THE GHOSTS OF FEMALE GOTHIC

Year 2016, , 149 - 169, 15.03.2019

Coşkun Liktor

https://doi.org/10.32001/sinecine.537794

Abstract

This article explores the representation of woman as a ghost or at least a ghostly figure in two films, What Lies Beneath (Robert Zemeckis, 2000) and La Cara Oculta (The Hidden Face, Andres Baiz, 2011), both of which, it is argued, are situated in the female Gothic tradition. Ghosts and haunting, i.e., activity associated with ghosts, are widely used metaphors in female Gothic works of art, a sub-genre of Gothic that addresses the themes of gender oppression and domestic entrapment, both of which are emblematic of women’s experience in a patriarchy. This article argues that What Lies Beneath and The Hidden Face depict the haunting of a woman by another woman who is either dead or, if still alive, dead to the world, in ways that articulate feminist concerns and draw attention to gender oppression. WhileWhat Lies Beneath makes use of a ghost to address female victimization and male violence against women, The Hidden Face deals with the “ghosting,” or erasure, of women within patriarchal, phallocentric power structures that negate her existence. In both films, the figure of the ghostly woman serves to highlight the ways in which women are oppressed, victimized, disempowered – in short, rendered ghostly – in phallocentric, patriarchal culture.

Keywords

Female Gothic, ghost, haunting, patriarchy, gender oppression, Symbolic order

Kadın Gotiğinin Hayaletleri

Abstract

Bu makale, kadın Gotiğinin çağdaş örnekleri arasında sayılabilecek Robert Zemeckis’in What Lies Beneath (Gizli Gerçek, 2000) ve Andres Baiz’in La Cara Oculta (Gizli Oda, 2011) filmlerinde kadının hayalet ve hayaletimsi bir figür olarak temsilini incelemektedir. İlk olarak, gerek hayaletin gerekse hayaletlerle ilintili bir kavram olan “musallat olma”nın, Gotiğin bir alttürü olan ve cinsiyetçi tahakküm, eve hapsolma gibi kadının ataerkil toplumda maruz kaldığı baskıları mesele edinen kadın Gotiğinde sıkça karşımıza çıkan metaforlar olduğu vurgulanacaktır. Bu makalede What Lies Beneath ve La Cara Oculta filmlerinin, ölü (veya dış dünyanın gözünde ölüden farksız) bir kadının başka bir kadına musallat olması temasını merkeze alarak cinsiyetçi tahakküme dikkat çektiği ve böylece feminist meseleleri dile getirdiği savunulacaktır. What Lies Beneath cinayet kurbanı bir kadının hayaleti vasıtasıyla cinsiyetçi tahakküme ve kadına yönelik şiddete dikkat çekerken, La Cara Oculta ise ataerkil, fallomerkezci kültürde kadınların hayalet konumuna indirgendiğini göstermektedir. Sonuç olarak bu makale, her iki filmde de kadının hayaletimsi bir figür olarak temsilinin, onu adeta bir hayalet konumuna indirgeyen fallomerkezci, ataerkil kültürde kadının maruz kaldığı tahakkümü, baskıyı, eril şiddeti anlatmanın vasıtası olduğunu gösterecektir.

Keywords

Kadın Gotiği, hayalet, musallat olma, ataerki, cinsiyetçi tahakküm, Sembolik düzen

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