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Mary Elizabeth Braddon’ın Lady Audley's Secret Adlı Romanında Sansasyon, Toplumsal Cinsiyetler ve Kimlik Politikası

Year 2022, Volume: 7 Issue: 1, 122 - 136, 29.04.2022
https://doi.org/10.29110/soylemdergi.1053339

Abstract

Viktorya döneminin en iyi sansasyonel romanlarından biri olarak kabul edilen Mary Elizabeth Braddon’ın Lady Audley’s Secret (1862), Viktorya dönemi idealleri tarafından inşa edilen yapay sınırların ihlalini göstererek kimlikleri, cinsiyetleri ve eve ait idealleri yeniden düşünmek için yeni bir alan sunmaktadır. Bunu yaparken, roman, evlilik, ev, kadın ve erkek olmaya dair sorgulamalarıyla, başkahramanı Lady Audley'in ne olduğunu gizlemek için bazı maskeler takarken Viktorya döneminin eve ait normlarının ötesine geçme konusundaki geleneklere uymayan girişimine odaklanır. Bu bağlamda, toplumsal cinsiyet çalışmalarından yola çıkan bu makale, toplumsal cinsiyete dayalı kimliklerin söylemsel pratiklerin etkileri olarak nasıl üretildiğini ve yerleştirildiğini ve Braddon’ın toplumsal cinsiyet edimselliğini ve toplumsal cinsiyet akışkanlığını kabul ederek romandaki toplumsal cinsiyetlerin istikrarını nasıl yıktığını araştırıyor. Bu istikrarsızlaştırma, Viktorya döneminin kadın kimliği ve kimlik politikaları hakkındaki daha geniş soruları gündeme getirmektedir. Makale, bu sorulara bazı cevaplar ararken, romanın toplumsal cinsiyetlerle ilgili belirgin ataerkil varsayımlara nasıl meydan okuduğunu ve hegemonik ataerkilliğin ötesine nasıl geçtiğini incelemektedir.

References

  • Allen, Emily (2011). “Gender and Sensation”. A Companion to Sensation Fiction. Ed. Pamela Gilbert. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. 401-413.
  • Bennett, Mark (2016). “Sensation Fiction”. The Encyclopedia of the Gothic. Eds. William Hughes, David Punter and Andrew Smith. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. 2.399-2.418.
  • Braddon, Mary Elizabeth (2012). Lady Audley’s Secret. London: Penguin.
  • Brantlinger, Patrick (1982). “What is ‘Sensational’ About the ‘Sensation Novel’?”. Nineteenth Century Fiction Vol.37, No. 1, 1982, pp. 1-28.
  • Butler, Judith (1999). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (2nd ed.). London and New York: Routledge.
  • Edwards, P. D. (2008). “Introduction”. Aurora Floyd by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Oxford: Oxford University Press. vii-xxii.
  • Forman, Ross (2011). “Queer Sensation”. A Companion to Sensation Fiction. Ed. Pamela Gilbert. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. 414-429.
  • Garrison, Laurie (2011). Science, Sexuality and Sensation Novels: Pleasures of the Senses. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Gilbert, Pamela (ed.) (2011). “Introduction”. A Companion to Sensation Fiction. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. 1-10.
  • Glover, David and Kaplan, Cora (2009). Genders (2nd ed.). London and New York: Routledge.
  • Irigaray, Luce (2004). “Women on the Market”. Literary Theory: An Anthology (2nd ed.). Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Malden: Blackwell. 799-811.
  • Jay, Elizabeth (2008). “Introduction”. East Lynne by Ellen Wood. Oxford: Oxford University Press. vii-xi.
  • King, Jeanette (2005). The Victorian Woman Question in Contemporary Feminist Fiction. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • MacDonald, Tara (2013). “Sensation Fiction, Gender and Identity”. The Cambridge Companion to Sensation Fiction. Ed. Andrew Mangham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 127-140.
  • Mangham, Andrew (ed.) (2013). “Introduction”. The Cambridge Companion to Sensation Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1-7.
  • McWilliam, Rohan (2011). “Melodrama”. A Companion to Sensation Fiction. Ed. Pamela Gilbert. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. 54-66.
  • Nemesvari, Richard (2000). “Robert Audley’s Secret: Male Homosocial Desire and ‘Going Straight’ in Lady Audley’s Secret”. Straight with a Queer Twist: Queer Theory and the Subject of Heterosexuality. Ed. Calvin Thomas. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 109-121.
  • Palmer, Beth (2011). Women’s Authorship and Editorship in Victorian Culture: Sensational Strategies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Pittard, Christopher (2010). “From Sensation to the Strand”. A Companion to Crime Fiction. Eds. Charles Rzepka and Lee Horsley. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. 105-116.
  • Pykett, Lyn (1992). The “Improper Feminine:” The Women’s Sensation Novel and the New Woman Writing. London and New York: Routledge.
  • ---- (2006). “Collins and the Sensation Novel”. The Cambridge Companion to Wilkie Collins. Ed. Jenny Bourne Taylor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 50-64.
  • ---- (2011). “Mary Elizabeth Braddon”. A Companion to Sensation Fiction. Ed. Pamela Gilbert. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. 123-133.
  • ---- (2012). “Introduction”. Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Oxford: Oxford University Press. vii-xxx.
  • Riviére, Joan (2005). “Womanliness as a Masquerade”. Feminist Theory: A Reader (2nd ed.). Eds. Wendy K. Kolmar and Frances Bartkowski. New York: McGraw Hill. 146-149.
  • Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky (1985). Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • “Sensation” (1863). The Literary Times. 102-103.
  • Showalter, Elaine (1999). A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
  • ---- (2012). “A Perfect Eel.” London Review of Books, Vol. 34, No.12, 21 June 2012, p. 33.
  • Tilley, Elizabeth (2012). “Gender and Role-Playing in Lady Audley’s Secret”. Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. London: Penguin. 481-490.

