Papers by Tugba Karabulut
Fe Dergi: Feminist Eleştiri Ankara University, 2022
Hilda Doolittle, an American poet, playwright, and novelist known by the initials H.D., was one o... more Hilda Doolittle, an American poet, playwright, and novelist known by the initials H.D., was one of the few female figures of the male-dominated early modernist era. Her early works are of crucial importance as they are associated with Imagism, the literary movement shaped by Ezra Pound as a reaction to the wordiness, indirectness, and sentimentality of Victorian and Romantic poetry. H.D. played an important role in Imagism. Ezra Pound, who suggested that Hilda Doolittle append the signature “H.D., Imagiste” to her works, introduced her as the leader of Imagism. Her first poetry collection, Sea Garden (1916), which includes twenty-seven poems, is a paragon of Imagist poetry. The poems were composed in free verse without thematic boundaries and with the use of harsh and impersonal style and diction, natural imagery, a melodious rhythm, and economical word choice. However, H.D.’s “The Garden,” an image-focused poem from this collection, goes far beyond Imagism. It is not simply a nature poem; the narrator glorifies fierce natural objects such as hard roses, rigorous winds, and thick air to represent women’s potential strength, resilience, and productivity. It also subverts the stereotypical representation of femininity and female vulnerability by displacing dominant patriarchal myths. The poem is brimming with encoded images that metaphorically reconstruct female imagery and representation. This paper investigates how “The Garden” unfolds hidden and disregarded concepts of femininity to reposition the female figure in the ideal imaginary “Garden” by saving her from the confinement of the man-made “Garden” in order to suggest a new representation of femininity, mirroring Pound’s call to “Make It New!”
XLinguae European Scientific Language Journal, 2015
Ann Radcliffe, an important pioneer of the Gothic genre, is a representative of her culture in te... more Ann Radcliffe, an important pioneer of the Gothic genre, is a representative of her culture in terms of revealing the features of the male-dominant 18th century world as acceptable to her audience in The Mysteries of Udolpho. Dealing covertly with the validity of the established values of the patriarchal society, she hardly suggests alternative norms and behaviour types to women. Therefore, if analysed from the biographical and psychological perspectives, Radcliffe can be said to have constructed Emily, the major female character in Udolpho, like herself: Emily is committed to masculine ideas (and ideals), and is submissive to patriarchal authority. By constructing such a character, Radcliffe, in fact, gives hints about her own life which we know little about. The parallelisms between the lives and viewpoints of Radcliffe and her heroine indeed unveil the author's inner world and her wish fulfilment over the major character. Happy with the masculine civilization, her heroine, like herself, remains anodyne and unengaging.
Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Çankaya University, 2013
William Wordsworth, often called the poet of nature, emphasizes the significance of nature, and h... more William Wordsworth, often called the poet of nature, emphasizes the significance of nature, and how it inspires his imagination in his poems. In one of his letters to his sister, Dorothy,written between September, 6 and 12, 1790, he expresses his feelings about his love and admiration towards nature, "I am a perfect Enthusiast in my admiration of nature in all her various forms; and I have looked upon and as it were conversed with the objects which this country has presented to my view so long, and with such increasing pleasure, that the idea of parting from them oppresses me with a sadness similar to what I have always felt in quitting a beloved friend." 1 His words reveal how much he loves and respects nature in all its forms. In his Preface to Lyrical Ballads, where he defines poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity," 2 he dwells on the significance of nature for a Romantic poet. He emphasizes the impact of nature and rural life on the passions and self-maturation of human beings: "Low and rustic life was generally chosen, because in that condition, the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more emphatic language; because in that condition of life our elementary feelings co-exist in a state of greater simplicity, and consequently, may be more accurately contemplated, and more forcibly communicated; because the manners of rural life germinate from those elementary feelings; and, from the necessary character of rural occupations, are more easily comprehended; and are more durable; and lastly, because in that condition the passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature." 3 He claims that poetry naturally comes by the expression of feelings which have deeply been inspired by and cultivated in silent nature. As he maintains a simplistic way of expression in his poetry, he emphasizes the importance of simple life in nature. In this article, I will analyse Wordsworth's appreciation of nature and his gradual self-awareness
Hacettepe University Journal of Faculty of Letters, 2022
The British avant-garde poet, artist and feminist Mina Loy is an innovative female figure of the ... more The British avant-garde poet, artist and feminist Mina Loy is an innovative female figure of the early twentieth century. Loy's poetry is noted for unusual typography, multiple and shifting narrative voices and themes such as motherhood, gender, investigations of female mind and body and sexuality. Her artworks maintain an eclectic attitude synthesizing the ideas of the canonical art movements of the era-Futurism, Surrealism and Cubism. Loy's "Parturition" (1914) gets the critical attention of the avant-garde community with its idiosyncratic subject, style and graphic description. The poem problematizes the complex relationships between Futurism and Feminism, and argues the act of parturition occurs in three embodiments of labour: physical childbirth, artistic creation and poetic production. So far, the literal interpretations of "Parturition" have generally focused on its physical aspect, treating labour as a parturient woman's giving birth; however, this semiotic and intertextual investigation brings out the complexity of the text's conceptions. This article, in terms of various concepts of "feminine writing" and evolution theories and with intertextual references to Loy's "Aphorisms on Futurism," aims to explore the poem's "fragmented narrative" structure and to argue that its Feminist persona multiplies into three different identities-a feminist-futurist mother who resists the social domestication and classification of women, an avant-garde artist who subverts the retrospective aesthetic forms and reforms the new ones, and a creative poet who overthrows conventional language forms and reconstructs a new form-Futurist language. These identities undergo various bodily and mental transformations eventually merging to construct new forms and achieve physical and psychological self-realization. Loy's iconography, Ansikten [ca. 1910s], which, through the visual, semiotic and intertextual analogy I have created, seems to represent the mental and physical space of the maternal-artistic-textual narrator.
