Critique of Phonocentrism in Elizabeth Cary’s The Tragedy of Mariam

Abstract

According to Jacques Derrida, phonocentrism, the so-called supremacy of speech over writing, is in a close relationship with logocentrism, which is based upon male language. Phonocentric/logocentric worldview holds agency primarily as a matter of orality in that the spoken word is assumed to be offering a direct course to empowerment. Feminist theorists Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva aim to show the inhibitory impacts of logocentric language on women and suggest women should find alternative ways of expression to ward off its effects, which means women should invest in new models of communication where they can construct their political agency in line with their own material experiences. Such a struggle with patriarchal oppression of women’s speech can be seen in the private life of Elizabeth Cary who was silenced by the patriarchy as a female playwright. Her closet drama The Tragedy of Mariam (1613) mirrors her theatrical quest for agency in which a silent female character achieves power in a patriarchal surrounding by means of a strategic employment of silence. Within this context, this article claims that Cary’s closet drama can be an example of écriture féminine (feminine writing) for it showcases the political potentials of silence as a strategic model of expression where both the playwright and her silent female character acquire significant positions through the deconstruction of the speech/writing dichotomy.

Keywords

• phonocentrism
• Derrida
• Elizabeth Cary
• The Tragedy of Mariam
• écriture féminine

Elizabeth Cary’nin The Tragedy of Mariam Oyununda Sesmerkezcilik Eleştirisi

Abstract

Jacques Derrida, Batı felsefesinde sesin yazıya üstün görülmesini sesmerkezcilik (phonocentrism) olarak tanımlar ve sesmerkezciliğin sözmerkezcilikle (logocentrism) de yakından ilişkili olduğunu ifade eder. Sesmerkezci/sözmerkezci görüşe göre, ses/söz var oluşla doğrudan ilişkilidir. Logosantrik dilin kadınların dünyayı algılama biçimlerini sınırlandırdığını vurgulayan Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigaray ve Julia Kristeva gibi feminist kuramcılar kadınların bu dilin kendi yaşamları üzerindeki kısıtlayıcı etkilerinden kurtulabilmek için kendi deneyimlerini aktarabilecekleri alternatif anlatım biçimleri bulmaları gerektiğini savunurlar. Erkek egemen toplumlarda kadınların dil ile olan mücadelesi hem Elizabeth Cary’nin kendi yaşamında hem de yazarın The Tragedy of Mariam (1613) oyununda görülebilir. Şöyle ki, Cary’nin erkek egemen bir tiyatro dünyasında var olma mücadelesi oyunundaki sessiz bir kadın karakterin ataerkil bir çevrede sessizliğini kullanarak güç elde etmesinde kendini gösterir. Bu çerçevede, bu makalede, Cary’nin The Tragedy of Mariam adlı oyununda ses/yazı ikiliğinin yapıbozuma uğtarılmasıyla yazarın kendisi ve oyundaki sessiz kadın karakter için sessizliğin bir politik güç ve varoluş aracı olduğu ve bu nedenle metnin bir dişil yazın (écriture féminine) örneği olarak okunabileceği iddia edilir.

Keywords

• sesmerkezcilik
• Derrida
• Elizabeth Cary
• The Tragedy of Mariam
• kadın yazını

References

1. Alfar, C. L. (2008). Elizabeth Cary’s female trinity: breaking custom with mosaic law in “The Tragedy of Mariam.” Early Modern Women, 3, 61-103. Jstor. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23541518
2. Allison, D. B., & Garver, N. (1973). Introduction (D. B. Allison and N. Garver, Trans.). Speech and phenomena and other essays on Husserl’s theory of signs (pp. xxxi-xlii). Northwestern UP.
3. Baldick, C. (2008). Oxford dictionary of literary terms (3rd ed.). Oxford UP.
4. Barry, P. (2009). Beginning theory: an introduction to literary and cultural theory. Manchester UP.
5. Bell, I. (2007). Private lyrics in Elizabeth Cary’s Tragedy of Mariam. In H. Wolfe (Ed.), The literary career and legacy of Elizabeth Cary, 1613-1680 (pp. 17-34). Palgrave Macmillan.
6. Bennett, L. (2001). “Written in my tainted brow”: woman and the exegetical tradition in “The Tragedy of Mariam.” Christianity and Literature, 51(1), 5-28. Jstor. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44313056
7. Bevington, D. et al. (2002). The tragedy of Mariam. In D. Bevington et al. (Eds.), English renaissance drama: a norton anthology (pp. 615-620). W. W. Norton & Company.
8. Bunnin, N., & Yu, J. (2004). The Blackwell dictionary of western philosophy. Blackwell.

