social context and focuses on the absence of moral integrity: the needy supporting the ideals of virtue and the wealthy being interested in money and power. Here, the representation of social reality is via stressing the existence of opposing groups, the poor and the rich, in the same historical and social context. Dickens introduces Blackpool as a self-made man who tries to support his own living through his moral conduct. In his description of the industrial world in Coketown, Dickens calls it as a “triumph of facts” in its severely working conditions and calls it as a place of fancy when Mrs Gradgrind is evaluated in respect to her comforts. Dickens, in the industrial description of Coketown, expresses how children and the adults are caged and enslaved in the red-brick industrial city of the North. In Hard Times, Dickens depicts the hard living conditions and expresses that it was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it; but as matters stood, it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage. It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys, out of which interminable serpents of smoke trailed themselves for ever and ever, and never got uncoiled. It had a black canal in it, and a river that ran purple with ill-smelling dye, and vast piles of building full of windows where there was a rattling and a trembling all day long, and where the piston of the steam-engine worked monotonously up and down, like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness. It contained several large streets all very like one another, and many small streets still more like one another, inhabited by people equally like one another, who all went in and out at the same hours, with the same sound upon the same pavements, to do the same work, and to whom every day was the same as yesterday and to-morrow, and every year the counterpart of the last and the next. (19)

This indicates that his description is taken as representative of the industrial city through vivid actuality of the scenes. In the monotony and

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the severe working circumstances of the mechanized city, it is possible to see how “the other half”, the punctual workers, led their lives. To sum up, Dickens explores the correlation between different castes and investigates otherness through social and economic depiction in his literary journalistic way of writing. He deconstructs the reformist policy of his time and demonstrates the moral depravity in the process of acquiring material prosperity throughout proposing a new educational and social reformist policy. The gap between the rich and the poor working class expands as the industrialists and the factory owners employ individuals with lower wages, being oppressed by the mechanized system. Dickens’s concern with the reformation of education is a means to consider the problematic situations of the time and to evaluate all the coexistent problems in terms of educational phases. What he basically supports is the progress of educational opportunities for all and the social equality in every circumstance.

Works Cited Barry, Peter. “Post-Structuralism and Deconstruction.” Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009. Pp. 59-78. Blount, Trevor. “Introduction.” David Copperfield. London: Penguin, 1984. pp. 13-39. Bressler, Charles E. “Deconstruction.” Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 4th Ed. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2007. Connor, Steven. “Hard Times.” Charles Dickens. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985. pp. 89-106. Cuddon, J. A. “Deconstruction.” The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. London: Penguin, 1998. Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield. London: Penguin, 1984. —. Hard Times. London: Penguin, 1994. Eagleton, Terry. “Charles Dickens.” The English Novel: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005. pp: 143-162. Gandal, Keith. The Virtues of the Vicious: Jacob Riis, Stephen Crane, and the Spectacle of the Slum. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Hornback, Bert G. “Frustration and Resolution in David Copperfield.” Major Literary Characters: David Copperfield. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1992. Pp. (86-98). Ledgerm, Sally and Holly Furneaux, (Eds.) Charles Dickens in Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1911.

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Levine, George. How to Read the Victorian Novel. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2008. Mazzeno, W. Laurence. The Dickens Industry: Critical Perspectives: 1836-2005. New York: Camden House, 2008. McDowall, David. An Illustrated History of Britain. Essex: Longman, 1991. McGowan, John P. “David Copperfield: The Trial of Realism.” Major Literary Characters: David Copperfield. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1992. Pp. (145-150). Morgan, Kenneth O (Ed.). The Oxford History of Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993. Moye, Richard H. “Storied Realities.” Contemporary Dickens. (Eds.) Eileen Gillooly and Deirdre David. Columbus: The Ohio State University 2009. pp. 93-109). Parrinder, Patrick. Nation and Novel: The English Novel from its Origins to the Present Day. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Riis, Jacob A. How the Other Half Lives. New York: Penguin, 1997.

