Literature as an Instrument of Dominant Discourse The Extraordinary Journeys Narrative of Jules Verne


DOĞANAY G.

SELCUK UNIVERSITESI EDEBIYAT FAKULTESI DERGISI-SELCUK UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF FACULTY OF LETTERS, cilt.46, ss.319-336, 2021 (ESCI) identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 46
  • Basım Tarihi: 2021
  • Dergi Adı: SELCUK UNIVERSITESI EDEBIYAT FAKULTESI DERGISI-SELCUK UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF FACULTY OF LETTERS
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Central & Eastern European Academic Source (CEEAS), MLA - Modern Language Association Database, Directory of Open Access Journals
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.319-336
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Sociology of literature, political sociology, colonialist discourse, orientalist discourse, Jules Verne
  • Karadeniz Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

The literary production of Jules Verne (1828-1905/ the French author) is an important research object in the field of sociology of literature because it reflects the social characteristics of the period in which he lived. Sociology of literature, which focuses on the relationship of the literary text with the external world, accepts literature as a social institution and a social phenomenon. The Extraordinary Journeys series, which made Verne a famous author, was written to enable European (especially French) children and their parents to learn about unknown places and nature. The Series convey important information about the social structure of 19th-century Europe and are witnessing the period. In this context, the sociological interpretation of the Series makes it possible to understand both the economic, political, cultural institutions and the influence of the social on literature. In this study, starting from Verne's Extraordinary Journeys series, it will be problematized how literature was articulated to the production and reproduction of the political discourse/ideology/representations of the period in which it was produced. In other words, it will be claimed that literature can create a political discourse space by reproducing the dominant ideology. In this study, the ideological representations used by Verne in his Extraordinary Journeys series were tried to be revealed by looking at the academic studies in foreign literature on the Series. It is concluded that the Extraordinary Journeys series reproduce the scientific, colonial, and orientalist discourse of the 19th-century and construct the unknown geographies (non-European societies) as others that need to be civilized while establishing the European man as a subject.