GOTİK BİR ROMANDA ON DOKUZUNCU YÜZYIL KADINININ STATÜSÜ: WILKIE COLLINS’İN BEYAZLI KADIN (1859) ESERİ

Year 2025, Issue: 70, 317 - 335, 05.09.2025

Özgün Yurtcu , Alev Karaduman

https://doi.org/10.30794/pausbed.1631348

Abstract

Gotik edebiyatın, Gotik elementleri kullanarak okurda korku ve dehşet duygularını uyandırmayı hedeflediği düşünülse de bu tür aslında yazıldığı dönemin tabularına ve dogmalarına değinip bu tabu ve dogmaları kırmayı ya da sarsmayı hedefler. Ötekileştirilen ve marjinde kalan azınlıkları kapsayarak onlara bir tür varoluş duygusu vermeyi hedeflediği söylenebilir. Türün bu özelliğinin bir sonucu olarak, gotik eserlerde kadın sorunsalı, sosyal sınıflar ve dönemi domine eden belirli ideolojilerle ilgili belli birtakım sorunlar incelenebilir. Daha açık ifade etmek gerekirse, bazı Gotik romanlarda, karakterlerin ilişkilerini inceleyerek kadınların toplumdaki ikincil konumu ya da sosyal sınıflar arasındaki fark ve alt sınıfların nasıl sömürüldüğü incelenebilir. Bu bağlamda, Gotik edebiyatın gündeminde olan bu sorunlar ile uyumlu olarak bu yazı Wilkie Collins’in Beyazlı Kadın adlı romanında on dokuzuncu yüzyıl İngiltere’sinde kadınların mevcut durumlarıyla ilişkili değişiklikleri göz önünde bulundurarak kadın temsillerini incelemeyi amaçlar.

Keywords

Gotik Edebiyat , Wilkie Collins , The Woman in White , Kadınların sosyal durumu , On dokuzuncu yüzyıl İngiltere'si

THE STATUS OF THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY WOMEN IN A GOTHIC NOVEL: WILKIE COLLINS’S THE WOMAN IN WHITE (1859)

Abstract

Though it is widely thought that Gothic fiction aims at evoking fear and terror in readers with the employment of Gothic elements, this genre actually addresses certain taboos and dogmas of its time intending to break or undermine them. By encompassing the othered and the marginalised minorities, it can be asserted that Gothic fiction aims to give them a sense of existence. As a consequence of such an aspect, in the examples of this genre, certain concerns related to the woman question, social classes, and particular ideologies that dominate specific periods can be scrutinised. To make it more precise, in certain Gothic novels, the secondary position of women in society can be discussed through the characters and their relationships. In particular Gothic novels, the gap between the social classes and how the lower classes are exploited can be examined. In this sense, in line with the concerns that are on the agenda of Gothic fiction, this paper aims at analysing Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White (1859) in terms of the representation of its female characters by considering the changes regarding the status of women in nineteenth-century England.

Keywords

Gothic fiction , Wilkie Collins , The Woman in White , The status of women , Nineteenth century England