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE RECONNECTION WITH NATURE, STORIES AND THE LAND IN LESLIE MARMON SILKO’S CEREMONY YELøZ ùEKERCø

“You don’t have anything if you don’t have the stories” writes Leslie Marmon Silko in her highly acclaimed novel Ceremony, which was published in 1977. 1 As one of the forerunners of Native American contemporary literature, Leslie Marmon Silko is aware that stories contain basic tenets of a culture and thus play a vital role in the formation and maintenance of community and cultural identity. The Native American oral literature, which mostly draws upon storytelling tradition abounds in such works that underscore this “organic tie between storytelling and place.”2 It is for this reason that at the turn of the twentieth century Native American written literature, turns out to be an area of reclamation for the Native’s identity and stories that have long become severed from their past, cultural heritage and their land as a result of American policies of domination and control. The Native American contact with the white culture after Spanish and Euro-American expansion, is treated by Native American writers to be the primary reason leading these indigenous people to go geographically, culturally and psychologically displaced lives in which they are forced to forget who they are. In her novel Ceremony Leslie Marmon Silko conveys this estranged and disconnected condition of the Native people through the individual story of Tayo, the male protagonist, who returns from the Second World War with deep traumatic after-effects as he loses the connection with nature, the land and the stories of his Native culture that have fundamental significance in establishing his 1

Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (London: Penguin Books,2006),2 Joy Porter, Kenneth M. Roemer, (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Native American Literature (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 18

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tribal identity. At the centre of the novel lies the control and devastation of the Native’s land and culture accomplished through the masculinist and colonial Western ideology that works by excluding and denigrating both women and nature, the entities that the Native people identify with and thereby are greatly revered within Native American culture and stories. Likewise, pinpointing “the links between adrocentricism and environmental destruction” ecofeminism is a movement that encourages a reverence for these abovementioned oppressed groups whose liberation will put an end to both social and ecological ills inhabiting the world. 3 Taking these ecofeminist points into consideration for which “environment is a feminist issue,”4 this study investigates Silko’s Ceremony as an ecofeminist text that uncovers the affinity between ecological destruction and patriarchal violence in the formation of disconnected, degraded and assimilated identity of the Native whose reintegration the writer sees only to be possible if the native achieves reconnection with nature, and the land existing in Native American ceremonies and stories. Native American people, who are called at the same time American Indians, are the “indigenous tribes of North America, who populated the vast continent before the so-called discovery of America by Columbus.”5 After arriving at the continent European settlers regarded it as an urgent need to keep the power at hand, which would become possible by proving their political, cultural and economic dominance over the indigenous people of the continent. Yet, with the aid of research Native American people were found out to have inhabited the land approximately for 5000 years when the Europeans arrived the continent. 6 In order to invent justifiable reasons to exploit these indigenous people and their land, white men “when they first encountered Native American peoples speculated that they had been there only a few hundred years.”7 Moving from East to the Westward, Euro-Americans as Krupats states approached the frontier in the 1890s “appropriating Native American lands by force and fraud.”8 3 Greta Gaard, (ed.), Ecofeminism: Women, Animals and Nature (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993),18 4 Ibid., 4 5 Jyotirmaya Tripathy, “Postcolonialism and the Native American Experience: A theoretical Perspective” (Asiatic, Vol:3, No: 1, June 2009 pp. 40-53), 41 6 Joy Porter, Kenneth M. Roemer,(ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Native American Literature (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 41 7 Ibid., 41 8 Arnold Krupat, The Voice In the Margin: Native American Literature and the Canon (Berkeley: The University of California Press, 1989),105

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Hence, under the hegemonic control of the US these indigenous people, beginning from the first half of the 19th century, were allotted for them some land to live on, namely reservation areas, which caused them to be perceived as a minority group unable to claim any right of their own. One should keep in mind that the white male has developed masculinist strategies of domination both for survival and power on various occasions, which came to the fore even in primary works of Western literature such as Iliad and Odessey. However, his thirst for power has been found out by a great number of critics as having destructive effects both for humans and their environment upon which he exercised his power. Similar outcomes can also be observed in the white male’s colonial strategy that is accomplished both through the attainment of material riches, natural resources, in broader terms the land and cultural assimilation of the Native people. As put by Reyes Garcia “loss of place means genetic extinction; loss of sense of place signals cultural extinctionhistories and stories squandered.”9 This viewpoint supports the idea that, with Euro-American white male’s interference of the Native’s land comes the destruction and degradation of entire Native American cultures as well. The Grand Council of American Indians, which was founded in 1926, publishes a notice concerning the enforced assimilation the Native people into white culture. The notice accounts for the oppression and domination of the white people upon the Native Americans whose fondness on “freedom and justice” is seen as a threat the Westerner: The white people, who are trying to make us over into their image, they want us to be what they call “assimilate,” by bringing the Indians into the mainstream and destroying our own way of life and our own cultural matters. They believe we should be contented like those whose concept of happiness is materialistic and greedy, which is very different from our way. We want freedom from the white man rather than to be integrated. We don’t want any part of the establishment, we want to be free to raise our children in our religion, in our ways, to be able to hunt and fish and live in peace. We don’t want power, we don’t want to be congressmen, or bankers... we want to be ourselves. We want to have our heritage, because we are the owners of this land and because we belong here. The white man says, there is freedom and justice for all. We have had ‘freedom and justice,’ and that is why we have been almost exterminated. We shall not forget this.10 9

