Journals / Pamukkale Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi / 2026 / Sayı: 31

DECONSTRUCTING THE PLAGUE: AMBIVALENCE OF MARY SHELLEY’S THE LAST MAN

Vebanın Yapısökümü: Mary Shelley’nin Son İnsan’ındaki Muğlaklık

Pages
215–220
Publication Date
2018-04-13
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AI Summary & Key Takeaways

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

With the purpose of examining the text’s self-deconstructive foundation, I will do a double reading of the novel that on the one hand illustrates its critique of orientalism and nationalism while on the other hand focuses on the ambivalence as a central disorienting force in the narrative, which is perhaps a gesture that stands for the text’s refusal to colonize itself.

📌 3 Key Takeaways

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Key Findings & Data:I would like to examine the plague’s ambivalence not only as a deconstructive strategy that resists traditional orientalist readings and promotes a counter-politics of nationalism and orientalism, but also an effective self-effacing principle that persistently eliminates any possibility of a meta-narrative in the novel, even when that same meta-narrative could involve a critique of western hegemony.
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Conclusion & Impact:With the purpose of examining the text’s self-deconstructive foundation, I will do a double reading of the novel that on the one hand illustrates its critique of orientalism and nationalism while on the other hand focuses on the ambivalence as a central disorienting force in the narrative, which is perhaps a gesture that stands for the text’s refusal to colonize itself.
🔬Design:Research Article
📍Scope:Comprehensive Sample
⚙️Variables:Mary Shelley · Son İnsan · Şarkiyatçılık

Abstract

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Özet

Bu makale Mary Shelley’nin Son İnsan adlı romanını apokaliptik bir metin olarak incelemekte ve dünyanın sonunu getiren ölümcül vebanın yeryüzüne yayılışındaki belirsizliğe odaklanmaktadır. Vebanın çıkış ve dağılışındaki muğlaklığı, geleneksel şarkiyatçı okumalara karşı çıkan yapısökümcü bir strateji olarak yorumlamanın yanı sıra, aynı zamanda metnin genelinde bir üst-anlatının (ki bu üst-anlatı Batı hegemonyasını eleştirel nitelik taşıyor olsa bile) oluşma imkanını baltalayan etkin bir “kendini yoketme” prensipi olarak analiz edeceğim. Metnin yapısökücü temelini irdelemek amacıyla, bir yandan romanın milliyetçi ve şarkiyatçı yaklaşımlara eleştirel tutumunu, öte yandan da belirsizliğin metnin ana merkezi oluşunu, iki yönlü bir okuma yaparak tartışmayı hedefliyorum

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Cite This Article

Tekdemir, H. (2018). DECONSTRUCTING THE PLAGUE: AMBIVALENCE OF MARY SHELLEY’S THE LAST MAN. Pamukkale Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, Sayı: 31, 215–220. https://doi.org/10.30794/pausbed.414825

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References (7)

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  3. Franci, G. (1985). “A Mirror of the Future: Vision and Apocalypse in Mary Shelley’s The Last Man” Mary Shelley, (Ed: H. Bloom), Chelsea House Publishing, New York. Goldsmith, S. (1990). “Of Gender, Plague, and Apocalypse: Mary Shelley’s The Last Man”, The Yale Journal of Criticism; Fall; 4,1. 129-173.
  4. Lew, J. W. (1998). “The plague of imperial desire: Montesquieu, Gibbon, Brougham, and Mary Shelley’s The Last Man”, Romanticism and Colonialism: Writing and Empire, 1780-1830, (Ed: T. Fulford and P. J. Kitson), Cambridge University Press, New York. 261-278.
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  6. Oxford. Snyder, R. L. (1978). “Apocalypse and Indeterminacy in Mary Shelley’s The Last Man”, Studies in Romanticism, 17, Fall. 435-452.
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