Commodification, the problem of reality and self-alienation in the contemporary novels of Chuck Palahniuk and Kurt Vonnegut

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Amerikan Kültürü ve Edebiyatı, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2023

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Öğrenci: GÜLAY ÇALIŞKAN BASANÇELEBİ

Danışman: Esra Çöker

Açık Arşiv Koleksiyonu: AVESİS Açık Erişim Koleksiyonu

Özet:

Contemporary narratives are instructive in examining how the concept of reality is interpreted and constructed socio-culturally. Such narratives break away from the propositions of the 19th century realism, which advocates reality is perceived by everyone objectively and uniformly and the author should represent the reality truthfully, since they promote that reality is perpetually reconstructed subjectively and those of historical conditions, situations and experiences that societies encounter have an influence on their reality construction. Addressing diverse matters that are unvoiced conventionally in literature, such as extreme religionism and individualism, anti-heroism, description of a fragmented society with no meaning or depth in their values, chance over craft and traumatic events, contemporary novels execute reactionary narration, transgress societal norms and interrogate the constructedness of ideologies and reality. After providing a theoretical framework of the reality concept and a historical background of the timeframe of novels in question, this study will focus on how reality construction and loss manifest in literary narratives, and scrutinize the contemporary works of Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) by Kurt

Vonnegut and Survivor (1999) by Chuck Palahniuk. In addition to considering the issue of changing aspects of reality, how characters are taken advantage of, commodified, and caused to alienate from themselves and society will be analyzed through blending theory with history.