Garcia Reyes, “Senses of Place in Ceremony” (MELUS, Vol.10, No.4 Winter , 1983 Winter, 1983, pp. 37-48),37 10 Donna Hightower Langston, The Native American World (Hoboken, New Jersey John Wiley&Sons, 2003),399

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These relations of power and domination through which the nonWesterner’s both natural landscape and cultural identity are degraded and exploited have not only become the focus of postcolonial and ethnicity studies but also of ecofeminism. Emerging around the 1970s with a stress on the way feminism and ecology intersect ecofeminism underscores “the links between domination of nature and women.” 11 However, as Greta Gaard notes ecofeminism turns into also “a global analysis of oppression” 12 because it presumes that “the ideology which authorizes oppressions such as those based on race, class, gender, sexuality, physical abilities, and species is the same ideology which sanctions the oppression of nature.” 13 Hence, one can observe that in its understanding of the relations of power and oppression ecofeminism finds out a complicity among Western patriarchy, civilization, militarism, colonial and capitalist exploitations whose concerns of domination intersect with each other in terms of their tendency to aggression and control over the female, nature, animals and the non-European. The first ecofeminist conference entitled Women and Life on Earth: Ecofeminism in the 80s, which is held in Massachusetts in 1980, explores “the connections between feminism, militarism, health and ecology” 14 , whose intermingling according to Ynestra King draws attention to: ...the devastation of the earth and her beings by the corporate warriors, and the threat of nuclear annihilation by the military warriors as feminist concerns. It is the same masculinist mentality which would deny us our right to our own bodies and our own sexuality and which depends on multiple systems of dominance and state power to have its way.15

As seen the primary scope of analysis for ecofeminist critics is this “masculinist mentality” that operates like an invisible hand in the maintenance of systems of oppression and control not only in terms of sexism, but also of colonialism and racism, all of which are accompanied by environmental destruction. As an alternative to these systems of oppression that work by a separatist mechanisms, ecofeminism offers us “to make connections”16 (Gaard, vii). To put in other words, ecofeminist 11

Val Plumwood, “Ecofeminism: An Overview and Discussion of Positions and Arguments” (Australian Journal of Philosophy, 64:sup1,1986, pp. 120-138), 120 12 Gaard, (ed.)Ecofeminism: Women, Animals and Nature,3 13 Ibid., 1 14 Manisha Rao, “Ecofeminism at The Crossroads in India: A Review” (Dep, n.20/ 2012),125 15 Ibid, 125 16 Gaard., (ed.) Ecofeminism: Women, Animals and Nature, vii

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thought foregrounds the idea that nature does not work according to the rules of dominance and hierarchy, because “life on earth is an interconnected web, not a hierarchy. There is no natural hierarchy; human hierarchy is projected on to nature and then used to justify social domination.” 17 Hence the rejection of dualities appears in ecofeminist view in the form of embracement of “the interconnectedness of all life” that is highly found and valued in native American thought as well.18 Native American culture which has very specific peculiarities bases itself upon the notions of human interaction and connection with the universe and natural environment. As Toni Flores notes about a native American tribe “Laguna Pueblo people have lived out their daily, ordinary, material lives interacting with each other and with the land creating their own definitions and solutions to the problems and possibilities for life on that land and with that people.”19 The concepts of land, the feminine and nature rescued from their essentialist definitions, are of utmost importance as they all include animating power of the earth that constantly renews and fertilizes the life on the universe. It is due to her Native background that Silko’s work overemphasizes these Native American ways of existence and thought that advise to live according to the rules of nature, rather than disconnect from them if any system of oppression is to end. Addressing the issues of power, war, violence, environmental destruction, nuclear threat, territorial and spiritual loss, in her novel Ceremony Silko puts blame mostly on White male destroyers whose concern for domination and exploitation of the non-Westerner parallels to their treatment of nature and female. In Ceremony, Western patriarchal control and domination are shown to be accomplished through the dislocation of the native from both natural and cultural landscape as experienced by the protagonist, Tayo, a war veteran who abandoned his traditional beliefs and practices after his experience of second world war that incorporates him into the White male’s world. The war that took place between America and Japan in which the natives took part as American soldiers first results in Tayo’s shattered sense of place to which he never feels to belong. Garcia Reyes points out “encounter with places shape

