Subverting The Double-Bind Situations in Woolf and Atasü Through Body-Mind Unity

Abstract

It has always been women that become the primary victims of oppression as they have been defined in terms of their relations with men, who have been regarded as the breadwinners, heads of the household and decision-makers. Imposed to believe that they have to feed men’s egos by being passive, innocent, soft, graceful, nurturing and accepting, women have internalized the ideology of self-denial and they find it improper to demand things for themselves. Undoubtedly that all of these particular experiences of women that stem from the phallocentric patriarchal structure and its dominant ideologies put women into the ‘double-bind’ situations, where women are judged against a masculine standard. As long as women are assessed by that standard, they are obliged to lose, whether they claim difference or similarity. In this respect, Virginia Woof and Erendiz Atasü, carrying the double burden of being both a ‘woman’ and a’ woman writer’ in a patriarchal society, are trapped in these double-bind situations and lose their body-mind unity as they are divided between their roles as a woman and aspirations as an artist. Considering these facts, this study, basing its argument on the theories of post-structuralist feminism, aims to present how Woolf and Atasü de(con)struct and demystify the patriarchally imposed gender roles, and achieve a spiritual balance and union, ‘wholeness’, through combining the masculine mind and feminine body.

Keywords

• Body-mind unity,de(con)struction,phallocentric discourse,androgyny,feminine writing

Woolf ve Atasü’deki Ataerkil Çıkmazların Beden ve Bilinç Bütünlüğü ile Yıkılması

Öz

Her daim aile reisi, evin direği ve karar mercileri olarak kabul edilen erkeklerle olan ilişkileri açısından tanımlanan kadınlar, zulmün ve baskının birincil mağdurları olmuşlardır. Erkek egosunu beslemek zorunda olduklarına inandırıldıkları için, ‘pasif, talep etmeyen ve razı olan’ ikincil statüyü benimsemişler ve zamanla özlerini inkâr ederek talepsizliklerini içselleştirmişlerdir. Hiç şüphesiz ki, fallosentrik ataerkil yapı ve onun egemen ideolojilerinden kaynaklanan bu durumlar, kadınları eril yaptırım ve buyruklarına göre oluşturulan ‘ataerkil çıkmazlar’ la karşı karşıya bırakmaktadır. Kadınlar bu eril ideolojilerce değerlendirildikleri ve tanımlandıkları sürece, ister farklılık ister benzerlik talep etsinler, kaybetmeye mahkûmdurlar. Bu bağlamda, yaşadıkları ataerkil toplumlarda ‘kadın’ ve ‘kadın yazar’ olmanın maddi ve manevi zorluklarını deneyimlemek zorunda kalan iki yazar, Virginia Woof ve Erendiz Atasü, bu ataerkil çıkmazlarda sıkışıp kalmışlar; yaratıcı yazarlıkları, erkek egemen ve cinsiyetçi kadın rolleri tarafından sınırlandırıldığı için beden ve bilinç bütünlüklerini kaybetmişlerdir. Bu gerçekler göz önünde bulundurularak, bu çalışma, Virginia Woolf ve Erendiz Atasü’nün erkek-egemen ideolojilerce oluşturulmuş ataerkil çıkmazları nasıl yeniden yapılandırdıkları ve bu süreçte ‘eril zihin-dişil bedeni’ kapsayan ‘bütünlüğe’ nasıl eriştiklerini incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Beden-bilinç bütünlüğü,yapısöküm,fallosentrik söylem,androjenlik,dişil yazın

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