GEORGE ORWELL’İN BURMESE DAYS ESERİNDE SÖMÜRGE DÜZENİ VE TOPLUMSAL HİYERARŞİ

Abstract

Bu makale, George Orwell’in Burmese Days (1934) adlı eserinde, “Kuşku Dönemi” olarak bilinen dönemde hâkim olan erkeklik ve kadınlık temsillerini inceleyen bir okuma sunmaktadır. Mevcut çalışma, sömürgeciliği cinsiyetli bir teşebbüs olarak görür ve dahası sömürülen dünyaya yönelik cinsel, ekonomik ve sistematik istismar biçimleri aracılığıyla hegemonik erkekliğe belirli bir cezai dokunulmazlık sağlayan bir iktidar yapısı olarak değerlendirir. Britanya İmparatorluğu’nun gücü zayıfladıkça, hegemonik erkekliğe daha yakın konumdaki karakterler kendilerini cinsiyetleri ve ırkları dolayısıyla öteki konumunda bulan diğer karakterlerle müzakere etmek zorunda kaldıkları bir konumda bulurlar. Bu değişen dinamik, ırksal ve cinsiyete dayalı ötekilerin kendilerini güçlendirecek yollar bulmaları anlamına da gelir. Burmese Days, Britanya sömürgeciliğinin bu geç dönem panoraması içinde konumlanmaktadır. Bu çalışma, romanın tasvir ettiği toplumsal cinsiyet dinamiklerine referansla romanın yakın okumasını sunmaktadır. Toplumsal cinsiyet tarihi ve erkeklik çalışmaları alanının sunduğu içgörüler bu yakından okumayı yön vermektedir. Bu makale, Britanyalı erkekliklerin ve kadınlıkların, imparatorluğun merkezindeki Viktorya dönemi cinsiyet normları ile sömürge deneyimi arasındaki birbirini şekillendiren etkileşim içinde dönüşüm geçirdiğini ileri sürmektedir. ‘Ev kültü’nün imparatorluk merkezindeki cinsiyet ahlakına egemen olmaya başlamasına bir tepki olarak ‘ev yaşamından kaçış’ biçiminde sömürgelere yöneliş gerçekleşirken, sözde ‘fazladan kadın’ sorunu ise Britanyalı erkeklerin sömürgelere gitmesi sonucunda Britanya’daki bekar erkek ve kadın sayısı arasında bir dengesizliğin ortaya çıkmasının bir ürünüydü. Bu çalışma, Burmese Days’in öneminin, George Orwell’in bizzat deneyimlediği Burma’nın kurgusal bir versiyonu üzerinden sömürge dünyasında görünür hale gelen, cinsiyet dinamiklerindeki bu dönüşümleri tasvir edişinde yattığını savunmaktadır.

Keywords

• sömürgeci erkeklikler
• sömürge döneminde Burma
• Viktorya Dönemi toplumsal cinsiyet roller
• Burmese Days

COLONIAL ORDER AND SOCIAL HIERARCHY IN GEORGE ORWELL’S BURMESE DAYS

Abstract

This article presents a reading of George Orwell’s Burmese Days (1934) that explores the representation of masculinity and femininity in the period known as the ‘Age of Doubt’. This study looks at colonialism as a gendered enterprise and a power structure that affords privileges to hegemonic masculinity in the form of sexual, financial, and systemic exploitation of the colonised world with a certain degree of immunity to punishment. As the power of the British Empire weakens, the characters closer to hegemonic masculinity find themselves in a position to negotiate with their gendered and racial others. This changing dynamic means that the racial and gendered others find ways to empower themselves. It is in this panorama of the late period of British colonialism that George Orwell’s Burmese Days is set. This study offers a close reading of the novel, with reference to the gender dynamics it represents. Insights from gender history and masculinity studies guide this reading. The article argues that both British masculinities and femininities underwent transformation in a mutually constitutive interaction between metropolitan Victorian gender norms and the colonial experience. While the flight from domesticity to the colonies is a reaction to the cult of domesticity that began to dominate metropolitan gender morality, the so-called surplus woman problem was the product of British men moving to the colonies, which created a discrepancy between the number of single men and women in Britain. This study argues that the significance of Burmese Days lies in its depiction of these transformations in gender dynamics in the colonial world through a fictional version of Burma that George Orwell himself experienced.

Keywords

• colonial masculinity
• colonial Burma
• Victorian gender roles
• Burmese Days

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