17

Ibid, 80 Ibid., 308 19 Toni Flores, “Claiming and Making: Ethnicity, Gender, and the Common Sense in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God” Frontiers: A Journal Of Women Studies, Vol. 10, No.3, 1989,pp.52-58), 54 18

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worldviews.”20 (37). Therefore, it can be obviously claimed that since the war area is a space of violence and destruction, Tayo’s Native consciousness and worldview are tried to be altered and thus reshaped through this overly masculine and Eurocentric mindset seeking to dominate through violence. According to Susan Griffin “patriarchal thought represents itself as emotionless (objective, detached and bodiless), the dicta of Western civilization and science on the subjects of woman and nature.” 21 As a result of his engagement with the Western world of war and violence, Tayo from the beginning of the novel is represented to be leading a traumatic life, psychologically in torment whose traces can be likened to Griffin’s depiction of patriarchal way of life that lacks emotion. His destructed mental health manifests itself in his continual hallucinations, vomiting and the haunting dream of the way his cousin Rocky is killed in the war. At the very beginning of the novel when the doctor comes to treat him and heal his sickness Tayo refuses to talk since he feels himself as an “invisible” being “whose words are formed with an invisible tounge.”22 It is this sense of invisibility, connoting his Western imposed ethnic otherness, that forces him to choose to take part in the war. The military uniform the native soldiers wear during the war makes them visible as one of the Americans, or to be recognized as a part of America about which Emo, Tayo’s friend who enrolled in the American army without hesitation says: America! America! God shed his grace on thee..White women never looked at me until I put on That Uniform... He was the best they told him; some men didn’t like to feel the quiver of the man they were killing; some men got sick when they smelled the blood. But he was the best; he was one of them. The best the United States Army. 23

The army recruiter’s claim that “Anyone can fight for America” proves how the concept of war is legitimated through the exaltation of America as a country for whose sake one should die or kill.”24 Silko ironically exhibits that American heroic ideals that praise bravery and military success are imposed on the Native as if these were his own ideals that would provide him with a sense of self and recognition. However, ecofeminists 20

Reyes, 37 Susan Griffin, Woman and Nature: The Roaring Indise Her (The USA: Harper&Row Publishers, 1980) xv 22 Silko, Ceremony, 14 23 Ibid., 34,57 24 Ibid, 58 21

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conceptualize that the military requires one to behave overly masculine and act destructively from whose life feeling, the sense of connection to nature and universe and thus all humanity is deliberately annihilated. 25 One of the ecofeminist critics, Janis Birkeland’s analysis of militarism to be based on the production of gender identity suggests that environmental problems which are believed to be caused by militarism are actually the direct result of construction of masculinise and feminine identities. As she writes: the military itself understands and manipulates sex roles to benefit the war business. First, in training, men are taught to despise and distance themselves from their ‘feminine’ side or their emotions and feelings... Man should be macho and reckless; they should go to war to prove themselves. Women should be submissive and unquestioning; they should raise sons to be brave soldiers.26

Birkeland’s analysis of the working of militarism gives necessary insight in understanding how Tayo’s health become sickened by the values of the white male patriarch who forces him to abandon his feminine side in order to kill, and thus become a war hero. Set on his attempts to restore his detachment from his feminine side, the Native land and the values this land bears, the individual story of the protagonist of Silko’s novel parallels the communal story of the Native American People in a larger context. Just as the Native American people Tayo’s identity is from the beginning influenced by the white American male intervention that marks him to be an illegitimate son. He is born out of a native mother and a white father, whose relationship is condemned and not approved by the native society. This condemnation results in mother’s abandonment of the child reinforcing further his disconnection from the land and the stories of his communal identity that would cure him individually. In Native American culture mother is associated with the land or the earth. As put by another Native American writer Rudolfo Anaya “we are animated by the power of the earth- it is in Native American terms our Mother-it nurtures us, it gives us spirit and sustenance.” 27 Hence Tayo’s detachment from his mother, implying his disconnection from the land and nature as well, leads him to be trapped within the values of the White male world that have a great 25

Gaard, (ed.)Ecofeminism: Women, Animals and Nature, 35 Ibid., 35 27 Stuart Cochran, “The Ethnic Implication of Stories, Spirits and the Land in Native American Pueblo and Aztlan Writing” (MELUS, Vol.20, No.2, Summer 1995, pp 69-91), 69 26

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disregard for nature. According to the magician Beintonie, who guides Tayo on his reintegration into communal identity, nature is removed from the life and values of the White people: White skin people... grow away from the earth. Then they grow away from the sun. Then they grow away from the plants and animals. They see no life when they look. They see only objects. The world is a dead thing for them. The trees and rivers are not alive. The mountains and stones are not alive the deer and bear are objects. They see no life.28

