الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract The thesis in hand traces the scientists’ search for absolute truth in John Banville’s tetralogy Doctor Copernicus (1976), Kepler (1981), The Newton Letter (1982) and Mefisto (1986). Parallel to the scientist’s search for truth is the artist’s search for beauty, love, peace and harmony, which is justified in an increasingly chaotic world that is torn by horrific wars, ideological clashes, and personal greed and ambition that are hidden under the cloak of defending religion. They devote their lives to a scientific project that is never completed, which leads them at the end to acknowledge the painful fact that Absolute Truth is nothing but an illusion. They seek in science the order that is missing in their lives, yet it unfortunately fails them even as an epistemological tool. The four scientists undergo a journey from innocence to experience, whereby they discover the futility of their search, on which they wasted their whole lives. They also come to accept the absurdity of life, and they recognize the relative nature of the Truth. Likewise, their spiritual quest to fill the void that their souls are suffering from, fails miserably as a result of the domination of dogmatic views that aim to preserve the long-held beliefs rather than reach the truth. The suffering of Banville’s protagonists echoes that of “everyman”, who learns the hard way that truth and solace in this world are unattainable dreams. In this study, Banville’s tetralogy is analyzed in the light of the postmodernist as well as structuralist and poststructuralist thought. The study also examines the effect of the theories and beliefs of renowned thinkers and philosophers like Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Lacan, Derrida, Bakhtin, and Lyotard on the tetralogy. |