The Trauma of Betrayal in Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier

Year 2018, , 479 - 486, 01.04.2018

MERVE Sarıkaya-şen

https://doi.org/10.21547/jss.358249

Abstract

Analysing literary texts by
using trauma theory provides remarkable insight into how a character goes
through different stages of trauma from acting out towards healing. This paper
proposes a reading of Ford Madox Ford’s The
Good Soldier (1915) as a trauma narrative with its different aspects of a
traumatically affected character, John Dowell. The paper first looks at how the
confused narrator John Dowell acts out his trauma of betrayal in the forms of
repression, amnesia, deferred action, and affective numbing. It then focuses on
how he tries to deal with his traumatic memories of adultery by transforming them
into a comprehensive narrative but ends up acting out his trauma. In doing so,
this paper suggests that although trauma theory has its roots in
psychoanalysis, it provides the possibility of reading literary texts such as The Good Soldier from a different
perspective. As such, John Dowell is a telling example of a traumatically
affected character incessantly performing his traumatic memories.   

Keywords

Ford, The Good Soldier, trauma, betrayal, repression, amnesia, nachträglichkeit, affective numbing

The Good Soldier’da Aldatılma Travması

Abstract

Travma teorisini kullanarak edebi
metinleri incelemek, bir roman karakterinin travmanın ortaya koyulmasından
iyileşmesine kadar olan farklı süreçlerinden geçişini anlama olanağı sağlar. Bu
çalışma Ford Madox Ford’un The Good
Soldier (1915) adlı romanında John Dowell’i travmatize olmuş bir karakter
olarak ele alarak, romanın bir travma anlatısı olduğunu öne sunar. Bu
doğrultuda, kafası karışmış olan John Dowell’in aldatılma travmasını bastırma,
amnezi, gecikmiş etki ve afektif hissizleşme gibi travma belirtileriyle
sergileyişini inceler. Sonrasında ise Dowell’in travmatik aldatılma anılarını
detaylı bir anlatıya çevirerek onlarla başetmeye çalışmasına fakat travmasına
hapsoluşuna odaklanır. Böylece, bu çalışma travma teorisinin psikoloji alanında
ortaya çıkmasına rağmen, The Good Soldier
gibi edebi metinleri farklı bir açıdan değerlendirme imkanı sunduğunu
önerir. Buna bağlı olarak da John Dowell travmatik anılarıyla boğuşan bir
karakter örneği olarak karşımıza çıkar. 

Keywords

Ford, The Good Soldier, trauma, betrayal, repression, amnesia, nachträglichkeit, affective numbing, working through trauma

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