Şatodaki Kadın Adlı Romanın Foucaultcu ve Feminist Okuması

Abstract

Anne Brontë’nin Türkçe’ye Şatodaki Kadın veya Wildfell Konağı Kiracısı olarak çevrilen The Tenant of Wildfell Hall adlı romanı, on dokuzuncu yüzyılda ataerkil toplumun gücünü ve kadınlardan daha üstün görülen erkeklerin yaptıklarını meşrulaştıran uygulamaları eleştirir. Romanın kadın kahramanı Helen, zalim ve ihmalkar kocasından dolayı çocuğuyla evden kaçmakla hem kendi ayakları üzerinde kalarak yaşayabileceğini hem de Arthur gibi bir baba olmadan çocuğunu iyi bir şekilde yetiştirebileceğini göstermekte ve dönemin ataerkil düzenine ve söylemine karşı çıkmaktadır. Romanda temsil edilen kadınlara yönelik erkek baskısını ortaya koymak amacıyla, bu çalışmada feminist eleştirinin yanı sıra Michel Foucault'nun eleştirel teorileri de kullanılmaktadır. Bu bağlamda çalışma, Helen gibi kadınların toplumsal hayatta ve kanun önünde erkeklerle eşit olması gerektiğini ima ederken romanın ataerkil düzeni yıktığını iddia etmektedir. Kahramanın Viktorya dönemi anlayışının aksine rasyonel, yaratıcı, çalışkan ve kendine güvenen bir kadın olarak tasviri ışığında, bu çalışma erkeklerin kadınlara üstünlüğünün burjuva toplumunda oluşturulan ataerkil söylemden kaynaklandığını ortaya koymaktadır.

Keywords

• Anne Brontë
• Şatodaki Kadın
• Feminizim
• Foucault

A Foucauldian and Feminist Reading of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Abstract

Anne Brontë, in her novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, criticizes the power of the patriarchal society in the nineteenth century and the practices that legitimize the actions of men considered superior to women. Helen, the female protagonist of the novel, shows that by running away from home with her child due to her cruel and neglectful husband, she can both stand on her own feet and raise her child well without a father like Arthur, and thus opposes the patriarchal order and discourse of the period. In order to illustrate male oppression on women represented in the novel, this study employs critical theories of Michel Foucault as well as feminist criticism. In this respect, the study claims that the novel subverts patriarchal order while implying that women like Helen should be equal with men in social life and before the law. In the light of the protagonist’s portrayal as a rational, creative, hardworking and self-confident woman contrary to Victorian conceptions, this study reveals that the superiority of men over women stems from the patriarchal discourse created in the bourgeois society.

Keywords

• Anne Brontë
• The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
• Feminism
• Foucault

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