ULUSAL BİR SANAT OLARAK ŞİİR: CAROL ANN DUFFY’NİN SARAY ŞAİRLİĞİ DÖNEMİNDEKİ POLİTİK ŞİİRİ

Year 2023, Volume: 63 Issue: 1, 377 - 398, 20.06.2023

Özlem Aydın Öztürk

https://doi.org/10.33171/dtcfjournal.2023.63.1.15

Abstract

Carol Ann Duffy’nin 2009 yılında kraliyet şairi ödülünü kabul ederek İngiltere'nin ilk kadın kraliyet şairi olması, Duffy’nin her zaman eserlerinde hükümet politikalarını çok sert bir şekilde eleştiren politik bir şair olması nedeniyle büyük bir sürpriz olmuştur. Ancak, Duffy kendisi istemediği sürece monarşi ve kraliyet ile olaylar için şiir yazmayacağını açıkça belirtmiştir. Andrew McAllister ile 1988'de yaptığı bir röportajda Carol Ann Duffy, bir şair olarak niyetinin "olanları olduğu gibi sunmak" olduğunu belirtir ve ekler “şairlerin çözümleri yoktur, şairler insan deneyimini kaydeder” (72). Bu manifesto, Duffy'nin 1980'lerin ve 1990'ların çok kültürlü Britanya'sında yaşama deneyimini, imtiyazsızların ve yoksunların durumunu betimleyen Standing Female Nude (1985), Selling Manhattan (1987) ve The Other Country (1990) şiir kitaplarındaki politik tavrını ve şiirlerini de tanımlamaktadır. Röportajlarında da belirtiği gibi Duffy'ye göre "şiir, hepimiz için önemli olan şeylerle başa çıkmanın bir yolu olarak gazetecilere, uzmanlara veya akademisyenlere önemli bir alternatif ses sağlar" (Wroe, 2014, para 1). Bu makale Duffy'nin kraliyet şairi olarak yazdığı şiirlerinin politik yönü ile ilgilidir. Bu makale, Duffy'nin 2009-2019 yılları arasında kraliyet şairliği sırasında yazdığı siyasi şiirlere odaklanmakta ve çoğunlukla Duffy’nin siyasi şiirlerinde politikacıları hedef alarak kamuoyunun kaygılarını seslendirip vurguladığını belirtmektedir. Bu bağlamda, Carol Ann Duffy eleştirilerini politikacılara yönelterek İngiliz halkının kamusal kaygılarını öne çıkarmakta ve çağdaş Britanya'da yaşamanın sosyal ve duygusal deneyimini sunmak amacıyla kamuoyu adına konuşmaktadır.

Keywords

Politik şiir, Saray şairi, Carol Ann Duffy, Çağdaş İngiliz şiiri

POETRY AS NATIONAL ART: CAROL ANN DUFFY'S POLITICAL POETRY AS THE POET LAUREATE

Abstract

When Carol Ann Duffy became Britain's first female poet laureate in 2009, it was a surprise as Duffy has always been a political poet with very harsh criticism of government policies in her works. However, she made it clear that she would not be writing poems for the monarchy and the royal occasions unless she feels to. In an interview with Andrew McAllister in 1988, Carol Ann Duffy stated that her intention as a poet is "to present it, as it is" (72). She added, "poets don't have solutions, poets are recording the human experience." This manifesto informs her work as her political poems illustrate life in the multicultural Britain of the 1980s and 1990s with a close observation of the underprivileged and deprived in Standing Female Nude (1985), Selling Manhattan (1987), and The Other Country (1990). Duffy's laureate poems also reflect her concern to speak for the unvoiced, as for Duffy "poetry provides an important alternative voice to journalists or pundits or academics as a way of dealing with things that matter to us all" (Wroe, 2014, para 1). Thus, this paper is concerned with the political aspect of Duffy's laureate poems, focusing on her political poetry written during her poet laureateship between the years 2009-2019 mainly targeting politicians and highlighting public concerns. Accordingly, she speaks for the public, to present the social and emotional experience of living in contemporary Britain by way of highlighting public concerns of the British people by targeting her criticism to the politicians.

Keywords

Political poetry, Poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, Contemporary British poetry

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