The problem of otherness in in the heart of the country by J.M. Coetzee, night lessons by Latife Tekin and Lighthsousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson

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2019

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Bulut, Bilge

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Deploying some specific Kristevan theories such as the semiotic and the symbolic bases of language, melancholia, abjection and being a stranger, this thesis argues that J.M.Coetzee in In the Heart of the Country, Latife Tekin in Night Lessons and Jeanette Winterson in Lighthousekeeping bring a new perspective to the problem of otherness by eradicating the binary opposition between self and other, which renders their political stance very forceful. In the Heart of the Country demonstrates that the other is within the subject in the form of the abject and unless the abject is sublimated, the subject cannot come to terms with her self-isolation. Coetzee shows that a new discourse is necessary if one needs to get rid of the deep-rooted binary oppositions. Night Lessons is the sublimation of the pre-Oedipal Narcissistic union with the maternal other. It is analyzed through the female narrator’s relationship with her mother in the light of Kristevan abject and semiotic signification. Tekin shatters the subject/object opposition by creating her own textual style which fuses fact and fiction. The political criticism is not given directly but embedded in the mother-daughterrelationship. Lighthousekeeping is studied by underlining the transformation of abjection into positive signification and the negative effect of melancholia. Winterson manifests her political perspective very explicitly and broadens the queer political perspective without risking it being downplayed into a totalizing metanarrative.

Subject Keywords

Other (Philosophy) in literature., Julia Kristeva, abject, the semiotic, the symbolic, melancholia

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http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12624232/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/45380

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Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

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Citation Formats

B. Bulut, “The problem of otherness in in the heart of the country by J.M. Coetzee, night lessons by Latife Tekin and Lighthsousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson,” Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences. English Literature., Middle East Technical University, 2019.