Slam the Door Softly: Feminist Rewriting of A Doll’s House

Yıl 2025, Cilt: 1 Sayı: 1, 135 - 146, 27.02.2025

Meryem Ayan

Öz

Slam the Door Softly (1970), written 91 years after Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1879), is a re-writing in which Luce creates a modernized Nora in her play compared to the traditional Nora in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. In both plays, women are entrapped in the burdens of their marriage, trying to free themselves from the male authority, and gender boundaries. The traditional Nora in A Doll’s House is a submissive wife listening to her husband and obeying him in every condition, but the modernized Nora in Slam the Door Softly is an educated women who wants to be an individual listened and understood by her husband. Thus, this study aims to analyze how traditional Nora and modernized Nora struggle to change and challenge their position in their marriages, in a male dominated society, and socially constructed gender roles. Thus, Luce’s Slam the Door Softly and Ibsen’s A Doll’s House will be compared from a feminist perspective.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Clare Boothe Luce, Slam the Door Softly, Henry Ibsen, A Doll’s House, gender roles, feminism

Slam the Door Softly: A Doll’s House’un Feminist Yeniden Yazımı

Öz

Slam the Door Softly (1970), Ibsen’in A Doll’s House (1879) oyununun yeniden yazımdır. 91 yıl sonra yazılan, bu oyunda, Luce, Ibsen’in A Doll’s House oyunundaki geleneksel Nora’ya kıyasla, modernize edilmiş bir Nora yaratmaktadır. Her iki oyunda da evliliğin getirdiği yüklere hapsolmuş kadınlar, kendilerini erkek otoritesinden ve cinsiyet sınırlarından kurtarmaya çalışmaktadır. A Doll’s House’daki geleneksel Nora, kocasını dinleyen ve ona her koşulda itaat eden sadık bir eş iken, Slam the Door Softly’deki modernize edilmiş Nora, kocası tarafından sözü dinlenen ve anlaşılan bir birey olmak isteyen eğitimli bir kadındır. Bu nedenle, geleneksel Nora ile modern Nora’nın evliliklerindeki, erkek egemen toplumdaki ve toplumsal olarak inşa edilen cinsiyet rollerindeki konumlarını değiştirme ve bunlara meydan okuma mücadelesini analiz etmeyi amaçlayan bu çalışmada, Luce’un Slam the Door Softly ve Ibsen’in A Doll’s House adlı oyunları feminist bakış açısı ile karşılaştırılmaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Clare Boothe Luce, Slam the Door Sofly, Henry Ibsen, A Doll’s House, toplumsal cinsiyet rolleri, feminizm

Kaynakça

• Allen, G. (2000). Intertextuality: The new critical idiom. Routledge.
• Barry, P. (2002). Beginning theory: An introduction to literary and cultural theory. Manchester University Press.
• Beauvoir, S. (1973). The second sex. Vintage Books.
• Borges, J. L. (2000). A note on (towards) Bernard Shaw. In Labyrinths: Selected stories and other writings. Penguin.
• Bryson, V. (1999). Feminist debates: Issues of theory and political practice. Macmillan.
• Flax, J. (1990). Postmodernism and gender relations in feminist theory. In L. J. Nicholson (Ed.), Feminism/postmodernism (pp. 39-62). Routledge.
• Ibsen, H. (1910). A doll’s house: And two other plays (R. F. Sharp & E. M. Aveling, Trans.). J. M. Dent.
• Kavka, M. (2001). Introduction. In E. Bronfen & M. Kavka (Eds.), Feminist consequences: Theory for the new century (pp. ix–xxvi). Columbia University Press.
• Koht, H. (1971). Life of Ibsen (E. Haugen & A. E. Santaniello, Trans. & Eds.). Blom.
• Luce, C. B. (1995). Slam the door softly. In C. H. Klaus, M. Gilbert, & B. S. Field Jr. (Eds.), Modern and contemporary drama. St. Martin’s Press.
• Meyer, M. (1971). Henrik Ibsen: A biography. Rupert Hart-Davis.
• Nicoll, A. (1925). British drama. Crowell Company Publishers.
• Öteyaka, I., & Ayan, M. (2019). Postmodern Red Riding Hood: Bella Swan in the Twilight series. Pamukkale University Journal of Social Sciences Institute, 34, 123-132.
• Page, R. E. (2006). Literary and linguistic approaches to feminist narratology. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Rubenstein, D. (1987). Before the suffragettes. The Harvester Press.
• Shafer, Y. (1985). Introduction. In Y. Shafer (Ed.), Approaches to teaching Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (pp. 31-34). MLA.
• Tong, R. P. (2009). Feminist thought: A more comprehensive introduction. Westview Press.
• Törnqvist, E. (1995). Ibsen: A Doll’s House. Cambridge University Press.