Akwaeke Emezi'nin Freshwater (2018) Adlı Eserinde Cinsiyet, Şiddet ve Parçalanmış Benliklerin Analizi

Abstract

Freshwater, Igbo ve Tamil yazar Akwaeke Emezi'nin otobiyografik unsurlar içeren çağdaş bir ilk romanıdır (2018). Nijerya'nın Umuahia kentinde doğan Ada adlı genç bir kadının, cinsiyetin yıkıcı güçleri, Batı normatiflikleri, ırksal mücadeleler ve dini kısıtlamalar arasında büyüme sürecini ele alır. Bu makalede, Emezi'nin Freshwater adlı kitabının, Audre Lorde'un When I Dare to Be Powerful (Güçlü Olmaya Cesaret Ettiğimde), Rebecca Solnit'in Men Explain Things to Me (Bana Şeyleri Açıklayan Erkekler) ve Nickie Charles ile Felicia Hughes-Freeland'ın editörlüğünü yaptığı Practising Feminism, Identity, Difference, Power (Feminizm, Kimlik, Farklılık, Güç) gibi önemli eleştirmenlerin yardımıyla cinsiyet, din ve etnik köken sınırlarını aşmak amacıyla analiz edilmesi amaçlanmaktadır. Bu makalenin amacı, roman boyunca yaşadıkları benzersiz travmatik deneyimleri ele alarak, başkahraman Ada'nın parçalanmış benliğinin, değişen cinsiyeti, travmanın etkileri, şiddetin sonuçları ve kendine zarar verme mücadelesiyle nasıl şekillenip yeniden şekillendiğini göstermektir. Roman aynı zamanda, Ada'nın parçalanmış benliklerinin çokluk kimliği olarak ele alınmasıyla, toplumdaki ikiliklerin nasıl ortadan kaldırılıp kaos yaratılırken çoğulculuğun kozmosa dönüştürülebileceğinin de bir örneğidir.

Keywords

• Çağdaş romanlar
• parçalanmış benlik
• cinsiyet akışkanlığı
• ogbanje
• transgender kimlik
• şiddet ve travma

An Analysis of Gender, Violence, and Fragmented Selves in Freshwater (2018) by Akwaeke Emezi

Abstract

Freshwater is a contemporary debut novel (2018) by Igbo and Tamil author Akwaeke Emezi, with autobiographical elements. It deals with the coming-of-age of a young woman, Ada, born in Umuahia, Nigeria, amid the disruptive forces of gender, Western normativities, racial struggles, and religious constraints. In this article, Emezi’s book Freshwater is intended to be analyzed with the purpose of exceeding the limitations of gender, religion, and ethnicity with the help of significant critics like When I Dare to Be Powerful by Audre Lorde, Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit, and Practising Feminism, Identity, Difference, Power, edited by Nickie Charles and Felicia Hughes-Freeland. A key moment in the novel that exemplifies the exceeding of these binaries is when Ada, in a pivotal scene, experiences a profound confrontation with her own identities in the spiritual realm, characterized by the fluidity and multiplicity of her selves. This scene effectively unravels fixed gender categories, showcasing performative slippage as Ada transitions between different identities. It is this article's purpose to also show how the fragmented self of the protagonist, Ada, is shaped and reshaped by the fluctuating gender, effects of trauma, results of violence, and struggles with self-harm by showing the unique traumatic experiences of them throughout the novel. The novel is also an example of how to dismantle binaries within society by creating chaos and turning it into a cosmos of plurality through Ada’s fragmented selves as an identity of multitude.

Keywords

• Contemporary novels
• fragmented selves
• gender fluidity
• ogbanje
• transgender
• violence and trauma

References

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8. Haldeman, P. (2018, October 24). The coming of age of transgender literature. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/24/books/trans-lit-transgender-novels.html

9. Lorde, A. (2020). When I dare to be powerful. Penguin Books.
10. Ossana, E. (2021). Precolonial Igbo voices in Akwaeke Emezi’s Freshwater (2018): A palimpsestic search for “home”. Complutense Journal of English Studies, 29, 81–92. https://doi.org/10.5209/cjes.66754
11. Solnit, R. (2014). Men explain things to me and other essays. Granta Books.
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