Narrative Space and Transtextual Dialogues in Emma Donoghue’s 'Kissing the Witch'

Year 2024, Volume: 41 Issue: 1, 66 - 75, 28.06.2024

Gülden Hatipoğlu

https://doi.org/10.32600/huefd.1212629

Abstract

This article aims to introduce a critical reading of the narrative space of Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins by the Irish author Emma Donoghue. In this collection of rewritten fairy tales, Donoghue not only thematically reimagines the popular classical fairy tales penned by Grimms, Beaumont, Perrault and Andersen, she also makes the protagonist/narrator of each story the narratee of the next one, allowing for a dialogue between diverse figures from oral and written tradition across cultures. The narrative strategy and framing technique deployed by Donoghue enables a transtextual space of gathering where previously objectified and focalized female characters of canonical tales engage in dialogue through storytelling. The possibilities offered by this transtextual agency of rewriting will be explored from a narratological perspective, paying particular attention to gender-informed politics of reimagining canonical narratives. As examples of “rewriting as displacement”, according to Doležel’s categorization, the tales in Kissing the Witch create story-worlds that affirm transgression and flow against all forms of stabilizing and restricting mechanisms of normativity. Talking back to the canon and literary convention through first-person narratives of classical fairy tale characters, the collection offers an unsettling example of the liberating potential of storytelling against ossified and ossifying power mechanisms.

Keywords

Emma Donoghue, Kissing the Witch, rewriting, narratology, transtextuality, gender

Emma Donoghue’nun 'Kissing the Witch' adlı Eserinde Anlatı Uzamı ve Metinleraşkın Diyaloglar

Abstract

Bu makale İrlandalı yazar Emma Donoghue’nun Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins adlı eserinin anlatı uzamının eleştirel bir okumasını sunmayı amaçlar. Donoghue, masalların yeniden yazımlarını bir araya getirdiği bu kitapta, Grimms, Beaumont, Perrault ve Andersen gibi yazarların kaleme aldığı popüler klasik masalları tematik olarak yeniden kurgulamakla kalmayıp, bir masalın anlatıcısını bir sonraki masalın dinleyicisi/alımlayıcısı yaparak zamanlar ve kültürlerarası bir diyalog uzamı oluşturur. Yazarın kullandığı bu anlatı çerçevesi ve yöntemi sayesinde, kanonik masalların nesneleştirilen ve fokalize edilen kadın karakterleri metinleraşkın bir uzamda bir araya gelirler ve hikâye anlatıcılığı yoluyla bir diyalog evreni oluştururlar. Yeniden yazımın bu mentinleraşkın pratiğinin sunduğu olanaklar, kanonik anlatıların toplumsal cinsiyet politikalarına referansla yeniden kurulması meselesi odağa alınarak, anlatıbilimsel bir perspektiften ele alınacaktır. Doležel’in sınıflandırmasına göre “yer değiştirme/yerinden ayrılma/yerinden edilme” olarak yeniden yazıma örnek teşkil eden Kissing the Witch, normatifliğin sabitleyen ve sınırlandıran mekanizmasına karşı sınır aşımını/ihlalini ve akışı onaylayan hikaye evrenleri kurar. Klasik masalların kahramanlarının birinci tekil anlatı yoluyla kanona ve edebi geleneğe seslenmesi, hikaye anlatıcılığı pratiğinin kemikleşen ve kemikleştiren güç/iktidar mekanizmalarına karşı özgürleştiren bir potansiyel taşıdığını da ortaya koyar.

Keywords

Emma Donoghue, Kissing the Witch, yeniden yazım, anlatıbilim, metinsel aşkınlık, toplumsal cinsiyet

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