F. Scott Fitzgerald’ın ilk romanı This Side of Paradise 1920 , Fitzgerald’ın kendi hayatından gerçek kişileri andıran karakterlerle dolu özyaşam öyküsüne benzer bir anlatı olmanın yanı sıra, 1920ler Amerikan gençliğinin renkli bir tasviridir. Bu roman, hedonizm ile özdeşleştirilen Caz Dönemi’nin gerçekçi ve canlı bir temsili olduğu için çok popüler olmuştur. Romanın başkarakteri ve Fitzgerald’ın kurgusal benliği olan romantik egoist Amory, kendi neslinin hali vakti yerinde olan diğer üyeleriyle birlikte gösterişli bir hayat sürmenin keyfini çıkaran kibirli bir genç adamdır. Hedonist Amory zevkin en önemli unsur olduğunu düşünür ve aldığı zevki en üst seviyeye çıkarmaya uğraşır. 1915’de Freud’un “On Narcissism” adlı eserinin basılmasının sonrasında 1920ler, bu önde gelen bilim insanının psikanaliz konusundaki fikirlerinin yayılmasına ve “Beyond the Pleasure Principle” 1920 ve “The Ego and the Id” 1923 eserlerinin yayınlanmasına tanıklık etmiştir. Bu bağlamda, bencil Amory’nin zevk kovalaması, Freud’un ‘id’in itici gücü olan ‘Zevk İlkesi’ çerçevesinde incelenebilir. Bu çalışma, Freud’un narsisizm üzerine olan diğer fikirlerini ve zihnin üç bölümden oluşması kuramını da kullanarak Amory’nin erken çocukluktan yirmili yaşlarına kadar olan psikoseksüel gelişimini tartışmaktadır.

A Freudian Reading of Amory’s Personal Development in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first novel, This Side of Paradise 1920 is not only an explicitly autobiographical narrative replete with characters that can be traced back to real people from Fitzgerald’s own life, but also a colorful account of the 1920s American youth. The novel was highly popular for its realistic and lively representation of the Jazz Age which was marked for its hedonism. The protagonist of the novel, the romantic egotist Amory, who is Fitzgerald’s fictional self, is a conceited young man who enjoys a flamboyant lifestyle along with many other well-to-do members of his generation. Amory, the hedonist, considers pleasure as the most important good and seeks to maximize this pleasure. Following the publication of Freud’s work “On Narcissism” in 1915, the 1920s is also significant as it witnesses the flourishing of this prominent scientist’s views on psychoanalysis and the publication of his works “Beyond the Pleasure Principle” 1920 and “The Ego and the Id” 1923 . Thus, the self-absorbed Amory’s quest for pleasure can be read as an act in accordance with Freud’s Pleasure Principle which is the driving force behind the id. Drawing additionally on Freud’s views on narcissism and his tripartite theory of the psyche, this paper aims at discussing the psychosexual development of Amory from early childhood into his early twenties

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