ELİZABETH BARRETT BROWNİNG’İN AURORA LEİGH ADLI ESERİNDE GELENEKSEL CİNSİYET ROLLERİNE BİR MEYDAN OKUMA OLARAK EVLİLİK TEMASI
Abstract
Elizabeth Barrett Browning Aurora Leigh başlıklı uzun anlatı şiirinde dönemin geleneksel cinsiyet rolleri doğrultusunda itaatkâr bir eş olmak yerine şair olmak için mücadele eden bir kadını canlandırmaktadır. Kadın kahramanın mücadelesinden anlaşıldığı üzere, kadınlar için evlilik tek kariyer olanağı olarak görüldüğünden kariyer yapmaya çalışan kadınlar çeşitli engellerle karşılaşmaktadır. Bu engellere ve cinsiyete özgü uygulamalara rağmen, kadın kahraman Aurora Leigh bir şair olmayı başarıp kuzeniyle evlenmektedir. Kahramanın edebi kariyeri ve evliliği kadınlığın kariyer yapmak için bir engel olmadığını göstermektedir. Böylece, Elizabeth Barrett Browning ataerkil topluma ve kadınlara hem kırılganlık kavramının hem de bazı kısıtlayıcı rollerin atfedilmesine meydan okumaktadır. Browning evliliğin kadınlar için bir kariyer olmadığını aksine doğaları gereği bir gereklilik olduğunun altını çizmek için eserini geleneksel bir evlilik yerine ataerkil Viktorya toplumunun geleneksel cinsiyet rollerine meydan okuyan bir evlilik ile sonlandırmaktadır. Aurora Leigh'teki evliliğin sıra dışılığını tartışan bu çalışma, Browning'in geleneksel cinsiyet rollerini nasıl sorunsallaştırdığını ve evliliği bir boyun eğme göstergesi olarak değil, kadının güçlü yanının bir parçası olarak değerlendirdiğini göstermektedir.
References
- Browning, E. B. (2008). Aurora Leigh. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Calder, Jenni (1977). The Victorian Home. London: Batsford.
- Carion, M. D. N. (2003). The Influence of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh over Elizabeth Stuart Phelps’s The Story of Avis.
- Fifty Years of English Studies in Spain (1952-2002). A Commemorative Volume. Ed. Couso, M. J. L. et. al. Santiago de Compostela: University of Santiago de Compostela press.
- Case, A. (1991). Gender and Narration in Aurora Leigh. Victorian Poetry, 29 (1), 17-32.
- Darwin, C. (1896). The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex. New York: D. Appleton and Company.
- Everett, C. C. (1857). North American Review, 85 (177), 415-41.
- Gallagher, C. (1988). The Industrial Reformation of English Fiction: Social Discourse and Narrative Form, 1832-1867. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Gilbert, S. M., & Gubar, S. (1984). The madwoman in the attic: The woman writer and the nineteenth-century literary imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- Gorham, D. (1982). The Victorian girl and the feminine ideal. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
- Henderson, H. and Sharpe, W. (2004). Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806-1861. The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Gen. Ed. Damrosch, D. Volume B. Newyork: Pearson Longman.
- Kaplan, C. (1978). Aurora Leigh and Other Poems. London: Women’s Press.
- Lewis, B. W. (2007). That Idyl of the June, That Girls’ Gospel: Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and Browning’s Aurora Leigh. Womanhood in Anglophone Literary Culture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Pespectives. Ed. Hammerman, R. Newcastle, U.K: Cambridge Scholars.
- Martinez, C. M. (2012). Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh: A Reading Guide. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- Mill, J. S. (1999). The subjection of women. His contemporary and modern critics. Ed. Jacobs, L. A. and Vandewetering, R. Delmar, N.Y: Caravan Books.
- Rotunno, L. (2008). Writers of Reform and Reforming in Aurora Leigh and A Writer of Books. Gender and Victorian Reform. Ed. Rose, A. Newcastle, U.K: Cambridge Scholars.
