Creation, Names, and Life: Humanity and Femininity in the Female Golem Myth

Öz

The subtle hierarchy which dictates who is granted and denied cultural authority is rarely more evident than when examining folklore through which “we can see all the shimmering, shadowy uncertainties of the world.” The myth of the Golem, a clay being in Jewish folklore, provides an ideal opportunity for engaging with the default equation of humanity and masculinity, an assumption present in most Golem stories. My research attempts to disrupt this hierarchy that places women as lesser and the human as superior by examining the recuperated figure of the female Golem. I interrogate intersections of the constructed categories of “female” and “human” in Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Jinni and in Alice Hoffman's The World That We Knew by tracing the complex literary history of the female Golem, focusing on the misogynistic myth of the female Golem attributed to Solomon ibn Gabirol. Through elaboration upon the feminist critiques advanced by Hoffman and Wecker, I highlight the glimpses of post-humanist thought achieved by each author’s feminist revision of the female Golem, investigating the way certain humanist ideas remain and limit each novel’s feminist project. By drawing on post-humanist philosophy and feminist and Jewish feminist literary criticism to consider these novels, I ultimately propose the necessity of post-humanist thought to the success of feminist interventions.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Golem
• Jewish Studies
• Posthumanism
• Feminism
• Cultural Studies

Creation, Names, and Life: Humanity and Femininity in the Female Golem Myth

Öz

Yaratılış, İsimler ve Yaşam: Kadın Golem Efsanesinde İnsanlık ve Kadınlık

Öz: Kimlerin kültürel otoritesinin onaylandığını ve yadsındığını belirleyen ince hiyerarşisi nadiren “dünyanın tüm parıltılı, gölgeli belirsizliklerini görebileceğimiz” folklorunu ele aldığı zamandan daha belirgindir. Yahudi folklorunda kilden yaratılan bir varlık olan Golem miti, çoğu Golem hikâyesinde bulunan insanlık ile erkeklik varsayılan eşitlemesi ile ilgilenmek için ideal bir fırsat sağlamaktadır. Çalışmam, kadın Golem'in iyileşmiş figürünü inceleyerek kadını ikincil, insanı ise üstün konumlandıran bu hiyerarşiyi bozmayı denemektedir. Kadın Golem’in karmaşık edebi tarihinin izini sürerek Süleyman ibn Cebirol’a atfedilen kadın düşmanı kadın Golem mitine odaklanarak Helene Wecker’ın The Golem and the Jinni [Golem ve Cin] ve Alice Hoffman’ın The World That We Knew’sında [Bildiğimiz Dünya] kurgulanan ‘kadın’ ve ‘insan’ kategorilerinin kesişimlerini sorguluyorum. Hoffman ve Wecker tarafından geliştirilen feminist eleştirilerin detaylandırılması yoluyla bazı hümanist düşüncelerin her bir romanın feminist projesini arta bıraktığı ve sınırladığı yolu araştırarak her bir yazarın dişi Golem'i feminist gözden geçirmesiyle başarılan post-hümanist düşünceye kısa bakışı vurguluyorum. Bu romanları incelemek için post-hümanist felsefeden ve feminist ve Yahudi feminist edebiyat eleştirisinden yararlanarak sonunda feminist müdahalelerin başarısı için post-hümanist düşüncenin gerekliliğini öneriyorum.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Golem
• Jewish Studies
• Posthumanism
• Feminism
• Cultural Studies

Kaynakça

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