“Nar” ve “Babam ve İncir Ağacı”nda Kültürel Kimlik ve Toplumsal Aşağılanma

Year 2013, Volume: 26 Issue: 1, 221 - 236, 01.04.2013

Figun Dinçer

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore how the fathers in Persis M. Karim’s poem “Pomegranates” and Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem “My Father and the Fig Tree” reveal their need nature to overcome the problems and to heal psychological disturbances caused by their acculturation process after they immigrated to the USA. As reflected in these poems, the meanings of pomegranates, figs and fig trees that the poets and their fathers attribute to play important roles in understanding their feelings on their cultural identity and experiencing social stigma when the members of the host culture reject them. Karim, who is of Iranian heritage, and Nye, who is of Palestinian origin, focus on their fathers’ emotional attachment to these components of nature. This paper discusses how their attachment to the fruits and their motives behind it in relation to their immigrant status are assumed to be better explored through two perspectives: some theories on the psychology of immigrants and the assumptions of the biophilia hypothesis. It is observed that the poets and their fathers go through some of the aspects explained in the theories of the psychological acculturation process and innate satisfaction as asserted by the biophilia hypothesis. Some of the psychological results of the immigration are explored in aspects of the self and reconstruction of the identities of their heritage culture in the new cultural context via these fruits and trees

Keywords

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“Nar” ve “Babam ve İncir Ağacı”nda Kültürel Kimlik ve Toplumsal Aşağılanma

Abstract

Bu çalışmada, Persis M. Karim’in “Nar” şiirinde ve Naomi Shihab Nye’in ise ‘Babam ve İncir Ağacı” şiirinde babalarının, A.B.D.’ye göç ettikten sonra yeni bir çevreye uyum sağlama sürecinin neden olduğu ruhsal sıkıntıları gidermek amacıyla doğaya duyulan ihtiyacı nasıl gösterdikleri tartışılmaktadır. Söz konusu şairler ve babalarının, nar, incir ve incir ağaçlarına yüklediği anlamları, bu şiirlerde yansıtıldığı gibi, kendi kültürleri hakkındaki duygularını ve göç ettikleri ülkedeki nasıl toplumsal aşağılanmayla yüzyüze kaldıklarının anlaşılmasında önemli rol oynamaktadır. İran kökenli Karim ile Filistin kökenli Nye, söz konusu şiirlerde babalarının, doğanın bu öğelerine olan duygusal bağları üzerine yoğunlaşmışlardır. Şairlerin bu meyvelere bağlanışları bunların ardındaki güdülerin göçmen psikolojisi ve yaşama ve canlılara duyulan sevgi açısından değerlendirilmektedir. Şairler ve babalarının yeni çevreye uyum sürecinde karşılaştıkları yeni durumla bağlantılı kuramlarının bazı özelliklerini içsel tatmin duygusunu yaşadıkları gözlenmektedir. Bu meyve ve ağaçlarla benliklerini ve kendi öz kültüründen bir süre beslenmiş ve şekillenmiş olan kimliklerinin yabancı bir ülkede yeniden yapılandırma açılarından incelenecektir

Keywords

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• Başvuru: 01.04. 2013
• Yayına Kabul: 17.05.2013