Studies pertaining to Western and Native ways of seeing the world and reality indicate that their understanding of time and space, which is totally different from each other, is effective on the way their cultural values and practices are construed. While Native Americans have a “cyclical” concept of time and space, the Westerners have “linear” and “sequential” understanding of them. 29 (Dennis, 20). Paula Gunn Allen differentiates between these circular and linear concepts of time and space as follows: The circular concept requires all points that make up the sphere of being to have a significant identity and function, while the linear model assumes that some points are more significant than others.30 Allen’s conceptions of “all points” and “some points” should be taken into consideration as giving clues about the way Native and Western worldviews are constructed. It can be inferred from Allen’s words above that valuing “all points” means to appreciate all beings at equal value, whereas it is the appreciation of some privileged being that is implied through the linear valuation of “some points”. Hence the Native American worldview in which “all points” find a space to exist, is far from dualistic and hierarchical nature of the Western worldview upon which ecofeminists direct their criticism. Ecofeminist thinkers trace the roots of the domination of women, nature and the non-Westerner as far back as the Western dualistic philosophy, science and patriarchal way of thought all of which aim at creating boundaries and established truths that become normative. It has been mostly remarked by ecofeminists that hierarchized dualities and oppositions such as mind-body, culture-nature, subjectobject, reason-feeling masculine/feminine are created by Western rationality, civilization and patriarchal thought in order to maintain their superiority and power over the beings, species, cultures and minority and 28

Silko, Ceremony, 125 Helen May Dennis, Native American Literature: Towards a Spatialized Reading (New York:, Taylor and Francis e-library, 2006),20 30 Ibid, 20 29

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ethnic groups categorized as non-rational, non-human, uncivilized, emotional, feminine etc. As Greta Gaard notes this privileged group is generally “upper- or middle class, human, technologically and industrially developed male” who manipulates science for his own benefits. 31 It is through scientific explanations of this white male that “nature is nullified and defined as lack.”32 Within the novel, the science books studied by Tayo at Western schools are employed to make a critique of the modern science by Silko. Western science, which is found by ecofeminist critics to be in the service of the patriarch and colonizers and the bearer of Western men’s values, can be witnessed as alienating Tayo from his own Native traditions and knowledge that does not function in tandem with Western dualistic thinking. “To assimilate young Indians into white culture, Indian boarding schools were created”, 33 writes Donna Hightower- Langston. Hence, it may well be argued that it is through his Western education that Tayo had already been assimilated and thus learned to discriminate between genders, races and a human-nonhuman world and thus become contaminated by the scientific sourcebook: The science teacher ...then held the science textbook up for the class to see the true source of explanations. He had studied these books, and he had no reasons to believe the stories any more. The science books explained the causes and effects.34 (Silko, 87).

As has been frequently claimed by ecofeminism white male’s fondness on rationality coincides with that of enlightenment ideals of Western culture through which “human identity as outside nature” is constructed.35 However, as Val Plumwood puts forth ecofeminist criticism of Western science and rationality should not call for the abandonment of these forms. What she offers for the critics is to redefine and reconstruct these forms “in less oppositional and hierarchical ways.” 36 Particularly remarkable, Silko’s treatment of science, which offers to bring together irrational and rational explanation, is an alternative attempt to avoid the hierarchical and dualistic form of Western science. Silko juxtaposes Western culture’s 31

Gaard,(ed.) Ecofeminism: Women, Animals and Nature,1 Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, (London:Taylor and Francis e-library, 2003) 110 33 Donna Hightower Langston, The Native American World. (Hoboken, New Jersey John Wiley&Sons, 2003), 317 34 Silko, Ceremony, 87 35 Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 2 36 Ibid.,4 32

