WILLIAM GOLDING’S RITES OF PASSAGE: FRAGMENTS OF TRAGEDY IN POSTMODERN FICTION (WILLIAM GOLDING’İN GEÇİŞ AYİNLERİ: POSTMODERN ROMANDA TRAJEDİ KIRINTILARI)

William Golding, as an author deeply interested in man’s evil nature, chaos and obscurity, is known for his novels that present an original account of man’s experience. In his novels he tackles man’s disillusionment with life, the concept of evil, social discrimination, multiple layers of truth and the difficulty of reaching a single and ultimate version of reality. Rites of Passage is one of such novels that is notably dense, dark and difficult to categorize due to its embodiment of different genres, techniques and elements. The novel is also rich with postmodernist strategies such as dialogic relations between different social classes and voices, double-voiced narration, self-reflexive allusions to other works of fiction, parodic use and abuse of different genres, and delays and gaps. These strategies invest the novel with playful yet at the same time tragic tricks that enable the reader to recognize reality as a human construct, life as a pathos and human condition as a tragedy. In this regard, this paper seeks to scrutinize postmodernist aspects in Rites of Passage, exploring the contribution of these aspects to the building up of chaotic and tragic atmosphere of the novel rather than to a playfulness that is expected to arise out of diversity observed both in characterization and in language and structure.  Oz: Insan dogasinin kotulugu, bilinmezlik ve kaos ile yakindan ilgilenen William Golding, insan deneyimlerini ozgun bir sekilde yansitan romanlariyla un salmistir. Golding romanlarinda genellikle insanoglunun hayata karsi duydugu hayal kirikligi, kotuluk kavrami, sosyal ayrim, dogrunun goreceligi ve tek bir dogruya ulasmanin zorlugu gibi konulari ele alir. Gecis Ayinleri romani da oldukca yogun, kasvetli bir atmosfer cizen ve bircok farkli edebi tur, teknik ve ozellikleri bir arada bulundurdugu icin belli bir kategoriye yerlestirilmesi son derece guc olan romanlarindan biridir. Bu roman farkli toplumsal sinif ve sesler arasindaki diyalojik iliskiler, cok sesli anlatim, diger edebi eserlere ozdusunumsel gondermeler, farkli edebi turlerin parodik kullanimlari, kasitli olarak yapilan anlatimsal geciktirmeler ve bosluklar gibi bircok postmodern stratejileri de icinde barindirmaktadir. Bu stratejiler romana postmodern oyunbazlik boyutu kazandirmakla kalmayip, romani okuyucunun gercegin yapayliktan, hayatin acilardan, insan dogasinin ise trajediden ibaret oldugunu anlamasini saglayacak trajik aldatmacalarla donatmaktadir. Bu calisma Gecis Ayinleri romanindaki postmodern ozellikleri incelemeyi ve bu ozelliklerin romandaki oyunbazliktan ziyade romandaki kaotik ve trajik atmosferin olusturulmasina nasil katkida bulundugunu irdelemeyi amaclamaktadir.