- Wallace, A. D. (1997). Nor in Fading Silks Compose: Sewing, Walking, and Poetic Labor in Aurora Leigh. ELH, 64 (1), 223-256. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/30030252
- Woolf, V. (1932). Aurora Leigh. The Second Common Reader. New York: Harcourt Brace.
- Woolf, V. (2012). A Room of One’s Own. Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Classics.
- Zonana, J. (1989). The Embodied Muse: Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh and Feminist Poetics” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature. 8 (2), 240- 62.
Abstract
Elizabeth Barrett Browning in her long narrative poem titled Aurora Leigh portrays a heroine that struggles to be a poetess rather than a submissive wife in accordance with gender conventions. Her struggle shows that women attempting to go beyond domesticity to pursue a career encounter certain obstacles because marriage is regarded supreme career for them. Despite those obstacles and gender-specific applications, Aurora Leigh, the heroine, becomes a poet and marries her cousin. Her poetic career and marriage display that womanhood is not an obstacle to pursuing a career. By such a plot, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, challenged patriarchal society and the attribution of both frailty and certain fixed roles to women. Rather than presenting a conventional marriage in the end, Browning utilizes an unconventional marriage as a challenge to the patriarchal Victorian society because she underlined the fact that a marriage is not a career for women but a necessity. Discussing unconventionality of the marriage in Aurora Leigh, this study investigates how Browning problematizes conventional gender roles and presents marriage as a part of women’s powerful side rather than as a sign of subjection.
References
- Browning, E. B. (2008). Aurora Leigh. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Calder, Jenni (1977). The Victorian Home. London: Batsford.
- Carion, M. D. N. (2003). The Influence of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh over Elizabeth Stuart Phelps’s The Story of Avis.
- Fifty Years of English Studies in Spain (1952-2002). A Commemorative Volume. Ed. Couso, M. J. L. et. al. Santiago de Compostela: University of Santiago de Compostela press.
- Case, A. (1991). Gender and Narration in Aurora Leigh. Victorian Poetry, 29 (1), 17-32.
- Darwin, C. (1896). The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex. New York: D. Appleton and Company.
- Everett, C. C. (1857). North American Review, 85 (177), 415-41.
- Gallagher, C. (1988). The Industrial Reformation of English Fiction: Social Discourse and Narrative Form, 1832-1867. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Gilbert, S. M., & Gubar, S. (1984). The madwoman in the attic: The woman writer and the nineteenth-century literary imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- Gorham, D. (1982). The Victorian girl and the feminine ideal. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
- Henderson, H. and Sharpe, W. (2004). Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806-1861. The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Gen. Ed. Damrosch, D. Volume B. Newyork: Pearson Longman.
- Kaplan, C. (1978). Aurora Leigh and Other Poems. London: Women’s Press.
- Lewis, B. W. (2007). That Idyl of the June, That Girls’ Gospel: Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and Browning’s Aurora Leigh. Womanhood in Anglophone Literary Culture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Pespectives. Ed. Hammerman, R. Newcastle, U.K: Cambridge Scholars.
- Martinez, C. M. (2012). Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh: A Reading Guide. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- Mill, J. S. (1999). The subjection of women. His contemporary and modern critics. Ed. Jacobs, L. A. and Vandewetering, R. Delmar, N.Y: Caravan Books.
- Rotunno, L. (2008). Writers of Reform and Reforming in Aurora Leigh and A Writer of Books. Gender and Victorian Reform. Ed. Rose, A. Newcastle, U.K: Cambridge Scholars.
- Wallace, A. D. (1997). Nor in Fading Silks Compose: Sewing, Walking, and Poetic Labor in Aurora Leigh. ELH, 64 (1), 223-256. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/30030252
- Woolf, V. (1932). Aurora Leigh. The Second Common Reader. New York: Harcourt Brace.
- Woolf, V. (2012). A Room of One’s Own. Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Classics.
- Zonana, J. (1989). The Embodied Muse: Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh and Feminist Poetics” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature. 8 (2), 240- 62.
Details
| Primary Language | English |
|---|---|
| Subjects | Creative Arts and Writing |
| Journal Section | Articles |
| Authors | |
| Publication Date | October 21, 2021 |
| Published in Issue | Year 2021 |
