AGENCY OF THE BODIES: MATERIALITY IN RUTH OZEKI’S ALL OVER CREATION

Öz

Ruth Ozeki is a prominent Japanese - American contemporary novelist who addresses patriarchy, race, and the environment in her works. Ozeki’s second novel All Over Creation focuses on the encounters between human and non-human nature. She presents an issue of great concern, namely genetically modified food, alongside issues pertaining to reproduction, racial discrimination, and capitalist agribusiness. This paper analyzes All Over Creation using material feminist theory which advocates that both human and non-human bodies are not passive and empty; rather, they are beings with their own needs, claims, and actions. By discussing similar encounters between human and non-human nature in terms of reproduction, the paper analyzes the loss of body agency of both potatoes and women under the control of anthropocentrism and patriarchy. By drawing an analogy between potatoes and women, Ozeki expresses her criticism of the deep-seated anthropocentrism and patriarchy and appeales to the emancipation of both potatoes’ and women’s bodies.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Body,Potatoes,Women,Genetically Modified,Reproduction,Materiality

BEDENLERİN EYLEYİCİLİĞİ: RUTH OZEKI’NIN ALL OVER CREATION ROMANINDA MADDESELLİK

Öz

Japon kökenli Amerikalı yazar Ruth Ozeki, ataerkillik, ırk ve çevre gibi sorunlara odaklanan eserleriyle bilinmektedir. Ozeki’nin ikinci romanı All Over Creation insan ve insan olmayan doğa arasındaki karşılaşmalara odaklanmaktadır. Ozeki bu eserinde genetiği değiştirilmiş gıdaların yanı sıra, üreme, ırksal ayrımcılık ve kapitalist endüstriyel tarım ile ilgili endişelerini dile getirmektedir. Bu makale All Over Creation romanını insan ve insan olmayan bedenlerin pasif ve boş olmadığını; bedenlerin kendi ihtiyaçları, istemleri ve eyleyiciliği olduğunu savunan maddeci feminist teoriyi kullanarak incelemektedir. İnsan ve insan olmayan doğalar arasındaki benzer karşılaşmaları üreme açısından tartışan bu makale, antroposentrizm ve ataerkillik kontrolü altındaki patateslerin ve kadın bedenlerinin kaybolan eyleyiciliğini incelemektedir. Ozeki, patatesler ve kadınlar arasında benzetme yaparak, kökleşmiş antroposentrizm ve ataerkilliğe yönelik eleştirilerini ifade etmekte ve patateslerin ve kadın bedenlerinin özgürleşmesini dillendirmektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Beden,Patatesler,Kadınlar,Genetiği Değiştirilmiş,Üretim,Maddesellik

Kaynakça

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6. Ozeki, R. (2004). All Over Creation. London: Penguin Books.
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9. Stein, R. (2010) “Bad Seed: Imperiled Biological and Social Diversity in Ruth Ozeki’s All Over Creation”. Postcolonial Green: Environmental Politics and World Narratives. (Eds.) Bonnie Roos and Alex Hunt.Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, pp. 177-196.
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