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Isabella Whitney’nin Şiirlerinde Öncü-feminist Düşüncenin İzini Sürmek

Year 2022, Issue: 47, 99 - 112, 15.06.2022
https://doi.org/10.21497/sefad.1128344

Abstract

Bu makale, Isabella Whitney’in eserlerinde kadın yanlısı bir tartışmanın izini sürmek amacıyla, The Copy of a Letter (1567) ve A Sweet Nosegay (1573) adlı şiir koleksiyonlarındaki şiirleri incelemektedir. Whitney'in şiirlerinde işlediği temalar ve konular, onun on altıncı yüzyılın İngiltere’sinde marjinal bir kadın şair olduğu gerçeğine işaret ediyor çünkü erkekler tarafından manipüle edilebilecek deneyimsiz kadınlar için bir danışman rolünü üstleniyor. On altıncı yüzyılın kadın yazarlarından beklendiği gibi sade ve çekingen bir şekilde yazmak yerine, şiirlerinde iddialı ve eleştirel bir tavır benimsiyor. Whitney, şiirlerinde bu kadın yanlısı argümanı dile getirerek, Ovid geleneğine saldırıyor ve mitlerde ve erkek metinlerinde geleneksel olarak susturulan kadın figürlerinin hikayelerini yeniden okuyup ve bazen de yeniden yazıyor. Whitney, şiirlerinde ataerkil metinlerde kültürel ve sosyal olarak kapana kısılmış kadınlar için çözüm arıyor.

References

  • Akkerman, Tjitske, and Siep Stuurman (2005). Introduction: Feminism in European History. In Tjitske Akkerman and Siep Stuurman (eds.), Perspectives on Feminist Political Thought in European History: From the Middle Ages to the Present (pp. 1-33). London: Routledge.
  • Balmuth, Miriam (1988). Female Education in 16th and 17th Century England. Canadian Women Studies, 9. (3-4), 17-20. Retrieve from https://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/view/11719
  • Boro, Joyce (2014). Introduction. In Joyce Boro (ed.), Margaret Tyler, Mirror of Princely Deeds and Knighthood. (pp.1-36). London: Modern Humanities Research Association.
  • Clarke, Danielle (2000). 'Formd into Words by Your Divided Lips': Women, Rhetoric and the Ovidian Tradition. In Danielle Clarke and Elizabeth Clarke (eds.), ‘This Double Voice’: Gendered Writing in Early Modern England (pp. 61-87). London: Macmillan.
  • Ellinghausen, Laurie (2005). Literary Property and the Single Woman in Isabella Whitney’s A Sweet Nosgay. SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, 45. (1), 1-22. Retrieved from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/178579
  • Farrell, Joseph (1998). Reading and Writing the Heroides. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 98, 307-38. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/311346
  • Felker, Michael David (1990). The Poems of Isabella Whitney: A Critical Edition. (Doctoral dissertation, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX). Retrieved from ttu-ir.tdl.org › ttu-ir › bitstream › handle
  • Ferguson, Margaret W. (1998). Renaissance Concepts of the ‘woman Writer’. In. Helen Wilcox (ed.) Women and Literature in Britain: 1500-1700 (pp. 143-168). Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
  • Ferguson, Margaret W. (2004). Feminism in Time. MLQ 65. (1), 7-27. Retrieved from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/52934
  • Friedman, Alice T. (1985). The Influence of Humanism on the Education of Girls and Boys in Tudor England. History of Education Quarterly 25. (1), 57-70. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/368891
  • Jones, Ann Rosalind (1990). The Currency of Eros: Women’s Love Lyric in Europe, 1540-1620. Bloomington, Indianapolis: Indiana UP.
  • Jones, Jr., J.W. (1965). Trojan Legend: Who Is Sinon?. The Classical Journal 61. (3), 122-28. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/311346
  • Jordan, Constance (1990). Renaissance Feminism: Literary Texts and Political Models. New York: Cornell UP.
  • Marquis, Paul A. (1995). Oppositional Ideologies of Gender in Isabella Whitney’s Copy of a Letter. The Modern Language Review 90. (2), 314-24. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3734542
  • Martin, Randall (1997). Isabella Whitney’s ‘Lamentation upon the Death of William Gruffith’. Early Modern Literary Studies 3. (1), 1-15. Retrieved from https://extra.shu.ac.uk/emls/-1/martwhit.html
  • Melnikoff, Kirk (2005). Jones’s Pen and Marlowe’s Socks: Richard Jones, Print Culture, and the Beginnings of English Dramatic Literature. Studies in Philology 102. (2), 184-209. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/4174816
  • Mermin, Dorothy (1990). Women Becoming Poets: Katherine Philips, Aphra Behn, Anne Finch. ELH 57 (2), 335-355.
  • Nevitt, Marcus (2006). Women and the Pamphlet Culture of Revolutionary England, 1640-1660. Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing.
  • O’Callaghan, Michelle (2018). ‘My Printer Must, Haue Somwhat to His Share’: Isabella Whitney, Richard Jones, and Crafting Books. Women's Writing 26. (1), 15-34. doi:10.1080/09699082.2019.1534571
  • Offen, Karen (1988). Defining Feminism: A Comparative Historical Approach. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 14. (1), 119-57. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/3174664
  • Ostriker, Alicia (1982). The Thieves of Language: Women Poets and Revisionist Mythmaking. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 8. (1), 68-90. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/3173482
  • Ovid (2017). Ovid's Heroides. Paul Murgatroyd, Bridget Reeves, and Sarah Parker (eds.), London and New York: Routledge.
  • Ross, Sarah Gwyneth (2009). The Birth of Feminism: Women as Intellect in Renaissance Italy and England. Cambridge, Massachusetts, London: Harvard UP.
  • Smith, Katherine Jo (2016). Ovidian Female-Voiced Complaint Poetry in Early Modern England. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Warwick, Coventry). Retrieved from http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/95225/
  • Tyler, Margaret (2014). Margaret Tyler, Mirror of Princely Deeds and Knighthood. Joyce Boro (ed.), London: Modern Humanities Research Association.
  • Uman, Deborah., and Belén. Bistué (2007). Translation as Collaborative Authorship: Margaret Tyler’s The Mirrour of Princely Deedes and Knighthood. Comparative Literature Studies 44. (3), 298-323. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/25659584
  • Vives, Juan Luis (2000). The Education of a Christian Woman: A Sixteenth-Century Manual. Charles Fantazzi (Trans.), London: U of Chicago.
  • Wiesner, Merry E. (2000). Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge UP.
  • Wilcox, Helen (2010). ‘ah Famous Citie’: Women, Writing, and Early Modern London. Feminist Review 96. (1), 20-40. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/40928

