FEMINIST ECOGOTHIC BODIES IN FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN AND ZAMANSIZ

Abstract

This study examines representations of the abject and grotesque female body entangled with more-than-human worlds in contemporary women’s literature. Such representations challenge and seek to dismantle the patriarchal system that portrays female sexuality and the female body as excessive, repressed, and devoid of agency. The study builds its theoretical framework on Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection and Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of the grotesque body, proposing an ecogothic, materialist feminist, and ecocritical perspective to explore the interaction between nature, gender, and intersecting systems of oppression. The study analyzes Fire on the Mountain by Anita Desai and Zamansız by Latife Tekin, as works that portray the abject and grotesque female body—marked by race, class, and gender—as a site of resistance against patriarchal domination over both nature and women. The analysis explores how the concepts of grotesque and abjection—associated by the patriarchal order with the non-normative female body—are defined through ideas about what is considered natural. It argues that the texts under examination present the abject female body, which transgresses boundaries and overturns hierarchies, as a carnivalesque form of rebellion that enables a redefinition of humanity and femininity from a non-anthropocentric perspective.

Keywords

• Ecogothic
• Grotesque
• Abjection
• Posthumanism
• Spectrality

FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN VE ZAMANSIZ’DA FEMİNİST EKOGOTHİK BEDENLER

Abstract

Bu çalışma, çağdaş kadın edebiyatında insandan ibaret olmayan dünyalarla iç içe geçmiş abject ve grotesk kadın bedeni temsillerini incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu temsiller, kadın cinselliğini ve kadın bedenini aşırı, bastırılmış ve eyleyicilikten yoksun olarak kurgulayan ataerkil sistemi sorgulamakta ve onu yıkmayı hedeflemektedir. Çalışma, kuramsal çerçevesini Julia Kristeva’nın abjection kuramı ile Mikhail Bakhtin’in grotesk beden kavramı üzerine inşa etmekte; doğa, toplumsal cinsiyet ve kesişen baskı sistemleri arasındaki etkileşimi incelemek amacıyla ekogotik, feminist ekoeleştirel bir perspektif önermektedir.Bu bağlamda çalışma, Anita Desai’nin Fire on the Mountain ve Latife Tekin’in Zamansız adlı eserlerini incelemekte; ırk, sınıf ve cinsiyetle işaretlenmiş abject ve grotesk kadın bedenini doğa ve kadınlar üzerindeki eril tahakküme karşı bir direniş alanı olarak ele almaktadır. Grotesk ve iğrençlik kavramlarının, ataerkil düzen tarafından norm dışı kadın bedeniyle ilişkilendirilme biçimlerini ve bu kavramların “doğal” kabul edilen şeyler üzerinden nasıl tanımlandığını sorgulamaktadır. Çalışma, incelenen metinlerin sınırları ihlal eden ve hiyerarşileri altüst eden abject kadın bedenini, insan-merkezli olmayan bir bakış açısından insanlık ve kadınlık tanımlarını yeniden düşünmeye imkân veren karnavalesk bir başkaldırı biçimi olarak sunduğunu öne sürmektedir.

Keywords

• Ekogotik
• Grotesk
• İğrençlik
• Posthümanizm
• Spektralite

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