Orhan Pamuk’un Yeni Hayat Adlı Romanının Lacanyen Psikanalitik Kavramlarla İncelenmesi (original) (raw)

Since its birth, psychoanalysis has been in a reciprocal relationship with literature. Through this reciprocal relationship, many literary works play an essential role in the foundation of the psychoanalytic approach while psychoanalytic theory has also shaped the interpretation of many literary works. In this article, The New Life novel, written by Orhan Pamuk with a postmodern approach in 1994, will be analyzed with the psychoanalytic concepts of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. Writing the novel with a postmodern approach provides an opportunity for many expressions in the novel to have multi-layered meanings. Thanks to that, the meaning in the novel could be constructed differently in each reading. French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, whilst developing his psychoanalytic theory, recognized the importance of linguistics. He located the unconscious within the signifier-signified relationship. Drawing attention to the concept of metaphor in unconscious and language studies, Lacan also handled his studies on literary works through this concept. Thus, analysing this novel through Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic concepts will add richness to the interpretation of the novel. The novel is about the character of Osman encountering a book and traveling to find the new life mentioned in that book, and it is fictionalized around Osman, Canan, with whom Osman falls in love, Mehmet with whom he competes, and Dr. Narin of whom he wants to be a son. In this context, the expressions of "book," "Canan", "journey", "Mehmet," and "Dr. Narin" are considered as metaphors because of having multi-layered meanings. These five expressions selected from The New Life novel; has been studied with the basic concepts of Lacanian psychoanalytic theory as the object a, das Ding, jouissance, ideal-ego and paternal function.