Vol. 5 No. 21 (2016)

Research Article

Henry Rider Haggard and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion in an Age of Confusion

Published 2016-03-31

Cilt 5 Sayı 21 kapak

Abstract

‘Modernity’ dissolved religious tradition and increased moral anarchy in thought and action in the late nineteenth century. In this highly scientific age, the emerging theoretical works of Marx, Engels, Darwin, Nietzsche, and Freud on god, race, evolution, class struggle, and the human spirit, unsurprisingly produced the first deliriums of modern man. People in such an environment lost their sense of security and their lives could no longer assure spiritual serenity. As a milestone of the late Nineteenth Century, Nietzsche in The Gay Science obviously proclaimed that God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. Therefore, standing amidst the clash between Victorian romanticism and twentieth-century scepticism, Henry Rider Haggard seems to have been affected by the confusions of his era. Therefore, the primary goal of this article is to clarify in what ways the British Africanist H. R. Haggard was affected by the winds of change occurred in his time and how he represented the discourse of ‘the hermeneutics of suspicion” in his works.

Keywords Age of Confusion, the Hermeneutics of Suspicion, Science, Religion, God, Victorian England, H. R. Haggard

Öz

Modernite özellikle on dokuzuncu yüzyılın sonlarına doğru dini itikatları da etkileyerek hem eylem hem de düşünce hareketlerinde bir karmaşanın yaşanmasına neden olmuştur. Bilimselliğin yükseldiği bu yüzyılda Marx, Engels, Darwin, Nietzsche ve Freud’un tanrı, ırk, evrim, sınıf mücadelesi ve tinsellik üzerine ortaya koydukları kuramsal saptamalar modern insana ait ilk hezeyanları da üretmiştir. On dokuzuncu yüzyılın kilometre taşlarından Nietzsche The Gay Science adlı eserinde tanrının öldüğünü ve onu öldürenin insanoğlu olduğunu duyurmuştu. Bu bağlamda, yirminci yüzyıl septisizmi ile Viktorya dönemi Romantisizmi arasında sıkışmış, H. R. Haggard da eserlerinde bu dönem karmaşasını yansıtmıştır. Bu nedenle, bu makalenin amacı İngiliz yazar H. R. Haggard’ın yaşadığı dönemde cereyan eden büyük değişim rüzgârlarından ne ölçüde etkilendiğini ve şüphe hermenötiği söylemini eserlerinde nasıl yansıttığını göstermek olacaktır.

Anahtar Kelimeler Karmaşa Çağı, Şüphe Hermenötiği, Bilim, Din, Tanrı, Viktorya İngilteresi, H. R. Haggard

PDF (Turkish)

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