Zaynab Alkali’nin The Stillborn Eserindeki Nijeryalı Alt Sınıf Kadının Durumunun Yapıbozucu Açıdan Okunması

Year 2020, Autumn, 308 - 318, 18.12.2020

Yakut Akbay

https://doi.org/10.21733/ibad.744613

Abstract

Günümüzde Afrikalı kadınlar yurtiçinde ve yurtdışında ulusal edebiyatın geliştirilmesinde aktif rol almaktadır. Fakat kadın yazarların edebiyat sahnesinde yer almaları hemen gerçekleşmemiştir. Sömürgecilikten sonra Afrika’da edebiyat alanı erkek egemen olmuştur. Bu nedenle, Afrikalı kadın tanımı ataerkil toplumun normları tarafından belirlenmiş yanlış betimlemeler üzerine kurulmuştur. Kadın edebiyatının ortaya çıkması, erkek yazarlar tarafından oluşturulmuş kadınlık tanımlamalarına direnmek ve yeniden yapılandırmak için kaçınılmaz bir gelişme olmuştur. Bu çalışmanın amacı, Spivak’ın alt sınıf kadın kavramını Nijerya kültürü kapsamında Zaynab Alkali’nin The Stillborn (1984) eseri temelinde inceleyerek yabancılaştırmaktır. Çalışmada, Spivak’ın alt sınıf kadın tanımının aksine, Nijeryalı alt sınıf kadının erkek egemen toplumda sesini duyurabildiği iddia edilmektedir. Afrika feminizmi, Nijerya kültüründe kadınlığa atfedilen anlamları irdelemek için yerel bir eleştiri olarak uygulanmaktadır. Derrida’nın yapıbozucu kuramı, metin ve metnin anlamı arasındaki tutarsızlık ve uyuşmazlıkları ortaya çıkarmak amacıyla yapılan bu araştırmanın teorik çerçevesini oluşturmaktadır. Araştırma, Derrida tarafından tasarlanan ikili, logocentrism, différance ve aporia gibi bir dizi terim ve kavramları içermektedir.

Keywords

Alkali, Kültür, Afrika feminizmi, alt sınıf

A Deconstructive Reading of the Nigerian Subaltern in Zaynab Alkali’s The Stillborn

Abstract

Nowadays African women are taking an active role in the development of national literature both at home and abroad. However, the advent of female writers to literary arena was not a sudden event. After decolonisation, African literary sphere was heavily male dominated. Hence, the portrayal of the African woman was based upon the misrepresented image predetermined by the norms of patriarchal society. The emergence of women’s writing in Africa was inescapable and necessary to resist and reconstruct meanings of womanhood created by male writers. The purpose of the present paper is to defamiliarize Spivak’s subaltern as a female subject within the context of the Nigerian culture in Zaynab Alkali’s The Stillborn (1984). It is argued that as opposed to Spivak’s subaltern, the Nigerian subaltern can speak up for herself in the male-dominated society. African feminism is applied as a vernacular criticism to scrutinize meanings attributed to womanhood in the Nigerian culture. Derrida’s deconstruction constitutes the theoretical framework of the study to reveal inconsistencies and controversies between the text and its signification. To this end, the research involves a number of terms and concepts devised by Derrida such as binary, logocentrism, différance and aporia.

Keywords

Alkali, subaltern, African feminism, patriarchy

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