The Empowering Autobiography: The Voice Of The Aboriginal Women Writers In S. Morgan's My Place

Year 2022, Volume: 10 Issue: 28, 85 - 95, 23.09.2022

Salim Kerboua , Lamia Mechgoug

https://doi.org/10.31126/akrajournal.1053784

Abstract

Women marginalization has always been a constitutive element of colonial discourses. These discourses often depict women of subaltern groups as biologically and culturally inferior. However, powerful voices from the former colonies and emanating from women writers of the postcolonial period have challenged these stereotypes. The present article examines how Aboriginal women writers have looked for ways through which they could express their voices, unveil colonial oppression, present their people's history from their own perspective, and reclaim their ancestral identity. The article emphasizes Sally Morgan's autobiographical novel My Place as a postcolonial counter discourse that enables its author to act as a spokeswoman of her society and to empower her Aboriginal identity. The article engages Morgan's work in the quest for this identity, and it aims at revealing that her major concerns are to achieve self-discovery, transmit the history of her people, and reassert her identity.

Keywords

autobiography, Aboriginal women, colonial discourse, counter discourse, identity, self-discovery

Güçlendirici Otobiyografi: S. Morgan’in My Place’indaki Aborijin Kadin Yazarlarin Sesi

Abstract

Bu makale, kolonyal söylemlerde kadınların marjinalleşmesi konusuna ışık tutmaktadır. İkincisi, madun grupların kadınlarını biyolojik ve kültürel olarak aşağı olarak tasvir eder. Ancak, postkolonyal dönemde eski sömürgelerden güçlü seslerin ortaya çıkması ve kadın yazarlar tarafından temsil edilmesi bu tür klişelere meydan okudu. Bu kadın yazarlar, seslerini ifade edebilecekleri, tarihlerini kendi bakış açılarından sunabilecekleri ve atalarından kalma kimliklerini geri kazanabilecekleri yollar aradılar. Böylece, 1980'lerde postkolonyal alanlardan kadın yazarlar, kişisel deneyimlerini anlatmanın ve halkının gerçek imajını yansıtmanın bir yolu olarak otobiyografik romanlar yazmaya başvurdular. Aborijin Avustralyalı yazar Sally Morgan da bu kadın yazarlar arasında yer alıyor. Otobiyografik romanı My Place aracılığıyla Morgan, toplumunun sözcüsü olarak hareket eder. En büyük arzusu kendini keşfetmek ve halkının tarihini aktarmaktır.

Keywords

otobiyografi, Aborijin kadınları, kolonyal söylem, karşıt söylem, kimlik, kendini keşfetme

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