Margaret Postgate Cole’un Birinci Dünya Savaşı Şiirleri

Öz

Birinci Dünya Savaşı, kadınların geleneksel cinsiyet rollerinde kaçınılmaz değişimlere yol açmış, onları ev içinde ailenin sürüdürülmesini sağlayan pasif bireyler olmaktan çıkararak, gönüllü hemşirelik, ambulans şoförlüğü and fabrika işçiliği gibi sosyal hayatın içinde aktif rol alan bireylere dönüştürmüştür. Bununla birlikte, 1981 yılında Catherine Reilly’nin yetmişdokuz kadın savaş şairini kapsayan, Scars Upon my Heart (Kalbimdeki Yaralar) başlıklı savaş şiiri antolojisinin yayınlanmasına kadar, kadınların savaşın temsilindeki edebi katkıları yok sayılmıştır. Margaret Postgate Cole (1893-1980) savaşın yaşanmışlığına, seçkin bir feminen yakşalım sağlayan kadın savaş şairlerinden sadece birisidir. Savaş konusunu amatörce bir duygusallık ve romantik kavramlara işlemek yerine, Margeret Postgate Cole savaşın ataerkil otoriteler tarafından oluşturulan ve desteklenen ideolojik kökenlerini gözler önüne sererek büyük bir sanatsal yetenek ortaya koymuştur. Cole şiirlerinde genç ve masum askerlerinin kanından beslenen, savunulması imkansız savaş ideolojisi üzerinde durur. Bu nedenle, bu makalenin amacı, Cole’un Birinci Dünya Savaşı şiirlerini inceleyerek, toplumun yöneticileri ve kanun koyucuları tarafından desteklenen savaşın anlamsızlığı konusundaki şairin farkındalığını ortaya çıkarmaktır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• savaş şiiri
• Margaret Postgate Cole
• Kadınlar
• İdeoloji

Margaret Postgate Cole’s Poetry of the First World War

Abstract

The First World War marks an inevitable transformation in the traditional gender roles of women from being passive domestic sustainers of family into active contributors in the social life as voluntary nurses, ambulance drivers, and factory workers. Nevertheless, women’s poetic contribution to literary representations of war continue to be precariously neglected till the publication of Catherine Reilly’s Scars Upon my Heart in 1981, a war anthology of seventy-nine women poets. Margaret Postgate Cole (1893-1980) is among these women war poets who provide a distinguished feminine insight into the experience of war, different from male perspective. Far from displaying an amateurishly sentimental and romanticized engagement with war, Margaret Postgate Cole shows a great artistic aptitude in unmasking the conniving ideological roots of war that is reinforced by the patriarchal authorities. Cole, in her poetry, concentrates on the unjustifiable ideology of war, preying on the innocent young soldiers. The aim of this article, therefore, is to analyze Cole’s poetry of the First World War to demonstrate her profound awareness of the meaninglessness of the war that is promulgated by the rulers and decision makers.

Keywords

• War Poetry
• Margaret Postgate Cole
• Women

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