Yunan Mitolojisinde Beden ve Kimliğin İnşasında Postmodernizm ve Posthumanizmin İzleri

Abstract

Bu makale; Yunan mitolojisinde beden ve kimlik kavramlarının nasıl temsil edildiği, kavramsallaştırıldığı ve deneyimlendiğini Yunan mitolojisi ile postmodernizm arasındaki paralelliği vurgulayarak tartışmayı amaçlamaktadır. Nitekim, postmodern kimlik ve bedenlerle ilgili kavram ve kuramların öncü izlerini mitlerde gözlemlemek mümkündür. Mitler, evrenin yaratılışı, varlığın doğası ve doğal olaylar hakkında büyüleyici hikayeler sunarken; tanrılar, canavarlar gibi olağanüstü varlıklar, süper kahramanlar, sihirli dönüşümler ve çeşitli metamorfozlar gibi fantastik anlatıları da içerir. Klasik mitoloji aynı zamanda yaşamımızda deneyimlediğimiz koşulların ilk nedenlerini ve kökenlerini inceleyen bir alan olan etiyoloji ile de ilgilidir. Bu bağlamda, mitik bedenlerin nasıl ortaya çıktığı ve kimliklerin nasıl belirli şekiller alıp geliştiği ve değiştiği önem kazanmaktadır. Mitler bizlere farklı bakış açıları ve görüşler sunan ve sınırları zorlayan varoluş biçimleri, ihlal edici ve başkaldırıcı kimlikleri, akışkan benlikleri, belirsiz kökenleri ve hibrid bedenleri gözler önüne serer. Benzer şekilde, postmodern bedenler farklı varlık biçimleri arasındaki sınırları bulanıklaştırır ve akışkanlık, melezlik, çokluluk, parçalanma, süreksizlik ve belirsizlik gibi kavramlarla tanımlanır. Bu bağlamda, mitlerin postmodern ve posthümanist beden ve kimlik anlayışlarıyla örtüştüğü, mitik düşüncenin insanın entelektüel boyutunun ayrılmaz bir parçası olduğu ve bir şekilde postmodern metinlerde yer alan beden ve kimliklerin ortaya çıkmasında etkili olduğu tezi tartışılacaktır.

Keywords

• Yunan Mitolojisi
• postmodernizm
• posthumanizm
• beden
• kimlik
• benlik

Traces of Postmodernism and Posthumanism in the Construction of Body and Identity in Greek Mythology

Abstract

This paper intends to explore how the notions of the body and identity are conceptualized, represented, and experienced in Greek mythology by pointing out the parallelism between Greek mythology and postmodernism since postmodern concepts and theories of the body and identity politics can be traced back to myths. Myths offer enchanting narratives about the creation of the universe, the nature of existence, and natural events, alongside fantastical tales of deities, extraordinary beings such as monsters, superhuman heroes, magical transformations, and polymorphous metamorphoses. Classical mythology is also fascinated with etiology, the study of first causes, and the origins of the conditions in our lives. In this sense, how mythical bodies emerge and identities take on certain shapes and develop in various ways gain importance. Myths are full of boundary-breaking forms of existence, transgressive and subversive identities, fluid beings, indeterminate origins, and hybrid bodies, through which we are transported into alternative visions. They defy all kinds of rigid categories, unalterable formations, and the hierarchical order of existence. Similarly, postmodern bodies blur the boundaries among different forms of beings and they are characterized by fluidity, hybridity, multiplicity, fragmentation, discontinuity, and uncertainty. In this sense, this paper sets out to argue that myths align with postmodern and posthumanist understanding of body and identity and mythic thinking is integral to human intellectual dimension and has influenced the emergence of bodies and identities in postmodern texts.

Keywords

• Greek Mythology
• postmodernism
• posthumanism
• body
• identity
• self

References

1. Allan, K. (1997). The postmodern self: A theoretical consideration. Quarterly Journal of Ideology, 20(1 & 2), 3–24.
2. Aronowitz, S., & Giroux, H. A. (1991). Postmodern education: Politics, culture, and social criticism (NED-New edition). University of Minnesota Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctttsj3w
3. Bakhtin, M. (1984). Problems of Dostoevsky’s poetics. University of Minnesota Press.
4. Barthes, R. (1957). Mythologies. Editions de Seuil.
5. Best, S., & Kellner, D. (1991). Towards the reconstruction of critical social theory. In S. Best & D. Kellner (Eds.), Postmodern theory: Critical interrogations (pp. 256–304). Macmillan Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21718-2_8
6. Birke, L. (1999). Bodies and biology. In J. Price & M. Shildrick (Eds.), Feminist theory and the body: A reader (pp. 42–49). Routledge.
7. Bordo, S. (1992). Postmodern subjects, postmodern bodies. Feminist Studies, 18(1), 159–175. https://doi.org/10.2307/3178218
8. Bordo, S. (1993). Unbearable weight, feminism, western culture, and the body. University of California Press.