Sensation, Genders, and Identity Politics in Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret

Year 2022, Volume: 7 Issue: 1, 122 - 136, 29.04.2022
https://doi.org/10.29110/soylemdergi.1053339

Abstract

Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (1862), considered one of the best sensational novels in the Victorian age, offers a new space for re-considering identities, genders, and domestic ideals by demonstrating the transgression of the artificial boundaries established by the Victorian ideals. In doing so, the novel, with its questionings of marriage, home, and being woman and man, focuses on the protagonist Lady Audley’s nonconforming attempt to go beyond the Victorian domestic norms as she wears some masks to hide what she is. In this context, drawing upon gender studies, this article explores how gendered identities are produced and installed as the effects of discursive practices, and how Braddon breaks down the stability of genders in the novel by acknowledging gender performativity and gender fluidity. This destabilization raises broader questions about the female identity and identity politics of the Victorian age. In searching for some answers to these questions, the article scrutinizes how the novel challenges the trenchant patriarchal assumptions about genders and goes beyond hegemonic patriarchy.

References

  • Allen, Emily (2011). “Gender and Sensation”. A Companion to Sensation Fiction. Ed. Pamela Gilbert. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. 401-413.
  • Bennett, Mark (2016). “Sensation Fiction”. The Encyclopedia of the Gothic. Eds. William Hughes, David Punter and Andrew Smith. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. 2.399-2.418.
  • Braddon, Mary Elizabeth (2012). Lady Audley’s Secret. London: Penguin.
  • Brantlinger, Patrick (1982). “What is ‘Sensational’ About the ‘Sensation Novel’?”. Nineteenth Century Fiction Vol.37, No. 1, 1982, pp. 1-28.
  • Butler, Judith (1999). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (2nd ed.). London and New York: Routledge.
  • Edwards, P. D. (2008). “Introduction”. Aurora Floyd by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Oxford: Oxford University Press. vii-xxii.
  • Forman, Ross (2011). “Queer Sensation”. A Companion to Sensation Fiction. Ed. Pamela Gilbert. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. 414-429.
  • Garrison, Laurie (2011). Science, Sexuality and Sensation Novels: Pleasures of the Senses. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Gilbert, Pamela (ed.) (2011). “Introduction”. A Companion to Sensation Fiction. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. 1-10.
  • Glover, David and Kaplan, Cora (2009). Genders (2nd ed.). London and New York: Routledge.
  • Irigaray, Luce (2004). “Women on the Market”. Literary Theory: An Anthology (2nd ed.). Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Malden: Blackwell. 799-811.
  • Jay, Elizabeth (2008). “Introduction”. East Lynne by Ellen Wood. Oxford: Oxford University Press. vii-xi.
  • King, Jeanette (2005). The Victorian Woman Question in Contemporary Feminist Fiction. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • MacDonald, Tara (2013). “Sensation Fiction, Gender and Identity”. The Cambridge Companion to Sensation Fiction. Ed. Andrew Mangham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 127-140.
  • Mangham, Andrew (ed.) (2013). “Introduction”. The Cambridge Companion to Sensation Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1-7.
  • McWilliam, Rohan (2011). “Melodrama”. A Companion to Sensation Fiction. Ed. Pamela Gilbert. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. 54-66.
  • Nemesvari, Richard (2000). “Robert Audley’s Secret: Male Homosocial Desire and ‘Going Straight’ in Lady Audley’s Secret”. Straight with a Queer Twist: Queer Theory and the Subject of Heterosexuality. Ed. Calvin Thomas. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 109-121.
  • Palmer, Beth (2011). Women’s Authorship and Editorship in Victorian Culture: Sensational Strategies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Pittard, Christopher (2010). “From Sensation to the Strand”. A Companion to Crime Fiction. Eds. Charles Rzepka and Lee Horsley. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. 105-116.
  • Pykett, Lyn (1992). The “Improper Feminine:” The Women’s Sensation Novel and the New Woman Writing. London and New York: Routledge.
  • ---- (2006). “Collins and the Sensation Novel”. The Cambridge Companion to Wilkie Collins. Ed. Jenny Bourne Taylor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 50-64.
  • ---- (2011). “Mary Elizabeth Braddon”. A Companion to Sensation Fiction. Ed. Pamela Gilbert. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. 123-133.
  • ---- (2012). “Introduction”. Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Oxford: Oxford University Press. vii-xxx.
  • Riviére, Joan (2005). “Womanliness as a Masquerade”. Feminist Theory: A Reader (2nd ed.). Eds. Wendy K. Kolmar and Frances Bartkowski. New York: McGraw Hill. 146-149.
  • Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky (1985). Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • “Sensation” (1863). The Literary Times. 102-103.
  • Showalter, Elaine (1999). A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
  • ---- (2012). “A Perfect Eel.” London Review of Books, Vol. 34, No.12, 21 June 2012, p. 33.
  • Tilley, Elizabeth (2012). “Gender and Role-Playing in Lady Audley’s Secret”. Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. London: Penguin. 481-490.
There are 29 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Creative Arts and Writing
Journal Section EDEBİYAT / ARAŞTIRMA MAKALELERİ
Authors

Kerim Can Yazgünoğlu 0000-0002-5745-6717

Publication Date April 29, 2022
Submission Date January 4, 2022
Acceptance Date March 24, 2022
Published in Issue Year 2022 Volume: 7 Issue: 1

Cite

APA Yazgünoğlu, K. C. (2022). Sensation, Genders, and Identity Politics in Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret. Söylem Filoloji Dergisi, 7(1), 122-136. https://doi.org/10.29110/soylemdergi.1053339