Hacettepe University Graduate School of Social Sciences Department of English Language and Literature English Language and Literature Programme CHARACTERS SEEKING LIBERATION IN R. K. NARAYAN’S SWAMI AND FRIENDS, THE BACHELOR OF ARTS AND THE ENGLISH TEACHER Sinem SAATLI Master’s Thesis Ankara, 2015 CHARACTERS SEEKING LIBERATION IN R.K.NARAYAN’S SWAMI AND FRIENDS, THE BACHELOR OF ARTS AND THE ENGLISH TEACHER Sinem SAATLI Hacettepe University Graduate School of Social Sciences Department of English Language and Literature English Language and Literature Programme Master’s Thesis Ankara, 2015 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis advisor Assist. Prof. Dr. Sinan AKILLI who kept me “bold in blood” and taught me that discipline is the other word for motivation. He has become my main source of inspiration for writing this thesis because of his academic knowledge and his respect to his profession. I have taken many lessons from his commitment to teaching as a “teacher” and his modest attitude towards learning. He has always been a big chance for his students and the people around him because he never gives up believing that one can be better if s/he wants to be better. I would be acknowledging his contribution less than I should if I did not say that he has “saved my years of study” and he is such a hero for his students. I would also like to give my thanks to Prof. Dr. Burçin EROL and Prof. Rezzan SİLKÜ for their guidance and encouragement during my study. I owe a special word of thanks to Prof. Dr. Serpil OPPERMANN who has shared her precious experience and professional advices. I would like to express my special gratitude also to Prof. Dr. Deniz BOZER who has spent her precious time reviewing my thesis in detail and contributed a lot with her corrections and thorough editing. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nurten BİRLİK, Assist. Prof. Dr. Şebnem KAYA and Assist. Prof. Dr. Alev KARADUMAN for their guidance and sharing their kind remarks that helped me improve my work, and to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Aytül ÖZÜM for sharing her warm heart and smile every time I saw her. Moreover, I am indebted to my precious friends Burak ERGÜN, Ece ATAMBAY, Çiçek HIZLI and Nur ÇİLİNGİR who have always made my day during my study sessions. I am also thankful to my mother and my father for their endless support and to my sister, Gizem SAATLI for her standing by me unconditionally and making me smile by her words which are always the funniest things I have ever heard. And, Yosun, my daughter-dog would get all my love because she is my world keeping my childish nature always alive. And, to Rıdvan ÖZER who has always inspired me with his love and loyalty. Lastly, my precious grandfather Kemal SAATLI and my grandmother Güner SARI would get my warmest thanks because of their endless belief in me and their being more than a family for me. iv ÖZET SAATLI, Sinem. R. K. Narayan’ın Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts ve The English Teacher Adlı Romanlarındaki Karakterlerin Özgürleşme Arayışı. Yüksek Lisans Tezi, Ankara, 2015. R. K. Narayan (1906-2001), çoğu eserinin geçtiği yer olan kurgusal kasaba Malgudi’yi tipik bir Güney Hindistan kasabası olarak tasvir eder. Malgudi, Hindistan’ın küçük bir kopyası olduğu için Narayan, Hindistan’ın İngilizler tarafından sömürgeleştirilmesine ve bunun Hint toplumuna etkisi hakkındaki yorumunu Malgudi ve Malgudi’de yaşayanlar aracılığıyla yapmıştır. Çağdaşlarının aksine, Narayan sömürgeleşmeye karşı kışkırtıcı veya isyankâr bir tutum takınmaz. Narayan’ın İngiliz karşıtı bir söylem içinde bulunarak sömürgeleşmeye karşı çıkan diğer yazarlardan farkı, İngiliz karşıtlığı yerine Hindistan’ın kendi kimliğine, tarihine ve kültürüne odaklanmasıdır. Narayan’ın kendi kültürüne güçlü bir şekilde bağlı olması ve Gandhi gibi kavgacı olmayan bir tutum sergilemesi, Malgudi’yi Hint gelenekselliğinin ve muhafazakârlığının somutlaşmış şekline dönüştürür. Narayan’ın sömürgeciliğe karşı sakin ve mesafeli duruşunu devam ettirmesinde en önemli etken anlatımında mizah ve hiciv kullanmasıdır. Sömürgeleşme sonucunda ortaya çıkan hem bireysel hem de toplumsal problemleri ve tuhaf durumları mizahi bir dille eleştirir. Narayan’ın üçlemesi olarak da bilinen Swami and Friends (1935), The Bachelor of Arts (1937) ve The English Teacher (1945) Malgudi’yi, bir çocuğun, bir üniversite öğrencisinin ve bir yetişkinin gözünden ayrıntılı bir şekilde tasvir eder. Narayan üçlemesinde sömürgeciliğe karşı tutumunu bağımsızlaşma ve kaostan uzak durma, Hintlilik ve geleneksellik ve Hintliliğe sarılarak kurtuluşa erme temalarını tekrar tekrar kullanarak sergiler. Narayan’ın üçlemesinde tekrar tekrar kullandığı temalar bağlamında yapılan bu çalışmada varılan sonuç şudur ki; Narayan, Malgudi’nin bağımsızlaşma olasılığına inanır ve bununla birlikte Hindistan’ın bağımsızlaşmasının