9. Butler, J. (1999a). Bodies that matter. In J. Price & M. Shildrick (Eds.), Feminist theory and the body: A reader (pp. 235-246). Routledge.
10. Butler, J. (1999b). Bodily inscriptions, performative subversions. In J. Price & M. Shildrick (Eds.), Feminist theory and the body: A reader (pp.416-423). Routledge.
11. Butler, J. (2006). Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of the identity. Routledge.
12. Carter, A. (1993). Nights at the circus. Penguin.
13. Collins, R. (1988). Theoretical sociology. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
14. Daisne, J. (1942). Trap van steen en wolken. A. Manteau.
15. Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1996). Anti-Oedipus: capitalism and schizophrenia. In L. E. Cahoone (Ed.), From modernism to postmodernism: An anthology (pp. 401-422). Blackwell Publishers.
16. Doan, L. (1994). Jeanette Winterson’s sexing the postmodern. In L. Doan (Ed.), The lesbian postmodern (pp.137-155). Columbia University Press.
17. Dombroski, R. (1997). The rise and fall of fascism. In P. Brand & L. Pertile (Eds.), The cambridge history of Italian literature. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521434928
18. Drew, J. (1998). Cultural composition: Stuart Hall on ethnicity and the discursive turn. JAC, 18(2), 171–196. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20866181
19. Flax, J. (1990). Thinking fragments: psychoanalysis, feminism, and postmodernism in the contemporary west. University of California Press.
20. Foucault, M. (1979). History of sexuality (R. Hurley, Trans.; Vol. 1). Penguin Books.
21. Foucault, M., Bertani, M., Fontana, A., & Macey, D. (2003). Society must be defended: lectures at the collège de france, 1975-1976. Picador.
22. Goffman, E. (1956). The presentation of the self in everyday life. University of Edinburgh.
23. Haraway, D. (1991). Simians, cyborgs and women: The reinvention of nature. Routledge.
24. Haraway, D. (1999). Biopolitics of postmodern bodies. In J. Price & M. Shildrick (Eds.), Feminist theory and the body: A reader (pp. 203–214). Edinburg University Press.
25. Hassan, I. (1977). Prometheus as performer: Toward a posthumanist culture. The Georgia Review, 31(4), 830–850.
26. Hassan, I. (1993). Toward a concept of postmodernism. In L. H. J. Natoli (Ed.), A postmodern reader. State University of New York Press.
27. Herman, L. (1996). Concepts of realism. Camden House.
28. Irving, P. M. C. F. (1990). Metamorphosis in Greek myths. Oxford University Press.
29. Jackson, R. (2008). Fantasy: the literature of subversion. Taylor&Francis.
30. Latour, B. (1988). Science in action. Harvard University Press.
31. Leal, L. (1995). Magical realism in Spanish-American literature. In L. P. Zamora & W. B. Faris (Eds.), Magical realism theory, history, community (pp. 119–124). Duke University Press.
32. Levi-Strauss, C. (2001). Myth and meaning. Routledge
33. Lewis, C. S. (1944). Perelandra. Macmillan Publishing.
34. Lindenmeyer, A. (1999). Postmodern concepts of the body in Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body. Feminist Review, 63(1), 48–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/014177899339054
35. Longfellow, B. (1990). Postmodernism and the discourse of the body. Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory, 14(1–3), 179–189.
36. More, M. (2003). Philosophy of transhumanism. Humanity+. https://www.humanityplus.org/philsophy-of-transhumanism
37. Na, Z. (2022). Posthuman becoming narratives in contemporary anglophone science fiction. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
38. Olizko, N. S. & Danilova, K. A. (2018). Semiotic and cognitive interpretation of the postmodern myth. Social & Behavioural Sciences, EpSBS.
39. Ovid. (1958). The metamorphoses: A complete new version. In H. Gregory, Ed. The Viking Press.
40. Panek, M. B. (2012). The postmodern mythology of Michel Tournier. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
41. Rushdie, S. (1981). Midnight’s children. Random House.
42. Taylor, C. (1989). Sources of the self the making of the modern identity. Harvard University Press.
43. Tournier, M. (1977). Le vent Paraclet. Gallimard.
44. Winterson, J. (2007). The stone gods. Penguin.