Hayal Gücünün Kıyısında Dans Eden Atomlar: Margaret Cavendish’in “Atom Şiirleri”nde Materyalizm Kavramı

Öz

On yedinci yüzyılın en üretken ve sıra dışı kadın figürlerinden biri olan Newcastle Düşesi Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673) erkek egemen edebiyat dünyasında bir hayli eser yazmayı ve yayınlamayı başarır. Karşılaştığı tüm engellere rağmen, kendisinin olağanüstü hayal gücü, kadın yazarlar için uygun görülmeyen bilim alanına adım atması konusunda onu harekete geçirir. Özellikle, on yedinci yüzyıl filozofları ve bilim adamları tarafından yeniden canlandırılan atomizme ve materyalizme olan ilgiden hareketle, kendi evren anlayışını birbirinden ayrılmaz iki kavram olan “madde” ve “hareket” üzerinden sunar. Atomizmin, madde ve hareket gibi, sadece birkaç terminolojisini eserlerinde sıklıkla kullanırken bilimsel teori yerine hayal gücünü, yani doğuştan gelen zekâsını, kullanır çünkü onun için eserlerini yazmada strateji olarak kullandığı hayal gücü zihnindeki fiziksel hareketlere bağlıdır ve bu yüzden maddeseldir. Atomlar canlılığı bünyesinde barındırdığından, Cavendish “dirimselci materyalizmini” anlatmak için “Atom Şiirleri”ni yazarken tema olarak atomları seçer ve hatta onları kendi benliğinin bir metaforu olarak sunarak erkeklerin egemen olduğu bilimsel ve edebi camiada var olduğunu ileri sürer. Bu bağlamda bu makalenin amacı, Margaret Cavendish’in Poems, and Fancies (Şiirler ve Hayal Güçleri) (1653) adlı şiir kitabında yer alan “Atom Şiirleri”ni atomizmi kendi algıladığı hâliyle nasıl kullandığını göz önünde bulundurarak incelemektir ve nasıl hayalci bir üslupla yeni bir madde teorisi ortaya atarak aslında bin dokuz yüz doksanların ikinci yarısında adı konacak olan yeni materyalizm adlı teoriye ışık tuttuğunu göstermektir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Margaret Cavendish
• Hayal Gücü
• Atomizm
• Materyalizm “Atom Şiirleri”

Dancing Atoms on the Brink of Fancy: The Concept of Materialism in Margaret Cavendish’s “Atomic Poems”

Abstract

As one of the most prolific and eccentric female figures of the seventeenth century, Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle (1623-1673), managed to write and publish a great number of literary works in the male-dominated literary world of the time. Despite all the obstacles, her outrageous imagination stimulates her to step into the field of science which was not seen as suitable for women writers. Especially, drawing on the interest in atomism and materialism that were revived by the philosophers and scientists of the seventeenth century, Cavendish presents her own understanding of the universe based on two inseparable terms, “matter” and “motion.” While employing some of the terminology of atomism, matter and motion in particular, she uses her fancy, natural wit, rather than scientific theory because for her, fancy, which is used as a strategy by Cavendish in writing her works, is related to the physical movements in her mind and is, thus, “material.” As atoms embody vitalism, Cavendish chooses them as a theme in her “Atomic Poems” to show her “vitalist materialism” and by presenting them as a metaphor of her female self, she manifests herself in the male-dominated scientific and literary world. The aim of this paper is, thus, to examine Margaret Cavendish’s “Atomic Poems” in Poems, and Fancies (1653), in relation to how she employs atomism, in the way she perceives, and introduces a new theory of matter, which will set light to new materialism coined in the second half of the 1990s, with a fanciful manner.

Keywords

• Margaret Cavendish
• Fancy
• Atomism
• Materialism
• “Atomic Poems”

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