Reta’s Project of Re-Embedding Norah in Her ‘Natural’ Body and in Nonhuman Nature in Carol Shields’s Unless

Yıl 2025, Cilt: 5 Sayı: 1, 12 - 24

Esra Melikoğlu

Öz

In Carol Shields's novel Unless, the protagonist, Reta Winters, a writer who has her roots in the seventies’ feminist and environmental movements, realizes ecofeminism’s entrapment in a cycle of partial failure and her own share of the responsibility for it. She is, in the new millennium, devastated: Presumably unwashed and with nits in her hair, her daughter Norah sits on a street corner in protest against patriarchy’s construction of both women and nonhuman nature as dirty, mindless bodies, or matter, which serves to justify a policy of domination, sanitation, and exploitation. It will be argued that Reta must ponder her own role as a woman writer in perpetuating this construct and write a counternarrative in which Norah represents an ecofeminist future: Norah emerges as a prototype of a new generation of ecofeminists who shall reclaim their ‘natural’ bodies and reconnect with nonhuman nature, their environmental care ethics replacing a policy of domination. Yet Reta’s counternarrative remains abortive as suggestive of the writer’s and her society’s wavering commitment to ecofeminism.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Carol Shields, Unless, body, ecofeminism

Etik Beyan

The author of this article confirms that this research does not require a research ethics committee approval.

Carol Shields’ın İyilik’inde, Reta’nın Norah’yı Yeniden ‘Doğal’ Bedenine ve Doğaya Yerleştirme Projesi

Öz

Carol Shields’ın İyilik adlı romanında, kökleri yetmişli yılların feminist ve çevreci hareketlerine uzanan kadın yazar Reta Winters, ekofeminizmin kısmi başarısızlık döngüsüne hapsolduğunu ve bu durumdan kendisinin de sorumlu olduğunun farkına varır. Yeni yüzyılda alt üst olur: yıkanmayı bıraktığını ve saçında bit olduğunu düşündüğü kızı Norah bir sokak köşesinde oturup ataerkinin hem kadınları hem de doğayı pis ve akılsız bedenler veya madde olarak tanımlamayarak ataerkinin her ikisine de hükmetmesini ve sömürmesini haklı kılmasını protesto eder. Bu makalede, Reta’nın bir kadın yazar olarak hem bu söylemin yeniden üretilmesindeki rolünü irdelemek hem de Norah’nın ekofeminist geleceği temsil ettiği bir karşı anlatı yazmak zorunda olduğu savunulacaktır. Bu anlatıda Norah, ‘doğal’ bedenlerini geri alacak ve doğayla bağ kuracak yeni kuşak ekofeministin prototipi olarak sunulur. Benimsedikleri ilgi etiği de doğaya hükmetme politikasının yerini alacaktır. Ancak Reta anlatısını tamamlamaz. Bu da kendisinin ve toplumun ekofeminizme karşı kararsız tutumunu gösterir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Carol Shields, İyilik, Beden, Ekofeminizm

Etik Beyan

The author of this article confirms that this research does not require a research ethics committee approval.

Kaynakça

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