YİĞİT SÜMBÜL
Eng.Lit. & Phil.
Address: Ankara Haci Bayram Veli University / Faculty of Letters / The Department of Western Languages and Literatures
Address: Ankara Haci Bayram Veli University / Faculty of Letters / The Department of Western Languages and Literatures
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Levinas is a significant thinker that has deeply influenced 20th century thinking. Concepts like self, other, death and time play an important role in Levinas' system that deems ethics as 'prima philosophia'. Levinas contends that consciousness regarding death can only be achieved through the death of the other this idea shows parallelism with Heidegger's thinking. However, the death of the other, for Heidegger, comes to mean that Dasein acquires certain consciousness regarding its own 'being' by means of remembering its temporality and mortality which, on the contrary, are crucial for Levinas as they remind the ethical self of its eternal responsibility towards the other. The direction of the emotion created in the self by the death of the other makes an individual conscious of 'being' or an 'ethical self'. Witnessing the death of the other that leads to certain emotions in the self is the primary function of tragedy in the Aristotelian sense. The purgation-termed 'catharsis' by Aristotle-through emotions of fear and pity felt upon the death of the other on the stage forces tragedy to remain in moral boundaries. Aristotelian cathartic tragedy anticipates a moral cleansing by means of a consciousness of 'being' in Heidegerrian terms. Yet, in this article, the issue of the death of the other will be read from a Levinasian perspective and the aest-ethical function of tragedy as a literary genre will be foregrounded independently of the moral limitations imposed by 'catharsis'.
world deal with similar subject matters and themes in their works with a strong emphasis
on modern individuals’ spiritual paralysis, isolation from society, feeling of ‘nothingness’,
existential questionings, lack of communication and bad consequences of urbanization.
Among these modernist authors, Joyce’s contributions to modernist literature are huge
and he influences many modernist authors from different nations. For instance, being a
passionate reader of Joycean literature, Oğuz Atay reflects the same issues in his modernist
works by making intertextual references to Joyce’s texts and adjusting the subject matters
into Turkish context. Both authors give voice to modern intellectual characters in their
works with an emphasis on their similar breakaway from society and social institutions,
though with different preoccupations.
In this study, the portrayals of modern intellectuals in Joyce’s and Atay’s modernist works
are examined in the light of the two authors’ cultural, social, political and economic
backgrounds during the process of modernization in Europe. With this objective in mind,
the similarities and differences in the portrayals of modern intellectuals in major works
of the two authors are comparatively analyzed to reveal that Atay is highly influenced by
Joyce to some extent and to come to a conclusion that Atay does not simply copy Joycean
concept of ‘intellectual’ in his works; but he comes up with his own concept of intellectual
by adjusting Joycean intellectuals into his own cultural, social and national environments.
The present study focuses on the two authors’ intellectual characters with their distance to
society and social institutions and the reasons and urges behind such isolation.
Levinas is a significant thinker that has deeply influenced 20th century thinking. Concepts like self, other, death and time play an important role in Levinas' system that deems ethics as 'prima philosophia'. Levinas contends that consciousness regarding death can only be achieved through the death of the other this idea shows parallelism with Heidegger's thinking. However, the death of the other, for Heidegger, comes to mean that Dasein acquires certain consciousness regarding its own 'being' by means of remembering its temporality and mortality which, on the contrary, are crucial for Levinas as they remind the ethical self of its eternal responsibility towards the other. The direction of the emotion created in the self by the death of the other makes an individual conscious of 'being' or an 'ethical self'. Witnessing the death of the other that leads to certain emotions in the self is the primary function of tragedy in the Aristotelian sense. The purgation-termed 'catharsis' by Aristotle-through emotions of fear and pity felt upon the death of the other on the stage forces tragedy to remain in moral boundaries. Aristotelian cathartic tragedy anticipates a moral cleansing by means of a consciousness of 'being' in Heidegerrian terms. Yet, in this article, the issue of the death of the other will be read from a Levinasian perspective and the aest-ethical function of tragedy as a literary genre will be foregrounded independently of the moral limitations imposed by 'catharsis'.
world deal with similar subject matters and themes in their works with a strong emphasis
on modern individuals’ spiritual paralysis, isolation from society, feeling of ‘nothingness’,
existential questionings, lack of communication and bad consequences of urbanization.
Among these modernist authors, Joyce’s contributions to modernist literature are huge
and he influences many modernist authors from different nations. For instance, being a
passionate reader of Joycean literature, Oğuz Atay reflects the same issues in his modernist
works by making intertextual references to Joyce’s texts and adjusting the subject matters
into Turkish context. Both authors give voice to modern intellectual characters in their
works with an emphasis on their similar breakaway from society and social institutions,
though with different preoccupations.
In this study, the portrayals of modern intellectuals in Joyce’s and Atay’s modernist works
are examined in the light of the two authors’ cultural, social, political and economic
backgrounds during the process of modernization in Europe. With this objective in mind,
the similarities and differences in the portrayals of modern intellectuals in major works
of the two authors are comparatively analyzed to reveal that Atay is highly influenced by
Joyce to some extent and to come to a conclusion that Atay does not simply copy Joycean
concept of ‘intellectual’ in his works; but he comes up with his own concept of intellectual
by adjusting Joycean intellectuals into his own cultural, social and national environments.
The present study focuses on the two authors’ intellectual characters with their distance to
society and social institutions and the reasons and urges behind such isolation.