THE INTRICACIES OF RACE, FREEDOM AND ETHICS IN RICHARD WRIGHT’S SAVAGE HOLIDAY

Richard Wright'ın Vahşi Tatil isimli eseri, Afrikan Amerikalı yazarların kaleme aldığı ırksız edebi eserlere atfedilen ve onlara dayatılan ırk biçimlerinin ve sınırlamaların ötesine geçmeye çalışan bir romandır. Irksal/etnik farklılıkların, sosyopolitik faktörlerin ve tarihsel bağlamların hem siyah hem de beyazların öznel konumlarını belirlediğine inanan Wright, Vahşi Tatil romanında kendisini beyaz üstünlüğün ve ataerkilliğin tecessümü olarak gören beyaz bir karakterin ahlaki çıkmazlarını ve özgürlük ilintili ikilemlerini tasvir etmektedir. Bu çalışma, iki cinayet işleyen romanın başkahramanı Erskine Fowler'ın zihinsel dünyasını psikanalitik açıdan incelemeyi ve aynı zamanda Fowler'in öyküsünü müzmin ırksal sınıflandırmalara ve önyargılara dayanan sosyal patolojilerin bir örneği olarak okumayı amaçlamaktadır

RİCHARD WRİGHT’IN VAHŞİ TATİL ROMANINDA IRK, ÖZGÜRLÜK VE ETİK KARIŞIKLIKLARI

Richard Wright’s Savage Holiday is a novel which attempts to move beyond the racial configurations and limitations attributed to and imposed on race-neutral literary works penned by the African American authors. Convinced that the racial/ethnic disparities, sociopolitical factors and historical contexts determine the subjective positions of the blacks as well as the whites, in Savage Holiday Wright depicts the moral conundrum and the freedom related predicaments of a white character who imagines himself to be the embodiment of white supremacy and patriarchy. The present study offers a psychoanalytic exploration into the disturbed mental life of the protagonist Erskine Fowler who commits two murders and the study also purports to read Fowler’s story as an epitome of the social pathologies hinged on deeply ingrained racial classifications and prejudices

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