PAUL AUSTER’IN THE MUSIC OF CHANCE ADLI ROMANINDA SINIRLANDIRILMIŞ KAHRAMAN VE ÖZGÜRLÜKTEN KAÇIŞ

Paul Auster önemli bir Amerikalı romancı, eleştirmen ve şair olmakla birlikte bu The Music of Chance adlı romanıyla Pen/Faulkner Kurgu Ödülünün Finalisti olmuştur. Romanın başkahramanı Jim Nashe ülke boyunca yeni almış olduğu arabasını kullanabilmek ve parasını tükenmek üzereyken para kazanabilmek için işini ve ailesini terk eden eski bir itfaiyecidir. Nashe ve O’nun tarafından bir otoyolun kenarından yaralı halde bulunan Pozzi isimli arkadaşıyla kolay para kazanabilmek için kumar oynamaya karar verirler fakat kaybettikleri için kumar borçlarını ödeyebilmek için “ağlama” duvarı yapmaya zorlanırlar. Öte taraftan Jim tutsaklığından önce bir başıboş olduğu için Auster Thomas Nashe’in pikaresk romanı The Unfortunate Traveller romanına atıfta bulunur. Eleştirmenler alegorik olarak hem ruhsal hem bedensel açıdan Jim’in ev hapsine değinirler. Jim’in etnik ve kültürel normları davranışlarını belirlemektedir. Etnik köken olarak Yahudi olan Auster Nazi Soykırımından neler çektiğini ve deneyimlerini bu romanda yansıtmaya çalışır. Jim Nashe’in yaşantı ve hayat tecrübeleri Holokost veya Pogrom’lardaki Yahudilerle benzerlikler arz eder. Başkahramanın/yazarın benzer özellikleri okuyucu adına karmaşık bir kurgu sunar. Çünkü okuyucunun hem yazarın yaşam ve kökeni hakkında hem de romandaki ince göndermeleri kavraması gerekir. Bir de bunu tarihsel ve günlük yaşama endekslemesi olayları biraz daha gerçekçi kılmaktadır. Ancak Auster bunu yaparken iki farklı karakterin problemlerle karşılaştığında aynı tepkiyi göstermesini gözler önüne serer. Bu çalışmada Jim’in bedensel ve ruhsal hapsi ve bunun nedenleri irdelenecektir.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Jim Nashe, Paul Auster, Pikaresk, The Music of Chance

THE LOCALIZED HERO AND ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM IN THE MUSIC OF CHANCE BY PAUL AUSTER

Paul Auster is a prominent American novelist, critic and poet: he was a Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction finalist for his novel, The Music of Chance. This book’s protagonist, Jim Nashe, is an ex-fireman who has left his job and family to drive around the country and to earn money while running out of money. He and his friend named Pozzi found wounded on the motorway by him decide to gamble to make money easily: yet they are trapped in a house and forced to make a “wailing” wall because of their gambling debts for their losing. On the other hand, because Jim was a vagabond before his enslavement, Auster invokes Thomas Nashe’s picaresque novel, The Unfortunate Traveller. Critics allegorically address Jim’s home confinement from both spiritual and physical perspectives. Jim’s ethnic and cultural foundations inform his behaviors. An ethnic Jew, Auster illustrates the suffering of Holocaust survivors. Jim Nashe’s experiences are similar to those of Jews in the Holocaust or the Pogroms. He lives in a space that limits his freedom: he prefers death to living this way. The same characteristics of protagonist/writer offer a sophisticated plot for readers. Because the reader must know both the writer’s life and novel’s witty nuance. In this study, we examine Jim’s incarceration and the reasons for it.

Keywords:

Jim Nashe, Paul Auster, Picaresque, The Music of Chance,

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