AMANDİNE YA DA İKİ BAHÇE ÖYKÜSÜNDEKİ İYİ VAHŞİ MİTİNİN İZLERİ
TRACES OF THE NOBLE SAVAGE MYTH IN THE TALE “AMANDINE OR THE TWO GARDENS”

Summary/Abstract: Michel Tournier, known for the rich mythical references in his works, is an author who serves as a model for reinterpreting the myths. In his first tale book The Fetishist, he refers to several myths. As the theme of child holds a significant place in his literature, there are few children as heroes in this book. The hero of Amandine or the two gardens is a female child and the author presents the adventure of this girl, encountering with wild nature. He describes the modern society and wild nature from this female child’s perspective. While making these descriptions, the author firstly criticizes modern education and then truths that turn out to be wrong. Even if a child lives in aesthetically nice places, s/he feels happier in wild nature. In this work, the author advises to raise children as autonomous beings as it is explained in the noble savage myth and to remove obstacles in order to encourage them to find their heavens. Moreover, heaven can take place where there is no modern civilization. Amandine is a figure for all children who desire going away from artificial environments and who are happier in wild nature. Although Tournier explains the process of a child’s entrance into puberty, he also enlightens by showing how this process would be better by using noble savage mythemes. In this regard, this study aims to examine the noble savage in this tale in the light of myth criticism.

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