ALL FORMS OF ART AS A BIOGRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION OF THE AUTHOR
All pieces of art are biographical portraits of the artist. Novels, which are works of literature, express the artist’s observations, life perspective, and worldview, that are based on the author’s experiences. Art is one of the most effective ways of conveying people’s feelings and thoughts to other people. Individuals must meet their basic needs to reach a higher personality according to psychologist Abraham Maslow’s scholarly research “Hierarchy of Needs,” published in 1943. One of the human beings’ basic desires, that of liking and being admired, as well as the feeling of being approved by others, becomes concrete thanks to art. For this reason, writers’ psychological states are always in relation to their artwork. Authors who express their experiences in their narratives through moments they recall or wish to happen can lead to a shift away from the domain of facts and closer to the realm of fiction. This assures that the author’s experiences, which she or he refers to as facts, are fictional and serve as inspiration for similar works rather than genuine happenings. As can be seen in the examples of Batuman and Dewitt, who have produced novels that are almost portraits of the authors. The fact that these authors chose the fictionalized reality in their works makes the artists’ efforts to make themselves important and interesting intelligible. In this article, it is examined whether the works of art are a biographical representation of the author himself, with reference to DeWitt’s Last Samurai and Batuman’s The Idiot novels.
To begin with, the author might use the events that have been the basis of the artist’s narratives, as well as the setting in which they occur, to mirror herself or himself in her novel. The Theory of the Novel, Lukács wrote, “The outward form of the novel is essentially biographical. The fluctuation between a conceptual system which can never completely capture life and a life complex which can never attain completeness… can be objectivized only in that organic quality which is the aim of biography.” Authors who are inspired by current events might use their works to express their observations and conclusions. The author’s choice of characters and circumstances indicates who the artist is to the reader. Batuman, who stated in an interview that her own experiences were the inspiration for the fictional materials of her novel, The Idiot, states that the subjects mentioned in the book are the facts and the problems that attract her the most, whether they are fiction or not. [1]
Furthermore, the author’s style of expression offers the reader a connection to the author’s experiences. How the author portrays scenarios to the reader is intimately related to his or her imagination. Expression patterns, idioms, vocabulary, the qualities of the figures in their narratives, the expectations and concerns of the characters are documents of the inner world of the author, The writers use these to transform their own reality into a fictional universe. Batuman expresses her own thoughts on linguistics by giving the reader the inner world of the protagonist in her novel The Idiot, the novel is simple and includes daily situations as well as autobiographical components. Even though it is about everyday life events, it makes human experiences evident through theoretical discussions in the novel. The protagonist’s passion for language and culture originates from her linguistics and literary studies, and it shows in her relationships with others. Language and cognition are viewed as a single entity rather than as two distinct things. Selin, who represents the author, Batuman, in the novel, explains her concerns about words and their connotations in an email she addressed to her Russian classmate, Ivan, whom she is interested in. The distinction between experience and language, as stated by Selin, creates a mood, but it is not the condition itself, and makes the reader doubt their own realism concerning fictitious things. (Batuman, p 143) Moreover, Helen Dewitt is the daughter of a diplomat family and studied ancient literature at Harvard University. Ludo, a character in The Last Samurai who is curious, reflects his interest in ancient literature. Ludo, the son of a single mother named Sibylla, read Homer’s Odyssey when he was four years old, studied Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Japanese, and demonstrated his mathematical abilities. The novel is set in the same world as Akiro Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, with basic themes of education, humanity, and family. This indicates that the author’s questions, which were affected by the outside world, cannot be considered independent from the text in which she has written, and that she is involved in the interaction process.
To sum up, the author’s writing style, as well as the events that form the basis of the author’s narratives and the context in which they occur, presents the reader with a representation of the author. The novel gets its inspiration from the author’s cultural background and socio-cultural capabilities. Both in the cases of Batuman and Dewitt, reality is fictionalized with the authors’ imagination. Consequently, readers should not consider the artwork separate from the artist. It should be seen as a biographical representation of the author in all forms of art.
REFERENCES
Batuman, Elif. Budala. Istanbul; İletişim Publishing, (2019)
DeWitt’s, Helen, The Last Samurai, Vintage Publishing, (2000)
Literary Hub, Recommended: Elif Batuman on Fictionalizing Her Life, and Learning to Fact Check, access 29 March 2022, https://lithub.com/elif-batuman-on-fictionalizing-her-life-and-learning-to-fact-check/
[1] [1] In a seminar attended by the Idiot’s protagonist Selin, the professor talks about teaching the students the hunting techniques that the islanders use but that no one in new generation knows anymore, and the hunting techniques of the islanders’ grandparents for filming. The distinction between fiction and non-fiction is what the lecturer wants to question and teach in this course. (Batuman, p 34)