Yüzyıl Sonu Kadın Yazarları: Yeni Kadının Kısa Öykülerinde Yeni Kadınsallığın Temsili

Öz

Radikal bir kadın figürü ve tartışmalı bir edebi karakter olarak Yeni Kadın, ondokuzuncu yüzyıl sonunda İngiltere'de feminist kadınlar tarafından yazılmış eserlerde ortaya çıktı. Kısa hikaye, yeni kadınlığın temsili ve görüşlerini ifade etmesi için hem içerik hem de biçim açısından uygun bir türdü. Yeni Kadın’ın öyküleri, sigara içme alışkanlıkları, erkeksi duruşları ve davranışları ile güçlü feminist argümanlarıyla özdeşleşmiş çok sayıda karakteri canlandırdı. Bu makale, Yeni Kadın’ın yaratılmasında sanatsal yaratıcılık, sözde erkeksiliğin sergilenmesi, kadın hakları hakkındaki ifade and davranış özgürlüğü ile ortaya çıkan anlamları tanımlamaya çalışmaktadır. Bu yazıda incelenen eserler, kadınlar tarafından yazılmış kısa öykülerin temsili bir derlemesini içeren, Elaine Showalter’un Daughters of Decadence: Women Writers of the Fin-de-Siècle başlıklı kitabından seçilmiştir. Bu seçimde, kitapta bulunan kısa hikaye tercihilerinin, kadın özgürlükleri ve kişisel mücadeleleri konusunda, hangi yönlerden ortak bir söylem yaratıldığını belirlemek önemli olmuştur.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Yeni Kadın,yeni kadınsallık,yüzyıl sonu,kısa öyküler

Fin De Siècle Female Writers: Representing the New Femininity in the New Woman’s Short Stories

Öz

The New Woman as a radical female figure and a controversial literary construct appeared in the works of fin-de-siècle feminist authors in Britain. Short story was a suitable form for the New Woman to represent new femininity and express her opinions both in content and form. Her short stories portrayed a large body of female characters that could be identified with her smoking habits, masculine outfits and manners as well as strong feminist arguments. This paper attempts to identify what the possible meanings are engendered by the constructions of new femininity and her unconventional personalities that promote women’s artistic creativity, performance of pseudo-masculinity as well as free act and speech for gender equality. The stories examined in this paper have been selected from Elaine Showalter’s book entitled Daughters of Decadence: Women Writers of the Fin-de-Siècle, which includes a representative selection of short stories written by female writers. In this selection, it has also been important to determine in what ways the collection of short stories in this edition offered a common discourse about these women’s stance over the issue of female liberties and their personal struggle in their private lives.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• The New Woman,new femininity,fin de siècle,short stories

Kaynakça

1. Ardis, Ann L. (1990). New Women, New Novels: Feminism and Early Modernism. London: Rutgers University Press.
2. Chopin, K. (1993). An Egyptian Cigarette. In Showalter, E. (Ed.).Daughters of Decadence: Women Writers of the Fin-de-Siecle. (pp. 1-5). London: Virago Press.
3. Cross, V. (1993). Theodora: a Fragment. In Showalter, E. (Ed.). Daughters of Decadence: Women Writers of the Fin-de-Siecle. (pp. 6-37). London: Virago Press.
4. Fletcher, I. (Ed.). (1979). Decadence and the 1890s. London: Edward Arnold Publishers.
5. Gardiner, J. (Ed.). (1993). The New Woman. London: Collins and Brown Publishing.
6. Hanson, C. (1996). The Lifted Veil: Women and Short Stories in the 1880s and 1890s. The Year Book of English Studies. 31, pp. 135-142.
7. Heilmann, A. (2000). New Woman Fiction: Women Writing First-Wave Feminism. London: Macmillan Press.
8. Mew, C. A White Night (1903). In Showalter, E. (Ed.). Daughters of Decadence: Women Writers of the Fin-de-Siecle. (pp. 118-138). London: Virago Press.

9. “Primum Vivere, Deine Philosophar: First one must live, then one may philosophize”. Punch. 1905.
10. Pykett, L. (Ed.). (1996). Reading Fin de Siècle Fictions. Essex: Longman Addison Wesley.
11. Schreiner, O. (1988). Letter to Mary Roberts (1889). Rive R. (Ed.), Olive Schreiner: Letters. London: Oxford University Press.
12. Shaw, M. and Randolph, L. (2007). New Woman Writers of the Late Nineteenth Century. Devon: Northcote.
13. Showalter, E. (Ed.). (1993). Daughters of Decadence: Women Writers of the Fin-de-Siècle. London: Virago Press.
14. Showalter, E. (1990). Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siècle. London: Virago Press.
15. Woods, Marianne B. (2009). The New Woman in Print and Pictures: An Annotated Bibliography. London: McFarland & Company Publishers.