The Blazing World’e Posthümanist Bir Bakış

Year 2022, Issue: 13, 569 - 578, 31.12.2022

Niğmet Metinoğlu

https://doi.org/10.21733/ibad.1210802

Abstract

Margaret Cavendish'in 1666'da yayınlanan, ütopik bir dünyada, bilinmeyen bir zamanda geçen The Blazing World adlı düzyazı kurgusu, posthuman (insansonrası) bir ütopik dünyayı gözler önüne serer. Cavendish anlatısında bilim ve teknolojiden dine ve insan haklarına kadar çeşitli konular üzerine felsefi anlamda düşünür. Metin, bilim kurgu romanlarının yanı sıra ütopik ve distopik romanların öncüsü olarak kabul edilir. Roman yarı insan yarı hayvan sayısız canlıyla, bedensiz varlıklarla ve teknolojik üretimlerle doludur. Yazarın romandaki insan dışı yaratımları insana benzer niteliklere sahiptir ve bu da Aydınlanma'dan bu yana hâkim olan insanla ilgili temel varsayımlara meydan okur. İnsanın faillik, zekâ ve niyetlilik sahibi tek varlık olduğunu iddia eden bu varsayımları Cavendish'in romanında vücut bulan kurgusal yaratıklar çürütebilir. Ayrıca, bu varlıklar, barış ve uyum içinde yaşayan bir dünyayı şekillendirmek için failliklerini, zekalarını ve niyetlerini kullanırlar ve bu onları kitaptaki insanlardan daha üstün kılar. Bu makale, Aydınlanma'dan bu yana süregelen insanmerkezci tutumu sorgulamak için Margaret Cavendish'in bilimkurgu romanlarının atası sayılan metnini posthümanist bir bakış açısıyla analiz etmeyi amaçlamaktadır

Keywords

Margaret Cavendish, The Blazing World, Aydınlanma, Humanizm, Posthümanizm.

A Posthuman View of The Blazing World

Abstract

Set in an unknown time in a utopian world named The Blazing World, Margaret Cavendish’s prose fiction published in 1666 introduces a posthuman utopian world. Cavendish philosophizes on a variety of subjects from science and technology to religion and human rights in her narrative. The text is considered the predecessor of science fiction novels as well as utopian and dystopian novels. It is packed with numerous beings that are half human and half animal as well as immaterial spirits and pieces of technology. The nonhuman creations of the writer in the novel have human-like attributes, which challenges the basic assumptions of human that have prevailed since the Enlightenment. These assumptions of human claiming that humans are the only beings with agency, intelligence, and intentionality may be repudiated by Cavendish’s fictional creatures who have these features attributed to men. In addition, they use their agency, intelligence, and intentionality to shape a world that lives in peace and harmony, which makes them even more outstanding entities than humans in the book. This paper aims to analyze Margaret Cavendish’s proto-science fiction text in the light of posthumanism with a post-anthropocentric view to question the ongoing anthropocentric attitude since the Enlightenment.

Keywords

Margaret Cavendish, The Blazing World, Enlightenment, Humanism, Posthumanism

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