Amy Newman’ın “Darwin’s Unfinished Notes to Emma” Şiirinde Doğanın Çağrısının Sansürlenmesi

Year 2018, Issue: 48, 45 - 63, 01.04.2018

Ibis Gómez-vega

Abstract

Amy Newman'ın “Darwin's Unfinished Notes to Emma” adlı şiirindeki anlatıcı, Charles Darwin, eşi Emma’ya hayvanlar aleminde gözlemlediği tensel hazzı açıklamak niyetiyle notlar yazar. Darwin karısının Viktorya döneminin değerlerine karşı çıkamadığı için sıklıkla kendini sansürler. Şiir, anlatıcının karısının değer verdiği görüşleri sorgulama çabasını anlatır. Sonunda, Darwin korkularını yener ve şehvet uyandıran bir dille erkek yabanarısı ve orkide arasında bir tür bağ olduğunu açıklar. Amy Newman bu şiirinde tanınmış bir Viktorya dönemi erkeğini anlatıcı olarak seçer, ancak karısı Emma’ya doğa ve insanlar arasındaki anlaşılması güç bağı gösterebilmesi için onun ait olduğu dönemin yasaklarını aşmasına izin verir.

Keywords

Metabiyografi, Doğa Kanunları, Viktorya Dönemi, Kendini Sansürleme

Censoring the Essentialist Call of the Wild in Amy Newman’s “Darwin's Unfinished Notes to Emma”

Abstract

In “Darwin's Unfinished Notes to Emma,” Amy Newman's speaker, Charles Darwin, writes notes to his Victorian wife Emma in an effort to explain the joy in sensuality that he finds in the animal world. Through the poem, the speaker, ostensibly Darwin, often censors himself because he cannot challenge his wife's Victorian values. Thus the poem documents the speaker's struggle with challenging ideas that his wife holds dear. Eventually, the speaker conquers his fears and explains, in very sensual language, that there is in fact a connection between the male wasp and the orchid. In this poem, Amy Newman creates the persona of a well-known Victorian man but allows him to transcend the inhibitions of his time so that he can demonstrate to his wife Emma the intricate connections between the natural world and people

Keywords

Metabiography, Natural Law, Victorians, Self-Censorship

References

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