Kimlik eleştirisi: Forster’ın Howards End romanında kadın ve erkek karakterlerin kendilerini doğrulama süreçleri

Year 2021, Volume: 35 Issue: 3, 1286 - 1302, 30.09.2021

Dilek Tüfekci Can

https://doi.org/10.48070/erciyesakademi.978348

Abstract

Bu çalışmanın amacı E. M. Forster tarafından kaleme alınan Howards End (1910) adlı romandaki kadın ve erkek karakterlerin toplumsal cinsiyet kimliklerini kimlik eleştirisi bağlamında ortaya çıkarmaktır. Bir roman yazarı olarak okurlarının ne istediği ile ilgili güçlü bir sezgiye sahip olan Forster, bu romanında insan ilişkilerini gözlemler ve insan yaşamının tüm yönlerini gerçekçi bir biçimde tasvir eder. Forster, romanındaki karakterleri zayıf ve güçlü yönleriyle Edward döneminin gerçek hayatın temsilcileri olarak okurlarına sunar. Bu nedenle bu çalışma karakterin toplumsal kimliklerini kimlik eleştirisi bağlamında çözümlemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Ayrıca, bu makale toplumsal cinsiyet rollerinin giderek bulanıklaştığı Edward döneminde hem kadın hem de erkek karakterlerin kendi kimliklerini nasıl doğrulamaya çalıştıklarını kimlik eleştirisi bağlamında çözümlemeye çalışmaktadır. Dolayısıyla, bu çalışmada karakterlerin kendi kimliklerini doğrulama süreçleri “girdi”, “kimlik standardı”, “karşılaştırıcı” ve “çıktı” gibi unsurlara odaklanarak incelenmektedir. Çalışmanın sonucunda hem kadın hem de erkek karakterlerin, kimliklerinin doğrulandığı bağlamlarda sosyal ilişkilerini sürdürme arayışında oldukları saptanmıştır. Çalışmada, karakterlerin kimliklerini onaylayan diğer kişilerle etkileşime girmeyi tercih ettikleri ve onaylamayanlardan kaçındıkları sonucuna da varılmıştır. Ayrıca kimlik standardını en çok etkileyen unsurların başında, toplumla doğrudan ilgili olan “karşılaştırıcı” ve “hata sinyali” unsurları olduğu bulunmuştur.

Keywords

Forster, Howards End, Kimlik, Kimlik Eleştirisi, Kendini doğrulama

Identity criticism: Self-verification processes of fe(male) characters in Howards End by Forster

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to unearth gender identities of both female and male characters in the novel entitled Howards End (1910) by E. M. Forster through the lenses of identity criticism. As an author, having an intuitive sense of what his readers wanted as an author, Forster observes the relationships of the people and describes all aspects of human life genuinely in this novel. Forster narrates his characters as the representatives of real life in the Edwardian period to his readers with their own weaknesses and strengths. Thus, this paper attempts to analyse gender identities of the characters through identity criticism. Additionally, this paper also attempts to uncover how both female and male characters verify their own gender identities in the Edwardian period where gender roles are gradually blurring. Accordingly, this paper examines the self-verification processes of the characters through the lenses of identity criticism with a focus on “input”, “identity standard”, “comparator” and “output”. This study concludes that both female and male characters search for maintaining their social relationships in contexts where their identities are verified. Also, it is concluded that the characters prefer to interact with the others who approve of their identities and avoid those who do not. It is also found that what affects identity standards most is the “comparator” and “error signal”, both of which are directly dealt with the society itself.