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scientific and rational explanation of the universe and the life with the Native’s way of thought that accepts human as a part of nature, and nature as the true source of explanation in which irrationality coexists with rationality as dual complementaries rather than excluding each other. This is witnessed when Tayo’s grandmother says “Back in time immemorial, things were different, the animals could talk to human beings and many magical things still happened.”37 As seen, Silko’s brings together Western conceived irrational group of animals with rational group of humans whose statuses are equated through the act of talking. However, with the growing influence of modern industry and science both on human nature and outside nature, one can quite possibly observe that it is not nature and animals, but guns and machines talking to people in violence. Patriarchal violence, especially in environmental terms, dominates Silko’s novel in which white men are addressed to be “the destroyers.”38 Throughout the novel white men, for whom the natives fought their war, are represented as setting “in motion to destroy and kill... fearing the world and destroying what they fear.”39 Machines and guns are mentioned to be the tools invented by the white male to destroy the land, nature, animals and plants in the universe. Through Tayo’s point of view Silko writes about these destroyers that: “He hated them... for what they did to the earth with their machines, and to the animals with their packs of dogs and their guns.” 40 Unable to conceive the importance of living with differences, Western civilization aims at separating species form each other and thus from the ecological order of the nature. According to Judith Plant it is this separatist attitude through which acts of killing, rape and violence both against underprivileged groups of humanity and nature are maintained.41 Nature is claimed to be feminized to the extent that all its sources and living creatures are represented as something to be exploited, penetrated and raped. Hence, as noted by Karen Warren the feminization of the nature was the greatest part of white male’s politics invented to naturalize women’s subordination to exploit both women and nature, as described in the following words: Women are described in animal terms as pets, cows, sows, foxes, chicks, serpents, bitches, beavers, old bats, old hens, mother hens, pussycats, cats, 37

Silko, Ceremony, 87 Ibid., 20 39 Ibid., 127 40 Ibid, 189 41 Karen Warren, (ed.) Ecofeminism: Women Culture Nature (The USA: Indiana University Press. 1997),131 38

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cheetahs, bird-brains and hare brains... Mother Nature is raped, mastered, conquered, mined; her secrets are penetrated, her womb is to be put into the service of the man of science. Virgin timber is felled, cut down; fertile soil is tilled, and land that lies fallow is barren useless. The exploitation of nature and animals is justified by feminizing them; the exploitation of women is justified by naturalizing them.42

In Ceremony the domination and exploitation of the natural world creates ecological disorders and imbalances in the form of droughts, famine, flood etc. The drought that takes place for a long time after Tayo’s return from the war demonstrates how the environmental destruction exercised by the white male destroyed the fertility of the Native American land. As Tayo’s uncle Josiah says “the old people used to say that droughts happen when people forget, when people misbehave.” 43 Here Josiah’s speech includes references for both Native and White cultures, because according to him while the white caused the drought as they mistreated the land, the Native people caused it as they became disconnected from their Native landscape and culture with a lost memory of who they are, and where they come from. To that end, Josiah reminds Tayo that : “this is where we come from, see. This sand, this stone, these trees, the vines, all the wildflowers. This earth keeps us going.” 44 However, Silko represents this nurturing earth to be stripped of its living species, plants, trees and animals by the white male for financial gain. In one of his talks with Tayo, Old magician Bentonie depicts how their land was sold to the “white ranchers” and then exploited by “the loggers” who cut their trees, killed the animals and thus destroyed their land: All but a small part of the (tree-laden) mountain had been taken... By the National Forest and by the state which later sold it to white ranchers who came from Texas in the early 1900s. In the twenties and thirties the loggers had come, and they stripped the canyons below the rim and cut great clearings on the plateau slopes... they shot bears and mountain lions for sport. And it was then the Native American people understood that the land had been taken, because they couldn’t stop these white people from coming to destroy the animals and the land. It was then that the holy men of Native American and Acoma warned the people that the balance of the world had been disturbed and the people could expect droughts and harder days to come.45

42

Ibid.,12 Silko. Ceremony, 42 44 Ibid, 42 45 Ibid, 173 43

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Marti Kheel notes that “as we disengage from patriarchal discourse, we begin to hear larger and fuller stories. Hearing these bigger stories means learning to listen to nature.” 46 Native American world view and ways of being are inscribed in their stories, storytelling is treated as a challenge against the patriarchal stories and thus becomes a healing tool in restoring the lost connection of the individual into tribe and tribal consciousness at the centre of which nature dwells. In one of her interviews Silko says: “Stories give identity to a place... That’s how you know, that is how you belong, that is how you know you belong, if the stories incorporate you into them”47 Her words prove that stories have the power in forging an identity that is freed from all the forms of estrangement and destructive outside influences. By moving between time and spaces of “historical time”, which is “chronologic”, and “ceremonial time” which is “mythic” Tayo’s consciousness is rescued from the contamination exposed by Western patriarchy.48 The stories, myths, chants and ceremonies of his Native culture which construe his past are integrated into his present. It is for this reason that Silko begins her novel introducing the mythical goddess “Thought Woman” of Laguna Pueblo mythology. “Thought Woman” is a spider that has special powers such as “naming things”, “thinking” and creating “the Universe.”49 These activities which are mostly associated with the image of active rationale and a male god are used by Silko to offer an alternative concept of god, a female creator animating the universe through her multiple abilities each of which is likened to the arms of a spider. As Susan Griffin notes throughout history women’s subordination was achieved by also hindering them from engagement with mental activities as such “it is advised that too much mental activity can cause an ‘ovarian neuralgia’ during which neither the brain nor the womb receives enough blood.”50 In this regard Silko’s employment of the “Thought Woman” as a Native American mythical goddess makes references to the matriarchal background of Native American culture in which female is mentally active in naming and creating things. In their stories Laguna Pueblo people keep the memory of their mythologies, which put nature at the centre of universe, alive. These mythological stories foreground to be caring and grateful against nature, embodied in their mythologies as the primary 46

