Charles Brockden Brown’un Wieland Adlı Eserinde Aydınlanma, Püritanizm ve Transandantalizm Üzerine Gotik Çıkarımlar

Bu çalışma, Charles Brockden Brown’un Wieland adlı eserinde gotik betimlemelerle Aydınlanma fikirlerine sorular yönelterek akıl ve rasyonelliğe nasıl karşı çıktığını, toplum ve insanlık üzerinde köktendinciliğin zarar verici etkisine göndermede bulunarak Püritanizmi nasıl eleştirdiğini ve insanı doğası gereği iyi ve saygın kılan Transandantal düşünceyi nasıl çiğnediğini incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Eserde, Brown korku kaynaklarını saptayarak ve duygusal ve ruhsal aşırıcılığın gotik mizacını sürdürerek aklın kötüye kullanılmasının, saplantılı dini melankolinin ve insanlığın habis doğasının altını çizmektedir. Çalışma, Brown’un rasyonellikle ile özdeşleşmeyen gotik elementler ile aklın insanlığın ilerlemesini temin ettiğini savunan düşünceyi tanımadığını, Püritanizme göndermelerde bulunarak insanlık üzerinde dini tutuculuğun yıkıcı etkilerine, dair eleştiriler sunduğunu, bireyin kötü doğasının insanlığı nasıl şeytani eylemlere sürüklediğini göstererek transandantal görüşü sorguladığını göstermektedir.

Gothic Implications on the Enlightenment, Puritanism, and Transcendentalism in Charles Brockden Brown’s Wieland

The impetus behind the current study lies in exploring how Charles Brockden Brown expostulatesreason and rationalism by posing questions to Enlightenment ideas, criticizes Puritanism throughaddressing the detrimental influence of religious fanaticism on society and humanity, and violatesTranscendentalist concept of the inherently good and dignified human with gothic representations inWieland. Brown underlines the dark applications of reason, obsessive religious melancholy, anddestructive evil nature of humanity by locating the sources of terror and retaining a gothic mood ofemotional and psychological extremity in the novel. The study shows that Brown violates the ideathat reason ensures the progress of humanity; offers his critiques of the impending influence ofreligious mania on humanity by addressing Puritanism; and questions the transcendentalist view bypresenting how the perverse nature of evil buried within each individual drags humans intodiabolical actions through gothic elements which do not deal with rationality.

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