POSTMODERN RED RIDING HOOD: BELLA SWAN IN TWILIGHT SERIES*

Abstract

Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series presents its protagonist Bella Swan in a fairy tale-like world where she is surrounded with vampires and werewolves. In this world, Bella, as a figure of the girl in the woods, displays similar characteristics with those of the fairy tale type Little Red Riding Hood in Charles Perrault’s “Little Red Riding Hood” (Le Petit Chaperon Rouge, 1697), and Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s “Little Red Cap” (1812). However these characteristics are ideologically rewritten and based on postfeminist politics that foreground female subjectivity through sexual agency, freedom of choice, and consumerism. In this postfeminist context, this study aims to examine Bella Swan in Twilight series as an embodiment of the deconstruction of the classic fairy tale type in terms of the politics of personal agency, sexuality and power relations. In this deconstruction, the girl victim of the classic fairy tale becomes a twenty first century postfeminist girl who, in accordance with her consumerist choices, is free to play with and manipulate werewolves and vampires in the woods.

Keywords

• Twilight series
• Red Riding Hood
• Postfeminism

POSTMODERN KIRMIZI BAŞLIKLI KIZ: ALACAKARANLIK SERİSİNDE BELLA SWAN

Abstract

Stephenie Meyer’in Alacakaranlık serisi, serinin başkarakteri Bella Swan’ı vampirlerle ve kurt adamlarla örülmüş masalsı bir dünyada sunmaktadır. Bu dünyada, ormandaki kız figürü olan Bella, Charles Perrault’nun 1697 tarihli “Küçük Kırmızı Başlıklı Kız” masalı ile Jacob ve Wilhelm Grimm’in 1812 tarihli “Kırmızı Şapkalı Kız” masalındaki Kırmızı Şapkalı Kız tipinin özelliklerine benzer özellikler sergilemektedir. Ancak bu özellikler ideolojik açıdan tekrar yazılmış ve kadın öznelliğini cinsel eylemlilik, seçim özgürlüğü ve tüketimcilik gibi konular vasıtasıyla ön planda tutan postfeminist politikalar üzerine kurulmuştur. Bu postfeminst bağlamda, bu çalışmanın amacı, Alacakaranlık serisindeki Bella Swan’ı kişisel yetkinlik politikaları, cinsellik ve güç ilişkileri doğrultusunda klasik masal tipinin yapısökümü olarak incelemektir. Bu yapısökümde, klasik masaldaki kurban kız, tüketimci tercihleri doğrultusunda, ormanda kurt adamlar ve vampirlerle oynamakta özgür olan ve onları manipüle eden 21. yüzyılın postfeminist kızı haline gelir. 

Keywords

• Alacakaranlık serisi
• Kırmızı Başlıklı Kız
• Postfeminizm

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