Sahnedeki Yitim: Vahşi Batı

Year 2012, Volume: 52 Issue: 2, 1 - 27, 01.01.2012

Nisa Harika Güzel Köşker

Abstract

Sam Shepard’ın Vahşi Batı 1981 adlı oyunu eleştirmenler tarafından çoğunlukla iki kardeş arasındaki farklılıkların çatışmasını sahneleyen bir oyun olarak değerlendirilmiştir. Oyunun dramatik yapısı bu çelişen yanlara ve karakterlerin dönüşümlerine bağlı olsa da, oyun aynı ölçüde babanın yokluğu ve aile birliğinin bozulması ile gelen yitim duygusunun yarattığı melankolik özlemi açığa çıkarmaktadır. Bireysel düzlemde gerçekleşen bu melankolik özlem, aynı zamanda modern dönemde sanayileşme ve şehirleşmeyle beraber Batı kavramında olduğu gibi ulusal ideallerin geçerliğini kaybetmesiyle yaşanan yitimle benötesi düzlemde de gözlemlenebilir. Batı kavramına yüklenen söylenceler ilk kurulduğu yıllarda Avrupalı yerleşimcileri tarafından Amerika kıta doğasına ve yeni bir ulus olarak Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’ne atfedilen cennet olma idealinin yitimi ile ulusal bağlamda dikkate alındığında önem kazanmaktadır. Bireysel ve ulusal düzlemi birbirine paralel tutan yitim duygusu, oyundaki iki kardeşin bilinçdışında bastırdıkları duyguları tıpkı bir psikanaliz sürecinde olduğu gibi konuşmalar ve eyleme dökme ile ön plana çıkarmasıyla somutlaşmaktadır. Buradan hareketle, bu çalışma oyunda babanın kaybıyla yaşanan yitimi ve melankolik özlemi ortaya koyan diyalogları bir edebiyat kuramı olarak edebi metin çözümlemelerinde eleştirel perspektifler sunan psikanalitik yöntem çerçevesinde tartışmayı amaçlamaktadır.

Keywords

Yitim, Melankoli, Batı, Eyleme Dökme, Sam Shepard, Vahşi Batı, Psikanalitik Kuram, Katartik Tedavi

Loss on The Stage: True West

Abstract

True West 1981 by Sam Shepard has been mostly reviewed as the theatricalization of conflicts arising from the differences between two brothers. Although the dramatic structure of the play rests on these clashing sides and transformations of the characters, the play equally unveils a melancholia triggered by the loss of the absent father and family unity. This melancholia can also be discerned on the transpersonal level in the loss of national ideals like mythic West after modern urbanization and industrialization. The mythic ideals threaded around the West gain more significance when considered in national context through the loss of ideal of paradise attributed by the European settlers to the American landscape and the United States of America as a burgeoning nation. Paralleling the personal and transpersonal levels, the feeling of loss is materialized in the acting out of repressed elements and through dialogues the two brothers have as if in a psychoanalytic session. This study hence aims to discuss the loss and melancholia embedded in these dialogues in light of psychoanalytic theory which offers critical perspectives in literary textual analyses.

Keywords

Loss, Melancholia, West, Acting Out, Sam Shepard, True West, Psychoanalytic Theory, Cathartic Treatment

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