“Trust Not A Man At The Fyrst Sight”: Tracing a Proto-Feminist Thought in Isabella Whitney’s Poetry

Year 2022, Issue: 47, 99 - 112, 15.06.2022
https://doi.org/10.21497/sefad.1128344

Abstract

This paper examines the poems in Isabella Whitney’s two poetry collections, The Copy of a Letter (1567) and A Sweet Nosegay (1573) to trace a pro-woman argument in her works. In her poems, Whitney’s themes and subject matter point out that she is a marginal woman poet of sixteenth-century England since she assumes the role of a counsellor for the inexperienced women who might be manipulated by men. Instead of writing in a low-key manner as expected from the woman writers of the sixteenth century, she adopts an assertive and critical style in her poetry. By articulating this pro-woman argument in her poems, Whitney attacks Ovidian tradition and she re-reads and sometimes rewrites the stories of the traditionally silenced female figures in myths and male texts. Whitney seeks solutions for women who are culturally and socially trapped in the patriarchal texts.

References

  • Akkerman, Tjitske, and Siep Stuurman (2005). Introduction: Feminism in European History. In Tjitske Akkerman and Siep Stuurman (eds.), Perspectives on Feminist Political Thought in European History: From the Middle Ages to the Present (pp. 1-33). London: Routledge.
  • Balmuth, Miriam (1988). Female Education in 16th and 17th Century England. Canadian Women Studies, 9. (3-4), 17-20. Retrieve from https://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/view/11719
  • Boro, Joyce (2014). Introduction. In Joyce Boro (ed.), Margaret Tyler, Mirror of Princely Deeds and Knighthood. (pp.1-36). London: Modern Humanities Research Association.
  • Clarke, Danielle (2000). 'Formd into Words by Your Divided Lips': Women, Rhetoric and the Ovidian Tradition. In Danielle Clarke and Elizabeth Clarke (eds.), ‘This Double Voice’: Gendered Writing in Early Modern England (pp. 61-87). London: Macmillan.
  • Ellinghausen, Laurie (2005). Literary Property and the Single Woman in Isabella Whitney’s A Sweet Nosgay. SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, 45. (1), 1-22. Retrieved from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/178579
  • Farrell, Joseph (1998). Reading and Writing the Heroides. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 98, 307-38. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/311346
  • Felker, Michael David (1990). The Poems of Isabella Whitney: A Critical Edition. (Doctoral dissertation, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX). Retrieved from ttu-ir.tdl.org › ttu-ir › bitstream › handle
  • Ferguson, Margaret W. (1998). Renaissance Concepts of the ‘woman Writer’. In. Helen Wilcox (ed.) Women and Literature in Britain: 1500-1700 (pp. 143-168). Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
  • Ferguson, Margaret W. (2004). Feminism in Time. MLQ 65. (1), 7-27. Retrieved from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/52934
  • Friedman, Alice T. (1985). The Influence of Humanism on the Education of Girls and Boys in Tudor England. History of Education Quarterly 25. (1), 57-70. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/368891
  • Jones, Ann Rosalind (1990). The Currency of Eros: Women’s Love Lyric in Europe, 1540-1620. Bloomington, Indianapolis: Indiana UP.
  • Jones, Jr., J.W. (1965). Trojan Legend: Who Is Sinon?. The Classical Journal 61. (3), 122-28. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/311346
