Eavan Boland’ın Şiirlerinde Toplumsal Cinsiyet ile Kesişen Şiddet Temsilleri

Öz

Modern İrlanda Edebiyatı’nın en bilinen şairlerinden biri olan Eavan Boland (1944-2020), şiirinde şiddet kavramını ele alma biçimiyle genç İrlandalı yazarlar için yeni bir kapı aralamıştır. Boland, İrlanda tarihindeki dönüm noktalarına retrospektif bir biçimde bakar, aynı zamanda gündeliğin içinde bir ‘özel alan’ tarif eder, bunları yaparken de şiddet kavramını toplumsal cinsiyet temelinde ele alır. Boland’ın entelektüel radarına İrlanda’nın uluslaşma dönemi ve 1960'ların sonlarından 1998'e kadar Kuzey İrlanda'da yaşanan siyasi ve etnik temelli çatışma dönemi girer. Boland bu dönemlerdeki toplumsal olarak deneyimlenen şiddeti gündelik birey yaşantısı ile yan yana koyar. Dolayısıyla Boland şiirinde kamusal alan ile özel alan sürekli bir diyalog halindedir. Hatta, kamusal ile özel alan arasındaki sınır Boland şiirinde zaman zaman ortadan kalkmıştır. Ayrıca, Boland’a göre toplumsal cinsiyet perspektifinden bakıldığında, şiddet karşısında yaratılmış olan kahraman ideali İrlanda tarihinde kadın kahramanı dışlamaktadır. Bu kavramsal çerçeveden hareketle bu yazı, Boland’ın kendi şiirlerinde şiddeti toplumsal cinsiyet temelinde nasıl ele aldığını sorunsallaştırır. Bu yazıda, belirtilen sorunsala sırasıyla Boland’ın şu şiirleri üzerinden yanıt verilir: Savaş Atı (The War Horse), Banliyö Kadını (Suburban Woman), Kendi Suretinde (In Her Own Image), ve Ev İçi Şiddet (Domestic Violence). Bu şiirlerde şiddet özel alanın dışında bırakılamayan bir toplumsal deneyimdir ve feminen öznenin ‘özel alan’ deneyimleri ile iç içe geçmiştir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Eavan Boland
• Şiir
• İrlanda Edebiyatı
• Şiddet
• Ulus

Representations of Violence Crosscutting Gender in the Works of Eavan Boland

Abstract

Eavan Boland (1944-2020) paved the way for a new era for the next generations of poets through her treatment of the concept of violence as an Irish poet. While looking retrospectively at the turning points in Irish history and making her own private space visible to her readers, Boland also addresses the concept of violence on a gendered basis. Boland’s intellectual radar captures the period of Irish nation-building and the political and ethnic conflict in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s to 1998. Boland juxtaposes the socially experienced violence in these periods with everyday life experiences. Thus, the boundary between public and private spheres disappears in her poetry. According to Boland, from a gender perspective, the heroic ideal created in the face of violence excludes “the heroine” in Irish history. Accordingly, this paper problematizes how Boland handles violence on grounds of gender. To address this question, the following four poems are explored respectively in this paper: The War Horse, Suburban Woman, In Her Own Image, and Domestic Violence. In these poems, Boland identifies violence as a social experience which cannot be excluded from the private sphere and portrays it as an intertwined material with everyday experiences of the feminine subject.

Keywords

• Eavan Boland
• Poetry
• Irish Literature
• Violence
• Nationhood

Kaynakça

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