May as a Figure of Resistance in the Merchant’s Tale

Year 2021, Volume: 38 Issue: 2, 548 - 561, 15.12.2021

Azime Pekşen Yakar

https://doi.org/10.32600/huefd.888264

Cited By: 2

Abstract

As a popular genre of medieval English literature, fabliau is a short, bawdy, and humorous story of the adultery of a young wife who is married to an old husband. In the Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer includes the Merchant’s Tale as a fabliau in which May, the young wife of January, is engaged in an extramarital affair. May’s representation as adulterous and lecherous seems to reinforce the antifeminist claims of the genre; however, at the same time her active participation into the action of the fabliau empowers her to subvert and re-define her subordinate position as a woman. Although May is subject to the forces of the dominant ideology of the patriarchy completely, she creates oppositional meanings and pleasure by using resources of the dominant power. Indeed, she employs the tactics and guileful ruses of the weak to follow her illicit sexual adventure and gain partial freedom of her body and space. By examining May’s resistance to dominant structures in the context of John Fiske’s popular culture theory, this article analyses May as a figure of resistance who evades her subjection and transforms it to her advantage by making use of, what Fiske calls, the tactics, artful stratagems, and tricks of the weak.

Keywords

Fabliau, Chaucer, the Merchant’s Tale, woman, John Fiske, popular culture, popular resistance

Tüccar’ın Hikayesi’nde Direniş Figürü olarak May

Abstract

Orta Çağ İngiliz edebiyatının popüler bir türü olan fabliyö, yaşlı bir adamla evli olan genç bir kadının kocasını aldatışını anlatan kısa, müstehcen ve komik hikayedir. Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Hikayeleri’ne, January’nin genç karısı May’in evlilik dışı ilişkisini konu edinen Tüccar’ın Hikayesi’ni fabliyö olarak dahil eder. May’in şehvet düşkünü ve kocasını aldatan bir kadın olarak tasviri fabliyönun tür olarak antifeminist olduğu iddialarını güçlendirse de aynı zamanda, May’in fabliyödaki olaylara aktif katılımı ona bir kadın olarak ikincil konumunu alt üst etme ve kendini yeniden tanımlama gücü de verir. May, John Fiske’in popüler kültür kuramında belirtilen egemen ideolojinin gücünü kendi lehine kullanan ve ideolojinin gücüne maruz kalmasına rağmen, bu gücün kaynaklarını kullanarak muhalif anlamlar ve zevkler üretebilen bir kadındır. Aslında, May güçsüzlerin taktiklerini ve hilekar oyunlarını yasak ilişkisini sürdürebilmek, bedeni ve kullandığı mekanlar üzerinde kısmi yetkinlik elde etmek için kullanır. John Fiske’in popüler kültür kuramı bağlamında, bu makale May’in egemen yapılara karşı direnişini irdeleyerek, onun ikincil konumunu savuşturan, bunu güçsüzün hile, taktik ve kurnazlıklarından faydalanarak kendi lehine dönüştüren bir direniş figürü olarak analiz eder.

Keywords

Fabliyö, Chaucer, Tüccar’ın Hikayesi, kadın, John Fiske, popüler kültür, popüler direniş

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