ancak Hint değerlerine sarılması ile gerçekleşeceğini öne sürer. Anahtar Sözcükler: R. K. Narayan, Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts, The English Teacher, Malgudi, Hindistan’ın bağımsızlaşması. v ABSTRACT SAATLI, Sinem. Characters Seeking Liberation in R. K. Narayan’s Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher. Master’s Thesis. Ankara, 2015. R. K. Narayan (1906-2001) depicts the fictional town of Malgudi, in which he sets most of his works, as a typical South Indian town. Since Malgudi is formed as the microcosm of India, it was through Malgudi and Malgudians that Narayan made his comments on the British colonisation of India and its effects on the Indian society. Contrary to his contemporaries, Narayan does not display a provoking or rebellious attitude towards colonialism. Narayan’s difference from the other writers who react against colonialism by employing an anti-British discourse is that he focuses on India’s own identity, history, and culture instead. Narayan’s strong attachment to his own cultural values and his rejection, like Gandhi, of an aggressive attitude shapes Malgudi as the embodiment of Indian traditionalism and conservatism. The most significant effect in Narayan’s maintaining a calm and detached position in his response to colonialism is his use of humour and irony in his narration. He criticises both the individual and social problems and unusual situations which emerge after the colonial process in India in a comic way. Known as the Narayan’s trilogy; Swami and Friends (1935), The Bachelor of Arts (1937) and The English Teacher (1945) represent Malgudi comprehensively; from the eyes of a child, a college student and an adult. Narayan in his trilogy displays his attitude towards colonialism by repeatedly dealing with the themes of decolonisation and detachment from chaos, Indianness and traditionalism, and reaching liberation by embracing Indianness. The overall conclusion drawn from the study of Narayan’s trilogy in terms of these recurrent themes is that, he believed in the prospect of decolonisation in Malgudi, but he also suggested that India’s independence it can only be achieved by embracing indigenous Indian values. Key Words: R. K. Narayan, Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts, The English Teacher, Malgudi, decolonisation of India. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS KABUL VE ONAY …………………………………………………………………......i BİLDİRİM…………………………………………………………………………..….ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………...……iii ÖZET……………………………………………………………………………...……iv ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………..……...v TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………..………...…..vi INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………...…........1 CHAPTER I: THE THEMES OF DECOLONISATION AND DETACHMENT FROM CHAOS IN NARAYAN’S TRILOGY………………...…………………….24 CHAPTER II: INDIANNESS AND TRADITIONALISM IN THE MALGUDIAN WORLD…...........................................................................……………………………….….56 CHAPTER III: NARAYAN’S CHARACTERS REACHING LIBERATION BY EMBRACING INDIANNES.…………………………………...……………………80 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………...………….....106 BIBLIGRAPHY………………………………………………………………...……109 APPENDIX 1: ORIGINALITY REPORTS ………………………………….……116 APPENDIX 2: ETHICS BOARD WAIVER FORMS FOR THESIS WORK...........................................................................................................………...118 1 INTRODUCTION R. K. Narayan (Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayanaswami, 1906-2001), who is considered one of the founding fathers of Indian-English literature, began his literary career in a period when India was a British colony. He produced many novels and short stories set in the fictional town of Malgudi, which can be considered the microcosm of India. Although Malgudi is a fictional place, nothing seems to be fictional in this town. In other words, through his novels and short stories set in Malgudi, Narayan portrayed the real Indian experience and the texture of Indian culture and created an authentic Indian context. Nonetheless, he has been the subject of much criticism on the grounds of choosing English as his literary language and for not displaying a clear and explicit reaction to the British colonial occupation of India. For instance, Radhika Mohanram criticises Narayan by stating that the author’s fictional town, “Malgudi undergoes no violent anti-colonial catharsis” (100). Similarly, Robert Ross complains about Narayan’s unpretentious attitude towards political subjects as he states “politics especially radical politics figure very little in his work” (89). Also Amar N. Dwivedi criticises Narayan’s novels claiming that they possess a “general lack of social, political and even existential awareness and urgent emotional involvement”