Dalkey Arşivi’nde Arşive Dair Şüphe ve Yazarlık Arzusu

Bu makalenin amacı Flann O’Brien’ın Dalkey Arşivi başlıklı (1964) son romanında arşivin ve arşivsel bellek mekanizmasının politikasını mercek altına almaktır. Tartışma ekseni, özellikle alternatif tarihler/arşivler tahayyül etme bakımından arşivsel iktidar ve yazarlık pratiği arasındaki ilişki üzerinde ilerlemektedir. Kitap ile arşiv, yazar ile arşivci arasında kurulan metaforik ilişkinin esas alındığı makalede, romanın eleştirel okuması İrlanda’nın bağımsızlık sonrası entelektüel ve politik iklimini göz önüne alan bir tarihsel bağlam içinde sunulmaktadır. Genel itibariyle, Flann O’Brien’ın, arşive dair tüm inşaların ideolojik kurgusallığını ifşa eden ve kanona dair her türlü otoritenin maskesini düşüren kara mizahının, yazarlık ve iktidar arasındaki ilişkinin pek çok yönünü irdeleyen bir eleştirel evren sunduğu ortaya konulacaktır.

Archival Suspicion and Authorial Desire in The Dalkey Archive

The central aim of this article is to explore the politics of the archive and archival mnemonics in Flann O’Brien’s last novel, The Dalkey Archive (1964). The argumentative axis moves along the relation between archival power and authorial agency, especially in terms of re/imagining alternative histories/archives. Relying on the metaphor of the book as an archive, and the author as an archivist, the article introduces a reading of the novel within the historical context of Ireland’s post-independence intellectual and political climate. O’Brien’s biting dark humour, which exposes the ideological fictionality of archival constructs and debunks canonical authority, is shown to introduce a critical commentary on many aspects of the relationship between authorship and power.

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