References

• Astell, M. (1700). Some Reflections upon Marriage. John Nutt.
• Bachman, M. K., Cox, D. R., eds. (2006). Introduction. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. Broadview Editions.
• Bozer, A. D. (2018). Giriş. In A. D. Bozer (Ed), On Dokuzuncu Yüzyılda Kadın Yazarlar. Hacettepe U. P.
• Brewster, S. (2002). Introduction. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. 1859. Wordsworth Classics.
• Christ, C. (1977). Victorian Masculinity and the Angel in the House. In M. Vicinus (Ed), A Widening Sphere: Changing Roles of Victorian Women. Indiana U. P.
• Cogan, F. B. (1989). All-American Girl: The Ideal of Real Womanhood in Mid-Nineteenth-Century America. University of Georgia Press.
• Collins, W. (2002). The Woman in White. 1859. Wordsworth Classics.
• Cook, C. (2005). The Routledge Companion to Britain in the Nineteenth Century, 1815-1914. Routledge.
• Cruea, S. M. (2005). Changing Ideals of Womanhood during the Nineteenth-century Woman Movement. ATQ: 19th Century American Literature and Culture, 19(3), 187-204.
• Cvetkovich, A. (1992). Mixed Feelings: Feminism, Mass Culture, and Victorian Sensationalism. Rutgers U. P.
• Donovan, J. (2015). Feminist Teori. İletişim Yayınları.
• Evans, R. J. (2013). The Feminists: Women’s Emancipation Movements in Europe, America and Australasia 1840-1920. Routledge.
• French, M. (2008). From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women in the World. Vol. III: Infernos and Paradises, the Triumph of Capitalism in the 19th Century. The Feminist Press.
• Gaylin, A. (2001). The Madwoman outside the Attic: Eavesdropping and Narrative Agency in The Woman in White. Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 43(3), 303-333. https://doi.org/ 10.1353/tsl.2001.0014
• Grand, S. (1894). The New Aspect of the Woman Question. The North American Review, 158(448), 270-276.
• Greenblatt, S. (1980). Renaissance Self-fashioning: From More to Shakespeare. The University of Chicago Press.
• Grimké, S. M. (1838). Letters on the Equality of the Sexes, and the Condition of Woman. Isaac Knapp.
• Hartnell, E. (1996). ‘Nothing but Sweet and Womanly’: A Hagiography of Patmore’s Angel. Victorian Poetry, 34(4), 457-476. JSTOR. Web. 16.06.2021.
• Helsinger, E. K. (1983). The Woman Question: Society and Literature in Britain and America, 1837-1883. Garland Publishing.
• Hogan, A, Bradstock, Andrew. (1998). Introduction. In A. Hogan and A. Bradstock (Eds), Women of Faith in Victorian Culture. Macmillan Press Ltd.
• Hogle, J. E. (2002). Introduction: The Gothic in Western Culture. In J. E. Hogle (Ed), The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge U. P.
• Hyder, C. K. (1939). Wilkie Collins and The Woman in White. PMLA, 54(1), 297-303. https://doi.org/10.2307/458639
• Kilgour, M. (1995). The Rise of the Gothic Novel. Routledge.
• Kvam, K. E., et al. (1999). Eve&Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Readings on Genesis and Gender. Indiana U. P.
• Lerner, G. (1986). The Creation of Patriarchy. Oxford U. P.
• Liddle, D. (2009). Wilkie Collins, the woman in white (1859-60). Victorian Review, 35(1), 37-41.
• Martineau, H. (1837). Society in America Vol. II. Saunders and Otley.
• Martineau, H. (1985). On Women’s Education. In G. G. Yates (Ed), Harriet Martineau on Women. Rutgers U. P.
• Matveenko, I. A., et al. (2017). Female Images in Jane Eyre and The Woman in White in Russian Translations of the 1840-60s. Brontë Studies, 42(2), 118-129. DOI:10.1080/14748932.2017.1280939
• May, L. S. (1995). Sensational Sisters: Wilkie Collins’s the woman in white. Pacific Coast Philology, 30(1), 82-102. https://doi.org/10.2307/1316821
• Mill, J. S. (2010). The Subjection of Women. The Basic Writings of John Stuart Mill: On Liberty, The Subjection of Women & Utilitarianism. Random House Publishing Group.
• Miller, D. A. (1986). Cage aux Folles: Sensation and Gender in Wilkie Collins’s the woman in white. Representations, 14, 107-136. https://doi.org/10.2307/2928437
• Moore, N. (2015). The Realism of ‘The Angel in the House’: Coventry Patmore’s poem reconsidered. Victorian Literature and Culture, 43(1), 41-61. doi: 10.1017/S1060150314000333
• Murphy, P. (2006). In Science’s Shadow: Literary Constructions of Late Victorian Women. University of Missouri Press.
• Murray, J. S. (1988). On the Equality of the Sexes. The Feminist Papers: From Adams to Beauvoir. Ed. Alice S. Rossi. Northestern U. P.
• Offen, K. (2017). The Woman Question in France, 1400-1870. Cambridge U. P.
• Pala Mull, Ç. (2008). Gotik Romanın Kıtalararası Serüveni. Ürün Yayınları.
• Perkin, J. (1989). Women and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century England. Routledge.
• Perkins-Gilman, C. (1998). Women and Economics: A Study of the Economic Relation between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution. University of California Press.
• Peters, C. (1991). The Woman in White (1859-1860). The King of Inventors: A Life of Wilkie Collins. Princeton U. P.
• Pykett, L. (1992). The ‘Improper’ Feminine: The Women’s Sensation Novel and the New Woman Writing. Routledge.
• Pykett, L. (2006). Collins and the Sensation Novel. In J. B. Taylor (Ed), The Cambridge Companion to Wilkie Collins. Cambridge U. P.
• Roberts, M. L. (2002). True Womanhood Revisited. Journal of Women’s History, 14(1), 150-155. https://doi.org/10.1353/jowh.2002.0025
• Ruskin, J. (2017). Sesame and Lilies. Anodos Books.
• Scult, A., et al. (1986). Genesis and Power: An Analysis of the Biblical Story of Creation. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 72(2), 113-131.
• Showalter, E. (1985). The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830-1980. Penguin Books.
• Smith-Rosenberg, C. (1985). Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America. Oxford U. P.
• The King James Study Bible. (2013). Thomas Nelson.
• Thomas, R. D. (2001). Detection in the Victorian Novel. In D. David (Ed), The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel. Cambridge U. P.
• Vanden-Boscche, C. R. (2014). Moving out: Adolescence. In H. F. Tucker (Ed), A New Companion to Victorian Literature and Culture. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Welter, B. (1966). The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860. American Quarterly, 18(2), 151-174. https://doi.org/10.2307/2711179
• Wollstonecraft, M. (1988). A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. The Feminist Papers: From Adams to Beauvoir. Ed. Alice S. Rossi. Northestern U. P.
• Wright, F. (1988). Of Free Enquiry. The Feminist Papers: From Adams to Beauvoir. Ed. Alice S. Rossi. Northestern U. P.
• Wynne, D. (2001). The Sensation Novel and the Victorian Family Magazine. Palgrave.