Subverting the Dominant Culture: Eugenic Discourse in This Other Eden by Paul Harding

Year 2024, Volume: 7 Issue: 2, 201 - 211, 30.06.2024

Alper Tulgar

https://doi.org/10.37999/udekad.1422824

Abstract

Paul Harding in his latest novel delves into the true and tragic story of Malaga Island, a small island located off the shores of Maine. It is historically important for the United States since it became the symbol of racism and eugenics. The government was urged by eugenicists to promote the sterilization of certain people with mental and physical disabilities. Although the aim was to improve the hereditary characteristics of the human population to have a more developed society, basic human rights were violated, and history witnessed atrocities and the Holocaust in Nazi Germany. Paul Harding in his novel, This Other Eden deals with the eugenic era in history. Despite living in harmony on an island with a unique racial integration, the characters are evicted and institutionalized under false claims. This study investigates the novel This Other Eden and how the eugenic discourse is employed in the novel. The study aims to explore certain ways in which the novel addresses ideas related to eugenics. This approach involves the examination of characters and thematic elements that involves eugenic concepts. By referring to the eugenics-related ideas and practices, this study explores how Paul Harding reflects eugenics in his latest novel.

Keywords

Paul Harding, This Other Eden, eugenics, Malaga Island

Hâkim Kültürü Yıkmak: Paul Harding'in This Other Eden Romanında Öjenik Söylem

Abstract

Paul Harding, son romanında Maine kıyılarında bulunan küçük bir ada olan Malaga Adası’nın gerçek ve trajik hikâyesini anlatmaktadır. Ada ırkçılığın ve öjeniğin sembolü hâline gelmesi nedeniyle ABD için tarihsel olarak önemlidir. Öjenistler hükümetin zihinsel ve fiziksel engelli bazı kişilerin kısırlaştırılmasını teşvik etmesini istemişlerdir. Amaç, insan nüfusunun kalıtsal özelliklerinin iyileştirilmesi ve daha gelişmiş bir toplum yaratılması olsa da Nazi Almanya’sında temel insan hakları ihlal edilmiş, tarih zulümlere ve Holokost’a sahne olmuştur. Paul Harding, This Other Eden adlı romanında tarihteki öjenik dönemi konu almaktadır. Irksal entegrasyona sahip bir adada uyum içinde yaşamlarına rağmen karakterler sahte iddialarla tahliye edilmiş ve çeşitli kurumlara gönderilmişlerdir. Bu çalışma, This Other Eden romanını ve öjenik söylemin romanda nasıl kullanıldığını incelemektedir. Çalışma, romanın öjeni ile ilgili fikirleri ele alma yöntemlerini araştırmayı ve analiz etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu yaklaşım, bazı karakterlerin ve öjenik kavramları içeren tematik unsurların incelenmesini içerir. Bu çalışma, roman bağlamında öjeni ile ilgili fikir ve uygulamalara değinerek Paul Harding’in son romanında öjeniyi nasıl yansıttığını araştırmaktadır.

Keywords

Paul Harding, This Other Eden, öjeni, Malaga Adası

Ethical Statement

Etik kriterlere bağlı kaldığımı beyan ederim

Supporting Institution

Hayır

Thanks

Hayır

References

• Alemdaroğlu, A. (2005). Politics of the body and eugenic discourse in early republican turkey. Body & Society, 11 (3), 61-76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034X05056191
• Carlson, E. A. (2011). The hoosier connection: Compulsory sterilization as moral hygiene. In P. A. Lombardo (Ed.), A century of eugenics in america: From the indiana experiment to the human genome era (pp. 11-25). Indiana University Press. https://books.google.com.tr/books?id=FAB-6RzKAQIC
• Davenport, M. (2020). Eugenics and Malaga Island. Master’s thesis, Harvard Extension School.
• Drew, D. (2019). Perspectives on Malaga Island: From scorn to shame to sympathy. Thinking Matters Symposium Archive. USM Digital Commons. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/thinking_matters/215
• Gray, P. (1999). Cursed by eugenics. Time, 153 (1), 84-85.
• Greenblatt, S. H. (1995). Phrenology in the science and culture of the 19th century. Neurosurgery, 37 (4), 790-804; discussion 804-795. https://doi.org/10.1227/00006123-199510000-00025
• Harding, P. (2023). This other eden (Kindle ed.). W. W. Norton & Company.
• Hilts, V. L. (1982). Obeying the laws of hereditary descent: Phrenological views on inheritance and eugenics. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 18(1), 62-77. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/1520-6696(198201)18:1<62::AID-JHBS2300180107>3.0.CO;2-S
• Kevles, D. J. (1999). Eugenics and human rights. BMJ, 319 (7207), 435. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.319.7207.435
• Lantzer, J. S. (2011). The indiana way of eugenics: Sterilization laws, 1907–74. In P. A. Lombardo (Ed.), A century of eugenics in america: From the indiana experiment to the human genome era (pp. 26-41). Indiana University Press. https://books.google.com.tr/books?id=FAB-6RzKAQIC
• Library of Congress. 1994: California's proposition 187. Retrieved January 16, 2024 from https://guides.loc.gov/latinx-civil-rights/california-proposition-187
• Lombardo, P. A. (2011). Introduction. In P. A. Lombardo (Ed.), A century of eugenics in america: From the indiana experiment to the human genome era (pp. 1-8). Indiana University Press. https://books.google.com.tr/books?id=FAB-6RzKAQIC
• Lombardo, P. A. (2018). The power of heredity and the relevance of eugenic history. Genetics in Medicine, 20(11), 1305-1311. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41436-018-0123-4
• Ordover, N. (2003). American eugenics: Race, queer anatomy, and the science of nationalism. Univ Minnesota Press. <Go to ISI>://WOS:000280779800022
• Pedersen, M. (2019). Malaga Island: How the state of Maine devastated a resilient island community in the name of the greater good. The History Teacher, 53(1), 137–169. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27058569
• Shakespeare, T. (1998). Choices and rights: Eugenics, genetics and disability equality [Article]. Disability & Society, 13(5), 665-681. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599826452
• Shildrick, M. (2009). Dangerous discourses of disability, subjectivity and sexuality. Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230244641
• Subramaniam, B. (2014). Ghost stories for darwin: The science of variation and the politics of diversity. Univ Illinois Press. <Go to ISI>://WOS:000354728100016
• Turda, M. (2010). Modernism and eugenics. Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://books.google.com.tr/books?id=kER9DAAAQBAJ
• Turda, M. (2022). Legacies of eugenics: Confronting the past, forging a future. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 45(13), 2470-2477. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2022.2095222