A CULTURAL MATERIALIST READING OF AURORA LEIGH BY ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Abstract

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh, written in the Victorian period, deals with gender issue in the nineteenth century. Aurora Leigh, Barrett Browning’s longest poem, is in the form of epic poem and written in verse novel. The title of the poem bears the name of the narrator of the poem, and the protagonist serves as the mouthpiece of the poet Barrett Browning, a leading literary figure in the Victorian period. Aurora, as a woman, tries to position women in poetry writing, which was once considered to be written only by men, and thus wants to represent them not as an inferior gender but as equal to man. In order to reveal the women’s issue within a social, political, economic and historical context and complex power structures, cultural materialism has been used as a theory.

Keywords

• Barret Browning
• Aurora Leigh
• gender issue
• cultural materialism
• ideology

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING’İN AURORA LEIGH ADLI ÇALIŞMASININ KÜLTÜREL MATERYALİST AÇIDAN İNCELENMESİ

Abstract

Elizabeth Barrett Browning'in Viktorya döneminde yazdığı Aurora Leigh, on dokuzuncu yüzyılda toplumsal cinsiyet konusunu ele alır. Barrett Browning'in en uzun şiiri olan Aurora Leigh, epik şiir biçiminde ve manzum roman tarzında yazılmıştır. Şiirin adı, şiirin anlatıcısının adını taşımakta ve baş kahramanı, Viktorya döneminin önde gelen edebi şahsiyetlerinden şair Barrett Browning'in sözcülüğünü yapmaktadır. Aurora, bir kadın olarak, bir zamanlar yalnızca erkekler tarafından yazıldığı düşünülen şiir yazımında kadını konumlandırmaya çalışır ve bu nedenle kadını aşağı bir cinsiyet olarak değil, erkekle eşit olarak temsil etmek ister. Kadın sorununu toplumsal, siyasal, ekonomik ve tarihsel bağlamda ve karmaşık güç ilişkileri içerisinde ortaya çıkarmak için bir teori olarak kültürel materyalizm kullanılmıştır.

Keywords

• Barret Browning
• Aurora Leigh
• toplumsal cinsiyet sorunu
• kültürel materyalizm
• ideoloji

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