Gaard, (ed.) Ecofeminism: Women, Animals and Nature, 260 Cochran, “The Ethnic Implication of Stories, Spirits and the Land in Native American Pueblo and Aztlan Writing” 71 48 Dennis, American Literature: Towards a Spatialized Reading, 44 49 Silko, Ceremony, 6 50 Griffin, Woman and Nature: The Roaring Indise Her, 25 47

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goddess Corn Mother. The story of the Hummingbird and Fly which Silko employs in the novel as a sub-plot includes many mythical references for Tayo in order that he should achieve reconnection with nature following the same pattern of the ceremonial story of rain and fertility. “Pueblo ceremonies for rain and growth reflected a conception of the universe in which every person, animal, plant, and supernatural being was considered significant.”51 The story employed in the novel tells that at the time of a drought taking place in immemorial times people attempted to restore the balance and fertility of nature by asking Hummingbird and Fly to soothe Corn Mother, after whose forgiveness the drought ends and rain begins. This is the same path Tayo has traced in order to restore his sense of communal identity. It is for this reason that myths and memory are stressed by Silko in reforging the lost bond with nature. When the assimilated individual achieves a reconnection with nature, s/he reintegrates into the community and cultural identity as well. As Toni Flores notes, “to tell a story is to make a reality; to act out a story is to make a world.” 52 In line with this idea, in the novel, Tayo’s sickness is cured through the ceremonies which become an enactment of the Native American stories. In order to restore and balance his disconnected condition, Tayo is initiated into Native American ceremonies under the guide of Bentonie in the mine field of Uranium. The setting is deliberately chosen by Silko as the Native land is a land of uranium that is used in the production of nuclear weapons. This environmental destruction wrought by nuclear threat upon the reservations is given by Andy Smith as a historical fact as follows: Over fifty reservations have been targeted for waste dumps. In addition, military and nuclear testing takes place on Native lands. For instance, there have been at least 650 nuclear explosions on Shoshone land at the Nevada test site. Fifty percent of the underground tests have leaked radiation into the atmosphere.53

As put in the quotation above, the Native land was mined, misused and polluted by the white male for nuclear tests. The uranium field mentioned in the novel is one of these polluted areas on which Tayo exercises 51

Kathleen Kuiper, (ed.) The Native American Sourcebook: Native American Culture (New York: Britannica Educational Publishing, 2011), 109 52 Flores, “Claiming and Making: Ethnicity, Gender, and the Common Sense in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God” 54 53 Warren, Ecofeminism: Women Culture Nature, 23

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ceremonial dance, songs and painting which will purify the pollution and evil to which not only his own individual consciousness but also Native community and land are exposed. The magician Bentonie warns Tayo that ceremonies will work if he completes the task of finding lost cattle of Josiah, which is also symbolic of the native people’s search for their lost land. At the end of the novel, Tayo’s health is restored only after his encounter with the most powerful figure of the novel, who is called Tesh with whom he falls in love and sleeps with. She is the mother earth, the nurturer and life-giver whose love brings Tayo back to life. Ceremonies completed with his search for lost cattle of Josiah and his encounter with Tesh bring Tayo’s consciousness to the level of communal awareness, which alters his white male-infected visions. The boundaries and value hierarchies imposed by Western patriarchy are extinguished when Tayo reconnects with nature, the stories of Pueblo culture, and thus the land. Broadly speaking, the awareness of who he is achieved by acting in harmony with nature, which is also a universal message by ecofeminists to get rid of the ecological predicament in which the world is trapped. As an ecofeminist text Silko’s Ceremony is observed to be laying bare the way patriarchal and colonial violence against the people of colour functions in the same way this violence is operated on nature. Environmental destruction appears within the novel to be induced from white male’s search for power and domination who exerts violence on nature by cutting the trees, killing the animals, and mining the field of the Native landscape. The white male’s machines rape the fertile land and thus mercilessly destroy the balance of the ecological system. This study has also found out that the destruction of the land on the side of the Native American people meant more than an ecological crisis awaiting the whole world, as the loss and destruction of their land would imply a cultural loss and crise. It is for this reason that Silko makes a harsh critique of American interference in reshaping and destroying not only the native’s land but also their cultural identity on which it imposes a masculine, heroic, uprooted, violent and thus estranged sense of community and self whose bond with their Native heritage and land aimed to be obliterated. However, it is not white people, whom Silko depicts as “being manipulated by those who knew how to stir the ingredients together”54, but the ideological maintenance of white materialist, mechanistic and masculinist worldview that is portrayed to be devouring the “lines of cultures and worlds” uniting the human beings “by the circle of death” as

