Anne’in Hileli Oyun Torbası: John McGahern Edebiyatında İrlanda Folkloru, Gelenek ve Kimlik

Yabancılaşma, John McGahern’in öykülerinde, onun kahramanlarının, tıpkı kontrol edilemeyen, vahşi ve korkunç yaratıklar gibi davranmalarına ya da öyle görünmelerine yolaçar; bir tehlikenin gelmekte olduğunun sezinlerler, fakat tam olarak tehlikeyi göremezler ve yaratacağı etkiyi nasıl tesirsiz hale getireceklerini öngöremezler. Ölüm ve cenazeye bağlı durumlarda, güvenli ve güvensiz ortamlar arasındaki sınırın belirlenmesi oldukça zordur; karakterler, bir yandan sembollerden kurulmuş bir uzam alanına doğru kaydırılırken, görüneni bilinçaltına bağlayan imgeler, sesler, renkler ve ev totemleri onlara yardımcı olurlar ya da onları sınırlandırırlar. Okurları, özgün bir İrlanda atmosferine alıp götürmek amacıyla, bitki, insan ve hayvanlar aleminden alınan çeşitli motifler, muhteşem bir üslup düzeninin kullanımına eşlik ederler; bu özgün İrlanda ortamında, hayvan simgeleri, çoğunlukla, umuttan ümitsizliğe, ya da kırılganlıktan acımasız bir sertliğe doğru uzanan, insana özgü, sayısız duyguları yansıtırlar. Bu makale, İrlanda kimliğine biçim veren folklordan çıkartılıp alınan ögeleri keşfetmeyi ve McGahern’ in edebi eserlerinde nasıl, hangi yollarla ortaya çıktıklarını irdelemeyi amaçlamaktadır; sonuç, hem içeriğe, hem de anlatıma yerleştirilmiş kişisel anılardan ve imgelerden oluşan emsalsiz bir karışımdır.

Mother’s Bag of Tricks: Irish Folklore, Tradition and Identity in John McGahern’s Fiction

Alienation makes the heroes in John McGahern’s stories behave or appear likeuncontrolled, wild and fearful creatures, anticipating a peril but unable to detect a precise dangerand the way to counteract its impact. The demarcation between the safe and unsafe territory is evenmore difficult in circumstances related to death and funerals, as characters are transposed intoa symbolically-built space where images, sounds, colours, and domestic totems help or restrainthem, linking the visible to the subconscious. Diverse motifs from the animal, vegetal or humanrealms, are accompanied by a panoply of stylistic means employed to take the readership into agenuine Irish setting in which animal representations often mirror feelings of numerous humans,from hope to despair, or frailty to rigidity. This paper aims to explore the way in which folkloreextracted elements shape Irish identity and recurrently emerge in McGahern’s literary works, theresult being a unique mixture of imagery and personal memories implanted in both content andnarrative.

PDF

___

Bergen, F. (1895) Burial and holiday customsand beliefs of the Irish peasantry. The Journal of American Folklore, 19-25.
Carassi, V. (2012) The Irish fairy tale: A narrative tradition from the middle ages to Yates and Stephens. (K. Wren, Trans.) Lanham, Maryland: John Cabot University Press.
Cardin, B. (2009) Absence does not cast a shadow: Yeats’s Shadowy presence in McGahern’s „The wine breadth. Journal of the Short Story in English, 2-11.
Collinge, L. & Vernadakis, E. (2003) John McGahern - b. 1934. Journal of the short story in English(41). Retrieved May 15, 2013
Evans, E. E. (2000) Irish folk ways. Mineola, New York: Dover.
Farquharson, D. (2009) Violence and ontological doubt in “The Stoat”. Journal of the Short Story in English(53) Retrieved from http://jsse.revues.org/1009
Harris, J. (2008) Folklore and the fantastic in nineteenth-century British fiction. Aldershot and Burlington: Ashgate.
Lee, H. (2004, April 7) Readings and conversations: John McGahern. Retrieved May 10, 2013, from www.lannan.org: http://www.lannan.org/images/lit/john-mcgahern-040407- trans-conv.pdf
Louvel, L. (2009) Reading John McGahern’s “Love of the world” a Fistful of images. Journal of the Short Story in English(53). Retrieved October 10, 2013, from http://jsse.revues. org/997
McGahern, J. (1985) High ground and other stories. London: Faber and Faber.
McGahern, J. (1992) The collected stories. London: Faber and Faber.
McGahern, J. (2002) That they may face the rising sun. London: Faber and Faber.
McGahern, J. (2005) Memoir. London: Faber and Faber.
McGahern, J. (2008a (1991)) Amongst women. London: Faber and Faber.
McGahern, J. (2008b) The Dark. London: Faber and Faber.
McGahern, J. (2009a) Creatures of the earth. (ebook). London: Faber and faber. Retrieved April 10, 2013, from iTunes
McGahern, J. (2009a) Preface. In creatures of the earth: New and Selected Stories. London: Faber and Faber.
McGahern, J. (2009b) Love of the world: Essays. London: Faber and Faber Ltd.
McGahern, J. (2009c) The Barracks. London: Faber and Faber.
McGahern, J. (2009d) The Leavetaking. London: Faber and Faber.
McGahern, J. (2009e) The Pornographer. London: Faber and Faber.
Minto, S. (2013) Leitrim folk tales. Dublin: The History Press Ireland.
O Giollain, D. (2000) Locating Irish folklore. University College Cork: Cork University.
Quintelli-Neary, M. (1997) Folklore and the Fantastic in Twelve Modern Irish Novels.
Westport, Conneticut and London: Greenwood.
Sharpe Freeman, E. (1988) Dream Analysis. London: Karnac..
Taylor, L. J. (1989) Bas In Eirinn: Cultural constructions of death in Ireland. Anthropology Quarterly, 4(62), 175-187.
Tsukamoto, K., & Kuroki, M. (2014) Eels and Humans. (K. Tsukamoto, & M. Kuroki, Eds.) Tokyo, Heidelberg: Springer.
Tymoczko, M., & Ireland, C. (Eds.). (2003) Language and tradition in Ireland: Continuities and displacements. Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts.
Witoszek, N., & Sheeran, P. (1998) Talking to the dead: A Study of Irishfunerary traditions. Amsterdam-Atlanta, GA: Rodopi.