  • Jordan, Constance (1990). Renaissance Feminism: Literary Texts and Political Models. New York: Cornell UP.
  • Marquis, Paul A. (1995). Oppositional Ideologies of Gender in Isabella Whitney’s Copy of a Letter. The Modern Language Review 90. (2), 314-24. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3734542
  • Martin, Randall (1997). Isabella Whitney’s ‘Lamentation upon the Death of William Gruffith’. Early Modern Literary Studies 3. (1), 1-15. Retrieved from https://extra.shu.ac.uk/emls/-1/martwhit.html
  • Melnikoff, Kirk (2005). Jones’s Pen and Marlowe’s Socks: Richard Jones, Print Culture, and the Beginnings of English Dramatic Literature. Studies in Philology 102. (2), 184-209. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/4174816
  • Mermin, Dorothy (1990). Women Becoming Poets: Katherine Philips, Aphra Behn, Anne Finch. ELH 57 (2), 335-355.
  • Nevitt, Marcus (2006). Women and the Pamphlet Culture of Revolutionary England, 1640-1660. Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing.
  • O’Callaghan, Michelle (2018). ‘My Printer Must, Haue Somwhat to His Share’: Isabella Whitney, Richard Jones, and Crafting Books. Women's Writing 26. (1), 15-34. doi:10.1080/09699082.2019.1534571
  • Offen, Karen (1988). Defining Feminism: A Comparative Historical Approach. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 14. (1), 119-57. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/3174664
  • Ostriker, Alicia (1982). The Thieves of Language: Women Poets and Revisionist Mythmaking. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 8. (1), 68-90. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/3173482
  • Ovid (2017). Ovid's Heroides. Paul Murgatroyd, Bridget Reeves, and Sarah Parker (eds.), London and New York: Routledge.
  • Ross, Sarah Gwyneth (2009). The Birth of Feminism: Women as Intellect in Renaissance Italy and England. Cambridge, Massachusetts, London: Harvard UP.
  • Smith, Katherine Jo (2016). Ovidian Female-Voiced Complaint Poetry in Early Modern England. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Warwick, Coventry). Retrieved from http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/95225/
  • Tyler, Margaret (2014). Margaret Tyler, Mirror of Princely Deeds and Knighthood. Joyce Boro (ed.), London: Modern Humanities Research Association.
  • Uman, Deborah., and Belén. Bistué (2007). Translation as Collaborative Authorship: Margaret Tyler’s The Mirrour of Princely Deedes and Knighthood. Comparative Literature Studies 44. (3), 298-323. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/25659584
  • Vives, Juan Luis (2000). The Education of a Christian Woman: A Sixteenth-Century Manual. Charles Fantazzi (Trans.), London: U of Chicago.
  • Wiesner, Merry E. (2000). Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge UP.
  • Wilcox, Helen (2010). ‘ah Famous Citie’: Women, Writing, and Early Modern London. Feminist Review 96. (1), 20-40. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/40928
There are 29 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Language Studies, Creative Arts and Writing
Journal Section Articles
Authors

Okaycan Dürükoğlu

Publication Date June 15, 2022
Submission Date March 19, 2021
Published in Issue Year 2022 Issue: 47

Cite

APA Dürükoğlu, O. (2022). “Trust Not A Man At The Fyrst Sight”: Tracing a Proto-Feminist Thought in Isabella Whitney’s Poetry. Selçuk Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi(47), 99-112. https://doi.org/10.21497/sefad.1128344

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