FLUID GENDER IDENTITIES IN JEANETTE WINTERSON’S SEXING THE CHERRY

Yıl 2015, Cilt: 13 Sayı: 3, 21 - 34, 09.10.2015

Papatya Alkan Genca

https://doi.org/10.18026/cbusos.73640

Öz

A giant female dog breeder and an adventurous boy who constantly questions (his) existence and truth live through the turbulent times of the reign of Charles I. A “mad” female scientist and a confused young man in contemporary times cross paths. Neither of these pairs fit into the attributions to their respective gender identities. Through alternating narratives of these characters, Jeanette Winterson’s Sexing the Cherry dwells on the questions of gender formation and linear flow of time and history. Indeed, gender expectations are repeatedly put into trial and are deconstructed throughout the text. The inscribed rewriting of the story of the twelve dancing princesses draws attention to the questions raised by the novel about gender, identity, and social construction of these two. Sexing the Cherry, in its narrowest sense, is the story of Jordan and the Dog Woman. There are two specific time/spaces: the first one is the seventeenth-century England during the reign of Charles I, and the second one is the twentieth-century England. In this respect, the second part of the novel moves forward (and also backward) in time, and presents the late twentieth-century versions of Jordan and the Dog Woman. In the body of all these characters, gender identity becomes a pluralized, fluid, and contingent concept. As such, this paper argues that Sexing the Cherry disrupts conventional representations and perceptions of gender (roles) through problematizing both the male and the female gender codes

Anahtar Kelimeler

Jeanette Winterson, Sexing the Cherry, gender, contingent, subversion

JEANETTE WINTERSON’IN SEXING THE CHERRY ADLI ROMANINDAKİ AKIŞKAN TOPLUMSAL CİNSİYET

Öz

Dev bir köpek yetiştiricisi kadın ile sürekli olarak (kendi) varlığı(nı)
ve hakikati sorgulayan maceraperest bir erkek 1. Charles’ın çalkantılı krallığı
sırasında yaşamaktadır. Günümüz dünyasında bir yerde, “deli” bir bilim
kadınıyla kafası karışık bir genç erkeğin yolları kesişir. Bu iki çiftin hiçbiri
kendilerine atfedilen toplumsal cinsiyet kimliklerine uymaktadır. Bu
karakterlerin birbirini izleyen anlatıları vasıtasıyla, Jeanette Winterson’ın
Sexing the Cherry (Vişnenin Cinsiyeti) romanı toplumsal cinsiyet oluşumu,
lineer zaman ve tarih soruları üzerinde durur. Gerçekten de metinde toplumsal cinsiyet beklentileri sürekli olarak yapıbozuma uğramakta ve
sorgulanmaktadır. Metnin içine eklenmiş olan On İki Dans Eden Prenses
hikayesinin yeniden yazımı, romanın toplumsal cinsiyet, kimlik ve bu ikisinin
sosyal olarak inşasına dair sorduğu sorulara dikkat çeker. Sexing the Cherry,
en dar manada, Jordan ve Dog Woman’ın hikayesidir. Metinde iki tane belirli
zaman/mekan bulunmaktadır: on yedinci yüz yıl 1. Charles dönemi İngilteresi
ve yirminci yüz yıl İngilteresi. Bu bağlamda, romanın ikinci kısmı zamanda
ileri (aynı zamanda geri) gitmekte ve Jordan ile Dog Woman’ın yirminci yüz
yıl versiyonlarını sunmaktadır. Bu karakterler üzerinden, toplumsal cinsiyet
kimliği çoğul, sabit olmayan ve olumsal bir kavram haline gelmektedir.
Böylelikle, bu makale Sexing the Cherry adlı romanın toplumsal cinsiyet (in)
(rollerinin) geleneksel temsiliyet ve algılanışını hem erkek hem de kadın
toplumsal cinsiyet kodları üzerinden problematize ettiğini savunmaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Jeanette Winterson, Sexing the Cherry, toplumsal cinsiyet, olumsallık, ifsat

Kaynakça

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