SUBVERTING THE HEBREW MYTH: FEMININE WRITING IN ANITA DIAMANT’S THE RED TENT

Year 2023, Volume: 24 Issue: 45, 805 - 816, 31.07.2023

Sevilay Yavuz Çeşmeci

https://doi.org/10.21550/sosbilder.1238535

Abstract

Anita Diamant’s first novel The Red Tent (1997) retells the story of Dinah, Jacob’s and Leah’s daughter, Joseph’s sister in the Genesis chapter of the Old Testament. In this revised story, Diamant creates Dinah, the silenced woman of the Old Testament, as the narrator of the novel. Weaving a different narrative than the Hebrew myth, the narrator tries to subvert hierarchical structures of phallogocentrism by focusing on women’s bodies, femininity, and sexual power. This study, basing its argument on post-structuralist feminist theory, examines how patriarchal ideology and discourse are challenged through female language and ‘feminine writing’. The analysis of the rewritten text reveals that feminine writing frees the female body and female sexuality from the authority of androcentric ideology. Additionally, the textual strategies, used by Diamant to deconstruct the patriarchal order and to create a gynocentric myth, present alternative definitions of female identity.

Keywords

feminine writing, gynocentric, phallogocentric, post-structuralist feminist theory

İbrani Mitinin Yıkımı: Anita Diamant’ın Kırmızı Çadır’ında Dişil Yazı

Abstract

Anita Diamant’ın ilk romanı Kırmızı Çadır (1997), Eski Ahit’in Yaratılış bölümündeki Yakub ve Lea’nın kızı, Yusuf’un kız kardeşi Dina’nın hikâyesini anlatır. Bu yeniden yazımda, Diamant, Eski Ahit’in sessiz bırakılan kadını Dina’yı romanın anlatıcısı yapar. İbrani mitinden tamamen farklı bir anlatı yaratan yazar, kadın bedeni, dişilik ve cinsel güce odaklanarak fallogosentrizmin hiyerarşik yapılarını alt üst eder. Bu çalışma, ataerkil ideoloji ve söylemin dişil dil ve ‘dişil yazı’ aracılığıyla nasıl sorgulandığını argümanını post yapısalcı feminist kurama dayandırarak incelemektedir. Yeniden yazılan metnin analizi, dişil yazının kadın bedenini ve deneyimlerini erkek merkezli ideolojinin otoritesinden kurtararak özgürleştirdiğini ortaya koymaktadır. Buna ek olarak, Diamant’ın ataerkil düzeni bozmak ve kadın merkezli mit yaratmak için kullandığı metinsel stratejiler, kadın kimliğinin alternatif tanımlarını sunmaktadır.

Keywords

dişil yazı, ginosentrik, fallogosentrizm, post-yapısalcı feminist kuram

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