9. Cary, E. (2002). The tragedy of Mariam. In D. Bevington et al. (Eds.), English renaissance drama: a norton anthology (pp. 621-671). W. W. Norton & Company.
10. Cixous, H. (1976). The laugh of the Medusa. Signs (K. Cohen and P. Cohen, Trans.). 1(4), 875-893. Jstor. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3173239
11. Cixous, H., & Clément, C. (1996). The newly born woman (B. Wing, Trans.). Minnesota UP.
12. Derrida, J. (1973). Speech and phenomena and other essays on Husserl’s theory of signs (D. B. Allison and N. Garver, Trans.). Northwestern UP.
13. Derrida, J. (1997a). Of grammatology. Corrected ed. (G. C. Spivak, Trans.). The John Hopkins UP.
14. Derrida, J. (1997b). Structure, sign and play in the discourse of the human sciences. In K. M. Newton (Ed.), Twentieth-century literary theory: a reader (2nd ed., pp. 115-120). Macmillan.
15. Eagleton, T. (1996). Literary theory: an introduction (2nd ed.) Minnesota UP.
16. Ferguson, M. W. (1991). The spectre of resistance: The Tragedy of Mariam (1613). In D. S. Kastan and P. Stallybrass (Eds.), Staging the Renaissance: reinterpretations of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama (pp. 235-250). Routledge.
17. Ferguson, M. (2002). Sidney, Cary, Roth. In A. F. Kinney (Ed.), A companion to Renaissance Drama (pp. 482 506). Blackwell.
18. Ferguson, M. W. (2003). Dido’s daughters: literacy, gender, and empire in early modern England and France. Chicago UP.
19. Goldberg, J. (1997). Desiring women writing: English renaissance examples. Stanford UP.
20. Gutierrez, N. A. (1991). Valuing Mariam: genre study and feminist analysis. Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, 10(2), 233-251. Jstor. https://doi.org/10.2307/464016
21. Hamamra, B. T. (2018). “Tell thou my lord thou saw’st me lose my breath”: silence, speech, and authorial identity in Cary’s The Tragedy of Mariam. ANQ A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, 32(2), pp. 84-92. DOI:10.1080/0895769X.2018.1471980. https://doi.org/10.1080/0895769X.2018.1471980
22. Hogan, P. C. (2000). Philosophical approaches to the study of literature. University Press of Florida.
23. Irigaray, L. (1985a). Speculum of the other woman (G. C. Gill, Trans.). Cornell UP.
24. Irigaray, L. (1985b). This sex which is not one (C. Porter and C. Burke, Trans.). Cornell UP.
25. Jones, A. R. (1986). Surprising fame: Renaissance gender ideologies and women’s lyric. In N. K. Miller (Ed.), The poetics of gender (pp. 74-95). Columbia UP.
26. Kristeva, J. (1984). Revolution in poetic language (M. Waller, Trans.). Columbia UP.
27. Luckyj, C. A (1993). “A Moving Rhetoricke”: women’s silences and Renaissance texts. Renaissance Drama, New series, Perspectives on Renaissance Drama, 24, 33-56. Jstor. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41917294
28. Macey, D. (2000). The penguin dictionary of critical theory. Penguin.
29. Mackay, E. A. (2014). Shrew(d) maternities, Elizabeth Cary’s life, and filial equivocations. Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, 33(2), 23-50. Jstor. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43653324
30. Morris, P. (1998). Literature and feminism: an introduction. Blackwell.
31. Nesler, M. G. (2009). Performing silence, performing speech: genre and gender in Stuart drama. [Doctoral Dissertation, Vanderbilt University]. http://hdl.handle.net/1803/12474
32. Nesler, M. G. (2012). Closeted authority in The Tragedy of Mariam. SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, 52(2), pp. 363-385. Project Muse. https://doi.org/10.1353/sel.2012.0013
33. Newton, K. M. (1997). Poststructuralism. In K. M. Newton (Ed.). Twentieth-century literary theory: a reader (pp. 112-114). Macmillan.
34. Pearse, N. C. (1977). Elizabeth Cary, renaissance playwright. Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 18(4), 601-608. Jstor. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40754464
35. Poitevin, K. W. (2005). “Counterfeit Colour”: making up race in Elizabeth Cary’s “The Tragedy of Mariam.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, 24(1),13-34. Jstor. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20455209
36. Purkiss, D. (1998). Introduction. In D. Purkiss (Ed.), Three tragedies by Renaissance women (pp. xi-xliii). Penguin.
37. Rivkin, J., & Ryan, M. (2017). Introduction: the class of 1968 – post-structuralism par lui-même. In J. Rivkin and M. Ryan (Eds.), Literary theory: an anthology (3rd ed., pp. 445-465). Wiley Blackwell.
38. Robbins, R. (2000). Literary feminisms. Palgrave.
39. Rose, M. B. (2010). The Tragedy of Mariam: political legitimacy and maternal authority. In E. Smith and G. A. Sullivan Jr., (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to English Renaissance tragedy (pp. 211-221). Cambridge UP.
40. Ryan, M. (2017). Literary theory: a practical introduction (3rd ed.). Wiley Blackwell.
41. Sarup, M. (1993). An introductory guide to post-structuralism and postmodernism (2nd ed.). Harvester Wheatsheaf.
42. Stallybrass, P. (1986). Patriarchal territories: the body enclosed. In M. W. Ferguson, M. Quilligan and N. J. Vickers (Eds.), Rewriting the Renaissance: the discourses of sexual difference in early modern Europe (pp. 123-142). Chicago UP.
43. Templin, L. M. (2014). “I’ll tell my sorrows unto heaven, my curse to hell”: cursing women in early modern drama. [Master’s Thesis, Ottawa University]. https://ruor.uottawa.ca/bitstream/10393/31832/1/Templin_Lisa_2014_thesis.pdf
44. Tyson, L. (2006). Critical theory today: a user-friendly guide (2nd ed.). Routledge.
45. Ünlü, E. (2017). The Witch, The Witch of Edmonton, Vinegar Tom ve Byrthrite oyunlarında cadı imgesinin feminist analizi. [Master’s Thesis, Ankara University]. https://tez.yok.gov.tr/UlusalTezMerkezi/tezSorguSonucYeni.jsp
46. Wortham, S. M. (2010). The Derrida dictionary. Continuum.