POSTHÜMAN DÜNYADA ÖZNELLİĞİN MÜZAKERESİ: JEANETTE WINTERSON’IN FRANKISSSTEIN ROMANI VE GÖÇEBE KİMLİK KURAMI

Year 2026, Issue: 73, 313 - 327, 02.03.2026

Merve Altın

https://doi.org/10.30794/pausbed.1731780

https://izlik.org/JA47MF66PX

Abstract

Jeanette Winterson’ın Frankissstein: Bir Aşk Hikayesi (2019) adlı romanı, Mary Shelley’nin Frankenstein (1818) eserini teknoloji odaklı bir dünyada cinsiyet, kimlik ve bedenleşmeye ilişkin yirmi birinci yüzyıl kaygıları üzerinden çağdaş okurlar için yeniden kurgular. Tarihsel, spekülatif ve çağdaş anlatıları harmanlayan roman, bilimsel ilerlemeler karşısında öznelliğin akışkanlığını ve dönüşümünü çoklu bakış açılarıyla incelemektedir. Bu çalışma, Frankissstein’ı Rosi Braidotti’nin göçebe öznellik kuramı üzerinden okuyarak, toplumsal cinsiyet, öznellik ve insan deneyiminin geleneksel sınırlarının yerinden edildiği posthüman bir bağlamda kimliğin nasıl inşa edildiğini araştırmayı amaçlamaktadır. Melezlik, hareketlilik ve özcü kategorilere direniş ile tanımlanan Braidotti’nin göçebe özne kavramı, romanda temsil edilen geçişken kimlikleri anlamak için eleştirel bir çerçeve sunmaktadır. Bu çalışma aynı zamanda edebiyatın posthüman öznelliği kuramsallaştırma ve bu bağlamdaki çağdaş kültürel kaygılarla etkileşim kurma kapasitesini vurgular. Böylece, hızlı teknolojik değişimin doğurduğu etik, felsefi ve varoluşsal sorulara yön vermede ve bu sorular üzerine eleştirel düşünme süreçlerinde edebi metinlerin süreğen önemini vurgulamayı amaçlar.

Keywords

Göçebe Öznellik , Cinsiyet , Kimlik , Bedenleşme , Frankissstein , Frankenstein

NEGOTIATING SUBJECTIVITY IN A POSTHUMAN WORLD: JEANETTE WINTERSON’S FRANKISSSTEIN AND THE NOMADIC THEORY OF IDENTITY

https://izlik.org/JA47MF66PX

Abstract

Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein: A Love Story (2019) reimagines Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) for contemporary readers by addressing twenty-first-century anxieties about gender, identity, and embodiment in a technologically driven world. Blending historical, speculative, and contemporary narratives, the novel offers multiple perspectives that explore the fluidity and transformation of subjectivity in the face of scientific advancement. This study aims to read Frankissstein through Rosi Braidotti’s theory of nomadic subjectivity to explore how identity is constructed in a posthuman context where traditional boundaries of gender, subjectivity, and the human experience are destabilised. Braidotti’s notion of the nomadic subject, which is characterised by hybridity, mobility, and resistance to essentialist categorisations, provides a critical framework for understanding the transitional identities portrayed in the novel. Ultimately, this study foregrounds literature’s capacity to theorise posthuman subjectivity and engage with contemporary cultural anxieties related to this condition. In doing so, it aims to foreground the continued relevance of literary texts in navigating and critically reflecting upon the ethical, philosophical, and existential questions arising from rapid technological change.

Keywords

Nomadic subjectivity , Gender , Identity , Embodiment , Frankissstein , Frankenstein

References

• Allardice, L. (2019, May 18). Jeanette Winterson: ‘I did worry about looking at sex bots.’ The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/18/jeanette-winterson-frankisstein-ai
• Bağırlar, B. (2021). Winterson’s cyborg dream in Frankissstein. Söylem Filoloji Dergisi, 6(3), 701-711. https://doi.org/10.29110/soylemdergi.1011523
• Braidotti, R. (1994). Nomadic subjects: Embodiment and sexual difference in contemporary feminist theory. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Braidotti, R. (2002). Metamorphoses: Towards a materialist theory of becoming. Cambridge and Malden: Polity Press.
• Braidotti, R. (2006). Transpositions: On nomadic ethics. Cambridge and Malden: Polity Press.
• Braidotti, R. (2011). Nomadic theory: The portable Rosi Braidotti. New York: Columbia Press.
• Braidotti, R. (2014). Writing as a nomadic subject. Comparative Critical Studies, 11(2-3), 163-184. https://doi.org/10.3366/ccs.2014.0122
• Butler, J. (2002). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. Taylor & Francis e-Library.
• Butler, J. (2004). Undoing gender. New York and London: Routledge.
• Ciompi, F. (2022). “The future of humans in a post-human world”: Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson. Between, 12(24), 165-182. https://doi.org/10.13125/2039-6597/5161
• Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (2005). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia (B. Massumi, Trans.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
• Erdem Ayyıldız, N. (2023). Posthuman enquiry in the grip of the binaries in Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein. AGATHOS, 14(1), 29-49. Retrieved June 1, 2025, from https://www.agathos-international-review.com/issues/2023/26/Erdem.pdf
• Grosz, E. (1994). Volatile bodies: Toward a corporeal feminism. Australia: Allen & Unwin.
• Haraway, D. J. (1991). Simians, cyborgs, and women: The reinvention of nature. London and New York: Routledge.
• John, A. (2024). “Future early”: Trans⃰ body as metaphor in Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein (2019). In L. Ehlis, K.
• Kiaups, M. Maffeis, B. Sulzbacher (Eds.), Literatur und Zukunft (pp. 67-80). Berlin: Ch. A. Bachmann Verlag.
• Kellogg, C. (2019, 10 Oct.). ‘Frankissstein’ author Jeanette Winterson gives new life to the monster. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2019-10-10/frankissstein-jeanette-winterson
• Krevel, M. (2021). The Monstrous Cosmos of Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein. ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries, 18(2), 85- 100. https://doi.org/10.4312/elope.18.2.85-100
• Martoiri, C. (2024). Trans-forming bodies: Transgender and transhumanism in Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein. FemCrítica: Revista De Estudios Literarios Y crítica Feminista, 2(4), 45-58. https://femcritica.com/index.php/fc/article/view/49
• McAvan, E. (2021). Frankenstein Redux: Posthuman monsters in Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein. M/C Journal, 24(5). https://doi.org/10.5204/mcj.2843
• Thomas-Corr, J. (2019, Dec. 22). Jeanette Winterson: ‘I didn’t see this coming.’ The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/dec/22/jeanette-winterson-frankissstein-interview