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Journals / Melius: Journal of Narrative and Language Studies / 2025 / Sayı: 4

Inside Alex’s Mind: Language, Music, and Moral Engagement in A Clockwork Orange

Alex’in Zihninde: Otomatik Portakal Romanında Dil, Müzik ve Ahlaki Katılım

Necmettin Kaplan(SELÇUK ÜNİVERSİTESİ, EDEBİYAT FAKÜLTESİ)0009-0002-6599-4774
Pages
42–49
Publication Date
2025-09-26
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AI Summary & Key Takeaways

AI Insight
⚡ TL;DR(Too Long; Didn't Read)

This study investigates author/text and reader interrelation, and how the novel becomes not just a narrative of violence but a test of reader engagement and moral agency.

📌 3 Key Takeaways

🎯
Objective & Hypothesis:This article examines Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange through the lens of Reader-Response Theory (Reception Theory, Reader-Oriented Criticism), particularly the perspectives of Wolfgang Iser and Stanley Fish.
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Key Findings & Data:It argues that Burgess deliberately destabilizes moral judgment through first-person narration, the artificial language of Nadsat, and classical music.
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Conclusion & Impact:This study investigates author/text and reader interrelation, and how the novel becomes not just a narrative of violence but a test of reader engagement and moral agency.
🔬Design:Araştırma Makalesi
📍Scope:Comprehensive Sample
⚙️Variables:Anthony Burgess · "Otomatik Portakal" · Okur-Tepki kuramı

Abstract

This article examines Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange through the lens of Reader-Response Theory (Reception Theory, Reader-Oriented Criticism), particularly the perspectives of Wolfgang Iser and Stanley Fish. It argues that Burgess deliberately destabilizes moral judgment through first-person narration, the artificial language of Nadsat, and classical music. These formal strategies condition the reader’s response and implicate them in ethical reflection. Iser’s concepts of the implied reader (virtual reader, ideal reader) and interpretive gaps (indeterminacies, textual gaps), as well as Fish’s notion of interpretive communities (reading communities, discourse communities), are applied to show how Burgess guides interpretation while avoiding didacticism. This study investigates author/text and reader interrelation, and how the novel becomes not just a narrative of violence but a test of reader engagement and moral agency.

Özet

Bu makale, Anthony Burgess’in Otomatik Portakal adlı romanını Okur-Tepki Kuramı çerçevesinde, özellikle Wolfgang Iser ve Stanley Fish’in teorik yaklaşımları doğrultusunda incelemektedir. Burgess’in birinci şahıs anlatımı, yapay dili (Nadsat) ve klasik müziği kullanarak okuyucunun etik yargılarını bilinçli şekilde sarstığı ileri sürülmektedir. Iser’in ima edilen okuyucu ve metindeki boşluklar kavramları ile Fish’in yorumlayıcı topluluklar fikri, yazarın okuyucuyu nasıl yönlendirdiğini ve yorumun nasıl toplumsal bağlamlara bağlı olarak değiştiğini ortaya koymaktadır. Bu çalışma, yazar/metin ve okur arasındaki karşılıklı ilişkiyi ve romanın yalnızca bir şiddet anlatısı değil, aynı zamanda okurun katılımının ve ahlaki eyleminin bir sınavı haline nasıl geldiğini incelemektedir.

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Cite This Article

Kaplan, N. (2025). Inside Alex’s Mind: Language, Music, and Moral Engagement in A Clockwork Orange. Melius: Journal of Narrative and Language Studies, Sayı: 4, 42–49. https://doi.org/10.62425/melius.1760636

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References (17)

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