A Palestinian Memoir Eserinin İngiliz Edebiyatına Katkısı: Diasporik Kimlikler Üzerine Bir İnceleme

Öz

Bu makale, Ghada Karmi’nin Return: A Palestinian Memoir adlı eserini, İngiliz edebiyatı bağlamında sürgün ve diasporik kimliklerin incelenmesi için örnek bir metin olarak ele almayı amaçlamaktadır. Karmi İngilizce yazmasına rağmen Filistin mirasıyla bütünüyle uyum içindedir. Nakba’yı hatırlarken, mülksüzleştirilmenin çok katmanlı psikolojik ve politik etkilerini ifade eder. Karmi’nin anı kitabı, bir olayın kişisel hatırlanışını bir halkın kolektif travmasıyla birlikte konumlandırmayı hedeflerken, bireyin benlik algısındaki yerinden edilme duygusunu ve gerçekleşmemiş “geri dönüş” arzusunu da incelemektedir. Ayrıca bu çalışma, Karmi’nin Britanya kültürel entegrasyonu ile Filistin’e aidiyet arasındaki gerilimi nasıl müzakere ettiğini ortaya koymaktadır. Daha da önemlisi, Karmi, Gazze Şeridi’ni ve diğer işgal altındaki Filistin topraklarını, Batı’nın egemen emperyal söylemlerinin onları dönüştürdüğü ideolojik kurgular olarak değil, kendisinin ve halkının içinde yaşadığı somut gerçeklikler olarak sunmaktadır. Karmi’nin otobiyografik anlatısı, baskın Batı anlatılarını yeniden yazar ve Filistin gerçekliğini İngilizce edebiyat kanonu içinde yeniden konumlandırır. Bu anı kitabı, sömürge bağlamında İngilizce kullanımının paradoksal biçimde sömürge sonrası Filistin kimliğinin ifadesini güçlendirebileceğinin bir göstergesidir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Filistin diasporası
• sürgün ve hafıza
• sömürge sonrası kimlik
• İngilizce yazan Filistin kimliği

The Contribution of A Palestinian Memoir to English Literature: A Study of Diasporic Identities

Öz

This paper aims to explore Ghada Karmi’s Return: A Palestinian Memoir as an exemplar for the study of exile and diasporic identities within the context of English literature. Although Karmi writes in English, she is entirely in tune with the Palestinian heritage. As she recalls the Nakba, she expresses the multi-layered psychological and political impact of being dispossessed. Karmi’s memoir aims to place the personal recollection of an event alongside the collective trauma of a people, as she examines the dislocation of an individual’s sense of self and the unfulfilled desire to ‘return.’ What is more, the study articulates Karmi’s quest to navigate the tension between British cultural integration and Palestinian belonging. More importantly, Karmi offers the Gaza Strip and other occupied Palestinian lands as the lived realities that she and her people inhabit, and not merely the ideological constructs the dominant Western Imperial discourses have made them. Karmi’s autobiographical narrative rewrites the dominant Western narratives and repositions the Palestinian realities within the Anglophone literary canon. The memoir is a testament to the fact that the use of English in the colonial context can paradoxically enhance the articulation of a postcolonial Palestinian identity.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Palestinian Diaspora
• exile and memory
• postcolonial identity
• Anglophone Palestinian identity

Kaynakça

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