54

Silko, Ceremony, 177

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one clan.55 The panacea offered by Silko against the ills and evil wrought by destructive white male is the stories and ceremonies of the Native world. Though it seems to be written to account for the truths of Native American history, the novel includes highly influential ecofeminist messages. In brief, Silko warns not only the people of Native American culture but also the people of all cultures to take responsibility for both the human and non-human world because “what befalls Native people will eventually affect everyone.”56

Works Cited Cochran, Stuart. “The Ethnic Implication of Stories, Spirits and the Land in Native American Pueblo and Aztlan Writing.” MELUS, Vol.20, No.2, pp 69-91, Summer 1995, Dennis, Helen May. Native American Literature: Towards a Spatialized Reading .New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, 2006. Flores, Toni. “Claiming and Making: Ethnicity, Gender, and the Common Sense in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God.” Frontiers: A Journal Of Women Studies, Vol. 10, No.3,pp. 52-58, 1989 Gaard, Greta (ed.), Ecofeminism: Women, Animals and Nature. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1993. Griffin, Susan. Woman and Nature: The Roaring Indise Her. The USA: Harper&Row Publishers, 1980 . Hightower Langston, Donna. The Native American World. Hoboken, New Jersey John Wiley&Sons, 2003. Krupat, Arnold. The Voice In the Margin: Native American Literature and the Canon. Berkeley: The University of California Press, 1989. Kuiper, Kathleen. (ed.) The Native American Sourcebook: Native American Culture. New York: Britannica Educational Publishing, 2011. Manisha Rao, “Ecofeminism at The Crossroads in India: A Review.” Dep, n.20/ 2012. Plumwood, Val: “Ecofeminism: An Overview and Discussion of Positions and Arguments”, Australian Journal of Philosophy, 64:sup1 , pp. 120138, 1986. —. Feminism and the Mastery of Nature. Routledge, London 1993

55 56

Ibid.,228 Warren, Ecofeminism: Women Culture Nature,24

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Porter, Joy and Kenneth M. Roemer. Ed. The Cambridge Companion to Na-tive American Literature. New York, Cambridge University Press, 2005. Reyes, Garcia. “ Senses of Place in Ceremony.” Oxford Journals-MELUS, Vol.10, No.4 Winter , , pp. 37-48, 1983 Winter. Silko, Marmon Leslie. Ceremony. London: Penguin Books,2006 Tripathy, Jyotirmaya,: “Postcolonialism and the Native American Experience: A theoretical Perspective”, Asiatic, Vol:3, No: 1, pp. 4053, June 2009. Warren, Karen. (ed.). Ecofeminism: Women Culture Nature. The USA: Indiana University Press. 1997.

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Arpine Mzkyan [email protected] Ayúe Çiftçibaú [email protected] Azer Banu Kemalo÷lu [email protected] Azime Peúken [email protected] Bahare A’arabi [email protected] Baysar Tanyan [email protected] Carla Fusco [email protected] Dilek Kantar [email protected] Elisabetta Marino [email protected] Elvan Karaman [email protected] Fatma Kalpakl [email protected] Feryal Çubukçu [email protected] Gamze Yalçn [email protected] Gül Kurtuluú kurtulusbilkent.edu.tr Gülden Yüksel [email protected] Himmet Umunç [email protected] Hoda Elsayed Khallaf [email protected] Kyriaki Asiatidou [email protected] Mahsa Khadivi [email protected] Mahshid Tajilrou [email protected] Mehmet Ali Çelikel [email protected] Meryem Ayan [email protected] Murat Ö÷ütçü [email protected] Oya Bayltmú Ö÷ütçü [email protected] Reyhan Özer Taniyan [email protected] Seda ùen [email protected] Sezgi Öztop [email protected] Sla ùenlen Güvenç [email protected] Sibel øzmir [email protected] J-M. Sönmez [email protected] Victor Kennedy [email protected] Yeliz ùekerci [email protected] Zekiye Antakyalo÷lu [email protected] Zennure Köseman [email protected]