Cyclical nature of the human experience has been widely discussed through the cynical mind-set of the postmodern era. Jeanette Winterson’s 2007 novel, The Stone Gods, also stands out as one of the texts that revolve around this pessimistic discussion concerning the cyclical and repetitive nature of the human condition and history. Besides the implication of this never ending cycle of the human experience as a part of the action of the narrative, the repeating appearance of the certain parts of an old book throughout the narrative also resonates the fact that history as a narrative keeps repeating itself and the circular or rather spiral nature of historical progress is highlighted through a fictional intertextuality. Winterson’s novel also stands out through the central concept around which the repeating pattern of human behaviour revolves: violence. Violence as the central concept of the novel is represented in a variety of ways, ranging from anthropomorphic violence that is directed towards nature to systemic violence that the individuals are subjected to by authoritarian structures which points to Nietzsche’s argument on the immanent violence of the human nature and his concepts of will to power and the overman under the light of which all these diverse forms of violence will be discussed.
Ian McEwan is the writer of the most controversial texts of the contemporary British fiction. One of the outstanding examples of his literature of shock, McEwan’s The Cement Garden, is a challenging narrative in the sense that it depicts the disturbing experiences of a family, ranging from incest to death. The fact that these experiences are narrated through an adolescent boy’s point of view makes these even more controversial in the sense that the depiction of events through this narrator’s view is focalized. Through this focalization, the horrifying events experienced by children are narrated as if they were just ordinary experiences which creates a somehow disturbing effect on the reader. However this disturbance also leads the reader to think that the actions of these children and their relationship to their parents and each other also refer to an underlying symbolism pertaining to their psychic conditions. This article aims to reveal and interpret the novel focusing on this underlying symbolism through the lens of Lacan’s concepts of ‘lack’ and the Symbolic order and Kristeva’s concept of ‘semiotic chora’.
Within masculine ideology the concept of motherhood remains essential to female identity. That is why it is important to focus on the representations of motherhood in literature, where the most controversial discussions of feminism can be found. The issue of motherhood remains an unresolved issue today, with opposing arguments even within the feminist movement. This paper aims to analyse the issue of motherhood in the novels of Erendiz Atasü, who has acquired an undisputed place as a feminist writer in Turkish literature. She undermines the traditional concept of motherhood and uses it as a tool for deciphering and transforming masculine ideology.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.