Sevgili mi Şeytan mı?: Robert Browning'in “Son Düşesim’’ ve “Porphyria'nın Aşığı’’ Şiirlerinde Toksik Erkeklik

Öz

1837 ve 1901 yıllarını kapsayan Viktorya dönemi, ödünç kitap veren kütüphanelerin ve birçok Viktorya romanının yayımlandığı haftalık dergilerin sayesinde okuyucu kitlesinin ve romanların öneminin ani bir şekilde artmasına tanıklık etmiştir. Sanayileşmenin ve kapitalizmin negatif etkilerini resmetme amacıyla toplumcu gerçekçilik dürtüsüyle okurlara ulaşan bu gerçekçi romanların, çağdaş sorunları betimlemesi nedeniyle dönemdeki diğer bütün edebi türlere üstün gelmesine ragmen Viktorya şiirinin gelişimine ve belirgin özelliklere kavuşmasına katkıda bulunan Alfred Tennyson, Matthew Arnold ve Robert Browning gibi bir grup şair vardı. Romantizmin ve Modernizmin eşiğinde bulunan Viktorya şiiri, sosyal ve politik konuları gerçekçi bir mercekten incelemelerine sebep olan dini belirsizlik, bilim, ahlak ve sosyal reform gibi konuları tasvir etmektedir. Diğer şairler gibi Robert Browning (1812-1889) de Viktorya dönemi şiirinin ahlakçı bakış açısıyla kadın baskısı ve ataerkil egemenlik gibi birçok unsuru dramatik monolog üzerinden örneklendirmektedir. Böylelikle bu çalışma “Son Düşesim’’ ve “Porphyria'nın Aşığı’’ şiirleri üzerinden Viktorya dönemindeki toksik erkeklik olgusunu ve kadınların ataerkil toplum tarafından objeleştirilip kurbanlaştırılmasını incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Viktorya Şiiri
• Robert Browning
• Toksik Erkeklik
• Son Düşesim
• Porphyria

A Beloved or A Devil?: Toxic Masculinity in Robert Browning's “My Last Duchess’’ and “Porphyria's Lover’’

Öz

Coinciding with the years between 1837 and 1901, The Victorian period witnessed the dramatic growth of the reading public and the increasing significance of the novel genre in accordance with the circulating libraries and weekly magazines through which a great number of Victorian novels were published. Although these realist novels, characterized by an impetus for social realism in order to portray the negative impacts of industrialism and capitalism upon the Victorian life, prevailed over any other genre through their critical imagery of contemporary issues, there was a group of poets such as Alfred Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, and Robert Browning who contributed to the blossoming of poetry and its distinctive characteristics. Considered as a threshold between Romanticism and Modernism, Victorian poetry has a tendency to depict religious uncertainty, science, morality, and social reform, thereby leading it to incorporate both social and political issues into the realist lens of poetry. In view of its moralist outlook of Victorian poetry, Robert Browning (1812-1889) produced, essentially, a great number of dramatic monologues, based on a fictitious speaker and a listener, so as to epitomize women’s repression and patriarchal domination, consolidated by the growing male authority in the Victorian era in opposition to the country's female ruler named ''Victoria''. Thus, this article aims to analyze the objectification and victimization of women by the patriarchal society and toxic masculinity in the Victorian period through the male gaze of such poems as “My Last Duchess’’ and “Porphyria's Lover’’.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Victorian Poetry
• Robert Browning
• Toxic Masculinity
• ''My Last Duchess''
• ''Porphyria's Lover''

Kaynakça

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