Marianne’s Body Politics in Angela Carter’s Heroes and Villains

Year 2021, Volume: 27 Issue: 106 Özel Ek, 267 - 284, 11.10.2021

Çelik Ekmekçi

https://doi.org/10.22559/folklor.1410

Abstract

Body politics is seen as a mechanism that imposes male-dominated norms
upon the female body which is thus expected to be regulated according to
the expectations of societies. Throughout history, the female body has been
seen as a commodity and the theoretical premise of body politics is created
based on how the female body is categorised by patriarchy. According to
patriarchal ideology, women’s bodies are considered to be meaningless and
secondary substrata whose values are ignored. However, feminism scrutinises
women’s bodies from a literary viewpoint and it conceptualises and also offers
alternatives for recreating various women’s identities by analysing the females.
In this respect, there is a different attitude toward the historical and hypothetical
explications of female body politics in Angela Carter’s works, and especially
in Heroes and Villains. Most of Carter’s female heroines abuse and provoke
male bodies. Thus, these female characters reflect abused and distorted forms
of male bodies. Therefore, in Heroes and Villains, the female body, regarded
as the power of femininity, is used as a weapon against patriarchy. In addition
to the expression of theoretical and critical views of Carter, this paper analyses
Carter’s Heroes and Villains in terms of the protagonist’s (Marianne) conduct
which is in contrast with the patriarchal view on body politics. In this study, the
protagonist’s rejection of patriarchal norms by using her body as an apparatus
for claiming power, and her body politics for ‘survival’ in the male-oriented
world is also examined.

Keywords

body politics, the female body, the power of femininity, Angela Carter, Heroes and Villains

Angela Carter’ın Heroes and Villains Adlı Eserinde Marianne’nin Beden Politikası

Abstract

Beden politikası, toplumların beklentilerine göre doğal olarak düzenlenmesi
beklenen kadın bedeni üzerindeki ataerkil kaideleri benimseten bir mekanizma
olarak görülmektedir. Tarih boyunca, kadın bedeni bir araç olarak görülmüş
olup beden politikasının kuramsal dayanağı, kadın bedeninin ataerkil ideoloji
tarafından düzenlenmesine dayalı olarak ortaya çıkmıştır. Ataerkil ideolojiye
göre, kadınların bedenleri, değeri olmayan değersiz, ikincil bir zemin olarak
görülmektedir. Fakat feminizm, kadınların bedenlerini edebi açıdan inceler ve
kavramsallaştırır ayrıca kadınları inceleyerek çeşitli kadın kimliklerini yeniden
yaratır ve alternatifler üretir. Bu bağlamda, Angela Carter’ın eserlerinde
özellikle de Heroes and Villains’da kadın bedeni politikasının tarihsel ve
varsayımsal açıklaması üzerine farklı bir tutum vardır.
Carter’ın birçok kadın kahramanları erkek bedenlerini provoke edip onları
istismar eder. Böylece bu kadın karakterler, erkek bedenlerinin istismar edilmiş
ve çarpıtılmış hallerini yansıtırlar. Böylece, Heroes and Villains’da kadın
bedeni, kadınlığın gücü olarak görülmekte olup ataerkilliğe karşı bir silah olarak
kullanılmaktadır. Bu çalışma, Carter’ın kuramsal ve eleştirel düşüncelerine
ilaveten, Carter’ın Heroes and Villains adlı eserindeki ana karakter Marianne’in
ataerkil düşüncenin beden politikası üzerindeki görüşlerine zıt olan tutumunu
incelemektedir. Çalışmada ayrıca, ana karakterin bedenini güç elde etmede bir
araç olarak kullanarak ve erkek egemen dünyada hayatta kalmak için beden
politikasından faydalanarak ataerkil kaideleri reddetmesi incelenmektedir.

Keywords

beden politikası, kadın bedeni, kadınlığın gücü, Angela Carter, Heroes and Villains

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