postmodern historiography in dm thomas's the white hotel and martin amis's time's arrow a thesis ...

127 Pages·2016·1.11 MB·English

POSTMODERN HISTORIOGRAPHY
IN
D.M. THOMAS’S THE WHITE HOTEL AND MARTIN AMIS’S TIME’S ARROW

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
OF
MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

BY

ELZEM NAZLİ

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR
THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS
IN
THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

SEPTEMBER 2016

Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences

Prof. Dr. Tülin Gençöz
Director

I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master
of Arts.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bilal Kırkıcı
Head of Department

This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate,
in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts.

Assist. Prof. Dr. Nil Korkut Naykı
Supervisor

Examining Committee Members

Assist. Prof. Dr. Elif Öztabak Avcı (METU, FLE)
Assist. Prof. Dr. Nil Korkut Naykı (METU, FLE)
Assist. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kırca (Çankaya U., MTB)

PLAGIARISM

I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained
and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I
also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited
and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work.

Name, Last name : Elzem NAZLİ

Signature :
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ABSTRACT

POSTMODERN HISTORIOGRAPHY IN D. M. THOMAS’S THE WHITE HOTEL
AND MARTIN AMIS’S TIME’S ARROW

Nazli, Elzem
M.A., English Literature
Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Nil Korkut Naykı
September 2016, 117 pages

Postmodern historical fiction writers usually deviate from the traditional
representation of past events. The aim of this thesis is to study the way history writing
is reconfigured in two postmodern novels, D. M. Thomas’s The White Hotel (1981)
and Martin Amis’s Time’s Arrow (1991). In both novels the Holocaust plays an
important part and both works transgress the expected characteristics of conventional
historiography mainly through the use of metafictional techniques. However, the
divergence from traditional representation in these novels foregrounds different
concerns. In The White Hotel the Holocaust is used mainly to question the traditional
understanding of history shaped by Enlightenment philosophy whereas in Time’s
Arrow the Holocaust itself appears to be the primary concern rather than problematica
of traditional historiography. Based on this distinction this study argues further that
while D. M. Thomas’s The White Hotel is a clear example of what Linda Hutcheon
calls “historiographic metafiction” in A Poetics of Postmodernism (1988), Martin
Amis’s Time’s Arrow does not fit equally well into this category since it does not
engage in larger questions concerning the representation of the past and the
attainability of truth.
Keywords: Postmodern, Enlightenment, historiography, D. M. Thomas, Martin Amis,
the Holocaust, Linda Hutcheon, metafiction, historiographic metafiction.

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ÖZ

D. M. THOMAS’IN THE WHITE HOTEL’İ VE MARTİN AMİS’İN TIME’S
ARROW’UNDA POSTMODERN TARİH YAZIMI

Nazli, Elzem
Yüksek Lisans, İngiliz Edebiyatı
Tez Yöneticisi: Yard. Doç. Dr. Nil Korkut Naykı
Eylül 2016, 117 sayfa

Postmodern tarihsel roman yazarları çoğunlukla geçmiş olayların geleneksel
tasvirinden saparlar. Bu tezin amacı D. M. Thomas’ın The White Hotel (1981) ve
Martin Amis’in Time’s Arrow (1991) romanlarında tarih yazımının nasıl yeniden
şekillendiğini incelemektir. Bu iki romanda “Yahudi Soykırımı” önemli bir rol
oynamakta ve her iki çalışma geleneksel tarih yazımından beklenilen nitelikleri
ağırlıklı olarak üstkurmaca teknikleri kullanarak ihlal etmektedir. Buna karşın, bu iki
romandaki ihlaller farklı anlayışları ön plana çıkarır. The White Hotel’de “Yahudi
Soykırımı” temelde Aydınlanma felsefesi çerçevesinde şekillenen geleneksel tarih
anlayışı eleştirisini yapmak için kullanılır. Time’s Arrow’da ise asıl odak noktasının
tarih yazımına dair sorunlardan ziyade Yahudi Soykırımı’nın kendisi olduğu
görülmektedir. Bu karşılaştırmanın bir sonucu olarak, bu çalışmada D. M. Thomas’ın
The White Hotel adlı romanının Linda Hutcheon’un A Poetics of Postmodernism
(1988) adlı eserinde ortaya attığı “tarih yazımcı üstkurmaca”’nın açık bir örneği
olduğu, Martin Amis’in Time’s Arrow romanının ise geçmişin temsiliyeti ve gerçeğin
erişilebilirliğine dair daha genel sorular ile ilgilenmediği için bu kategoriye kolaylıkla
dahil edilemeyeceği iddia edilmektedir.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Postmodern, Aydınlama, tarih yazımı, D. M. Thomas, Martin
Amis, Yahudi Soykırımı, Linda Hutcheon, üstkurmaca, tarih yazımcı üstkurmaca.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis
supervisor, Assist. Prof. Dr. Nil Korkut Naykı who supported me during this difficult
process with her endless tolerance and forebearance, and without whom I would never
be able to find it in me to complete this thesis. I also would like to thank the jury
members Assist. Prof. Dr. Elif Öztabak Avcı and Assist. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kırca for
their valuable support and suggestions.
I thank from the deepest of my heart my lovely wife, Özge for her never-ending
love, care and encouragement.
My special thanks to my dear friends E. Yasin Çiftçi, Mustafa Şat, Özlem Türe
Abacı, Seda Örmengül, Gülden Taner, Gözde Balıkçı, Mehmet Akkuş, Ufuk Ataş,
Özlem Arslan, Fatma Gümüşok and Şafak Altunsoy, who have endlessly provided me
with motivation and energy to take further steps in my studies.
Finally I would like to thank my beloved parents, sisters and brothers for their
moral and material support, which has enabled me to fight difficulties at every stage
of my life.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PLAGIARISM ............................................................................................................ iii
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ iv
ÖZ ................................................................................................................................ v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................ vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................... vii
CHAPTER
1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1
2. THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF THIS STUDY .................................... 5
2.1. Traditional Historiography ............................................................................ 5
2.1.1. History as Science .................................................................................. 5
2.1.2. History as Forward Progress .................................................................. 8
2.2. Postmodern Historiography ......................................................................... 10
2.2.1. Is History a Product of Science or Art? ............................................... 10
2.2.2. Historiography: Interpretative or Objective? ....................................... 14
2.2.3. The Role of the Narrative Structure of History in the Constitution of
Reality...………………………………………………………………………...18
2.3. Postmodern Historical Novel ...................................................................... 22
2.3.1. Historiographic Metafiction ................................................................. 23
3. THE WHITE HOTEL AS AN EXAMPLE OF HISTORIOGRAPHIC
METAFICTION ......................................................................................................... 33
3.1. The Techniques Employed in The White Hotel for the Purpose of
Questioning Traditional Historiography ............................................................. 34
vii
3.2. Freud’s Role and His Relation to Traditional Historiography in The White
Hotel .................................................................................................................... 52
3.3. The White Hotel and its Relation to the Holocaust, Historiography,
Enlightenment, and Modernity ........................................................................... 62
4. TIME’S ARROW AND ITS RELATION TO HISTORIOGRAPHY ..................... 69
4.1. The Experimental Techniques Employed in Time’s Arrow ............................ 70
4.2. Time’s Arrow and its Relation to the Holocaust, Historiography,
Enlightenment, and Modernity ............................................................................... 86
5. CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 94
BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................... 100
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A: TURKISH SUMMARY ................................................................. 107
APPENDIX B: TEZ FOTOKOPİSİ İZİN FORMU ................................................ 117

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