Keywords

Forster, Howards End, Identity, Identity Criticism, Self-verification

References

• Brander, L. (1968). E. M. Forster: A critical study. Bucknell University.
• Bruley, S. (1999). Women in Britain since 1900. Macmillan Press.
• Burke, P. J. & Stets, J. E. (2009). Identity theory. Oxford University Press.
• Burke, P. J., & Cast, A. D. (1997). Stability and change in the gender identities of newly married couples, Social Psychology Quarterly, 60, 277–90.
• Burke, P. J., & Harrod, M. M. (2005). Too much of a good thing? Social Psychology Quarterly, 68, 359–74.
• Butler, J. (2004). Performative acts and gender constitution. Rivkin J. & Ryan, M. (Eds.) Literary theory: An anthology, (2nd ed., pp. 900- 908). Blackwell.
• Caughie, P. L. (2010). Passing and identity: A literary perspective on gender and sexual diversity. P. Jung & A.Vigen (Eds.), God, Science, Sex, Gender: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Christian Ethics, (pp. 195-215). University of Illinois Press.
• Cott, N. F. (1997). The bonds of womanhood: “Woman’s sphere” in New England, 1780-1835. Yale University Press.
• Delap, L. (2004). The superwoman: Theories of gender and genius in Edwardian Britain. The Historical Journal, 47(1), 101–126.
• Dyhouse, C. (2013). Girls growing up in late Victorian and Edwardian England. Routledge Library Editions.
• Edwards, M. (2002). E. M. Forster: The novels. Palgrave.
• Ewald, F. (1986). A concept of social law, Teubner, G. (Ed.), Dilemmas of law in the welfare state (pp. 40-76). Walter de Gruyter.
• Forster, E. M. (1910). Howards End. (2002). Dover Thrift Editions.
• Forster, E. M. (1927). Aspects of the novel. Harcourt, Brace and Co. https://www.worldcat.org/title/aspects-of-the-novel/oclc/50729449
• Frawley, M. (2008). The Victorian age, 1832-1901. P. Poplawski (Ed.), English Literature in Context (pp. 364-469). Cambridge University Press.
• Harrington, L. (2007). Imperialism, class, and the English country house in Howards End and Rebecca. English, 56(216), 283-298.
• Hoffman, M. J. & Haar, A. T. (1999). Whose books once influenced mine: The relationship between E. M Forster’s Howards End and Virginia Woolf’s The Waves. Twentieth Century Literature, 45(1), 46-64.
• Hynes, S. (1972). Edwardian occasions: Essays on English writing in the early twentieth century. Oxford UP.
• Langland, E. (1990). Gesturing toward an open space: Gender, form, and language in E. M. Forster’s Howards End. L. Claridge & E. Langland (Eds.), Out of Bonds: Male Writers and Gender(ed) Criticism (pp. 252-267). University of Massachusetts Press.
• McCall, G. J. & Simmons, J. L. (1978). Identities and Interactions. Free Press.
• Olson, J. N. (1993). E. M. Forster’s prophetic vision of the modern family in Howards End. Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 35(3), 347-362.
• Oppenheimer, D. N. (2011). Cultural Transmission in the Age of Modernism: Mentorship in the novel, 1890-1960. https://www.proquest.com/docview/916618243?pq- origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true
• Sidorsky, D. (2007). The uses of the philosophy of G. E. Moore in the works of E. M. Forster. New Literary History, 38(2), 245-271.
• Sugate, A. S. (2012). The novels of E. M. Forster: A thematic study. http://hdl.handle.net/10603/25470
• Swann, W. B. (1987). Identity negotiation: Where two roads meet. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 1038-51.
• Swann, W. B. (1990). To be adored or to be known?: The Interplay of self-enhancement and self-verification. E.T. Higgins & R. M. Sorrentino (Eds.), Handbook of motivation and cognition (pp. 408-50). Guilford Press.
• Swann, W. B. (2005). The self and identity negotiation, Interaction Studies, 6, 69-83.
• Swann, W. B. (2012). Self-verification theory. P. A. M. Van Lange, A. W. Kruglanski, & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of theories of social psychology (pp. 23-42). Sage Publications Ltd.
• Swann, W. B., Jr., Pelham, B. W. & Krull, D. S. (1989). Agreeable fancy or disagreeable truth? Reconciling self enhancement and self-verification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 782-91.