Bitig Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi
Yazarlar: ["Aleyna DURMUŞ"]
Konular:-
DOI:10.5281/zenodo.8058414
Anahtar Kelimeler:Birey,Doğa,Viktorya dönemi,Modern dönem,Charlottë Bronte,Virginia Woolf,İngiliz edebiyatı
Özet: The study of the concept of the self goes through shifts with the times, and ranges from a stable sense of self in the nineteenth century to fluctuating and heterogeneous with the twentieth century. As the concept passes through sociological, political and ideological influences that take shape in every period, it opens new windows into the exploration of its relation with the other. This article aims to study the transforming connection of the self with the other, or more specifically, the other cloaked in the image of nature. The examination of the affinity or hostility born to nature offers great insight into the journey of individuation in unison with the other. Though the integration with the outside world, and the natural environment as an extention of this connection is adressed extensively with the onset of the modern stage, the origin of this analysis is traced in the eighteenth century Romantic thought. Starting with the Romantic era that discloses the spirit of harmony established inherently with nature, the article intends to survey the dynamics regarding the individual and his/ her connection with the natural environment as a reflection of one's journey of self-fulfillment and maturation. The roots of this connection are to be traced in the literary field through the Bildungsroman genre that emerged in the nineteenth century as the genre provides space for the exploration of the interplay of the self’s exploration of the other. The article then attempts to cover the discussion of the concepts of self and nature in the English Modernist period. As the Victorian period was experiencing the fall of the norms emblematic of the time, the formation of a modern culture was a harbinger of a new reality and national identity. In this context, the ecocritical theory is to be utilized as a framework in these concepts of self and nature as well as their historical reflections overarching two centuries. The natural elements are then to be traced in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (1847) and Virginia Woolf's The Waves (1931) in line with the formation of the characters. The analysis aims to address the heroine in Jane Eyre, who is on her journey of individuation against the social background of Victorian Britain. Similar processes are then to be traced in the six protagonists of The Waves in which the inquiry of the stable sense of self gives way to the fragmented self in the face of a desolate and modern reality. Through ecocritical theory, the relationship these characters have with their surroundings within the context of nature will be analyzed and the connection between the concepts of the self/ other, human/nonhuman with particular regard to characters’ respective journey of integration and individuation will be explored.