Folklor Akademi Dergisi

Öz

There is a close connection between the concepts of psychoanalysis and literature, because both fields consider human as a resource. While pyschoanalysis tries to analyze the human being in the light of being scientific; with the heroes in the works of literature, it opens new horizons for people and guides them in recognizing and analyzing themselves. Thus, psychoanalysis became one of the methods of interpreting literary works. Thanks to psychoanalysis, the depth of understanding and interpretation of literary works has increased. Thus, it is possible to get to know more closely not only the characters in the works, but also the authors who are their creators. In the study, inspired by my thesis titled “A Psychoanalytic Treatment of Italo Svevo’s Novels”in 2013, the character of Zeno in the novel “Zeno’s Consciousness” written by Italian writer Italo Svevo is discussed in the context of psychoanalytic literary criticism. During this criticism and examination Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Carl Gustav Jung, Jacques Lacan, who are the four main names of the psychoanalysis method, guided us. From Sigmund Freud’s concept of Oedipus complex, anxiety theory, psychosextual processes and motivation theory; Adler Adler’s inferiority-supremacy complex and compensation theory; Carl Gustav Jung’s four main archetypes; Jacques Lacan’s structuralist psychoanalysis tecnique were used. The flow in the study was planned as follows. First of all, the concept of psychoanalysis, which is the source of our study, the methods and perspectives of Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, Alfred Adler and Jacques Lacan were mentioned. Then, the life of the author of our novel, the socio-cultural enviroment he was in, the people he was influenced by and the summary of our novel were discussed. Then, the life of the protagonist of our novel was evaluated in line with the perpectives and theories of the previosuly mentioned psychoanalysts, respectively. In fact, as a result, it has been witnessed that the effects of all these complexes, both from childhood and from ancestors, shape a person’s life. This testimony was provided by an ordinary person from the daily life of the 20 th century. This person, the main character of the novel, the protagonist Zeno, is an ordinary person who struggles with his own problems that we can encounter at any time in daily life. In this ordinary life, Zeno actually begins to question his life. This questioning first starts with his problems, then it evolves into questioning life. In this questioning of life, our character expresses that the real illness and problem is life itself. This existential troubles and problems of an ordinary modern person are revealed in literature and psychoanalysis. In short, traces of psychoanalysis are clearly observed in all areas of life, especially in literature.