Journal of Modernism and Postmodernism, 2021
The British poet and artist Mina Loy holds an exceptional place in the art and literature of the ... more The British poet and artist Mina Loy holds an exceptional place in the art and literature of the avant-garde and enlightens the dawn of the Modernist era in the early twentieth century. Loy’s poetry is innovative with its unusual and idiosyncratic fragmentary style and shifting narrative voices, while her artworks are unique, maintaining an eclectic approach associated with the canonical artistic movements of her age, such as Futurism, Cubism, Dadaism, and Surrealism. Her creative visual and literary output problematizes the conventions of that time by both opposing and reconciling with them. Loy’s manifesto-poem, “Aphorisms on Futurism” (1914), intertextually connects the significations in each aphorism with one another and with her other textual and artistic works. The text creates the chains of signification to reveal the dialogical rhetoric as well as the evolutionary nature of the narrative voice manoeuvring between Futurism and Modernism in relation both to herself and the implied readers. Loy’s persona argues for destroying the traditional language forms and proclaims a new form, which is representative of Futurist poetry, by subverting the retrospective ones and constructing new ones. Within this framework, Loy’s untitled 1951 New York painting seems to represent the destruction of the traditional art forms to celebrate the concepts of dynamism and deformation, which evokes the features of Futurist, Dadaist, and Cubist aesthetics. In this experimental poem, the arguments of Loy’s fictive persona, through shifting between Futurism and Modernism, create complexintertextuality between the aphorisms and the narrator’s shifting voices. The arguments of the narrative voice illuminate the narrator’s Futurist-Modernist project by inviting both herself and the readers to attain the individual consciousness and liberation through a metamorphic journey from being a Futurist to a Modernist.
Women’s Studies: An Inter-disciplinary Journal, 2020
Women 1 if you want to realize yourselvesyou are on the eve of a devastating upheavalall your pet... more Women 1 if you want to realize yourselvesyou are on the eve of a devastating upheavalall your pet illusions must be unmaskedthe lies of centuries have got to goare you prepared for the Wrench-? There is no half-measure-NO scratching on the surface of the rubbish heap of tradition, will bring about Reform, the only method is Absolute Demolition-Mina Loy, "Feminist Manifesto" (1914) 2
Journal of Human and Social Sciences (JOHASS), 2023
Mrs. Warren's Profession was written in 1893 by the Irish critic and dramatist George Bernard Sha... more Mrs. Warren's Profession was written in 1893 by the Irish critic and dramatist George Bernard Shaw, who introduced social realism to the British stage. First performed in 1902 in London, the text is a social critique satirizing the stereotypical Victorian norms. Reflecting Shaw's feminist ideals, the play also contributed to the development of the feminist movement. Mrs. Warren's Profession introduces the-New Woman‖ type who rebels against the stereotyped female representations and male-centered conventions of the nineteenth century. The play mainly revolves around a controversial taboo topic, prostitution. Shaw dramatizes this profession through the two untraditional female characters. Kitty Warren is an audacious woman running a brothel to provide her daughter with better life and education standards and Vivie is a highly-educated and independent woman who expostulates her mother for her profession. Mrs. Warren's Profession stresses that it is the social, economic and moral ills of the society that lead women to choose this profession. This paper, from a feminist lens, links these two non-conformist characters to navigate the ways through which the concept of the-New Woman is represented. This paper also investigates how these characters protest against the stereotypical female roles imposed on them to gain an autonomous identity within society. Thus, this study, through these two female characters, reveals how this play dethrones the myth of the-Angel in the House, the ideal Victorian woman, and sheds light on the modern feminism.
Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 2023
Re-reading Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novelette, Mathilda, in the twenty-first century from an... more Re-reading Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novelette, Mathilda, in the twenty-first century from an ecofeminist perspective sheds a new light on contemporary criticism, opening up multifaceted perspectives. There was a critical moment in British literary history when Elizabeth Nitchie transcribed Mathilda from the microfilm of the manuscript and published it in 1959, which unveiled this piece of revolutionary taboo fiction suppressed for over a century by the author’s male relatives, chiefly Shelley’s father, William Godwin. Written in 1819-1820, Mathilda is the only work completed during Shelley’s lifetime. It is an artfully crafted epistolary work depicting the traumatic confessions and suicidal tendencies of the protagonist, Mathilda, a woman who isolated herself from society by integrating herself with nature due to her father’s confession for his incestuous passion towards her. Regarded as an underrated work, Mathilda has often been interpreted from biographical and incest-related perspectives by literary critics, which relegates its literary merits although it is in accordance with feminist and ecological theories and feminine writing. This paper, avoiding biographical accounts and the author’s life experiences and with theories consistent with those of ecofeminism, intends to show how nature functions as an effective instrument for the female writer to fictionalize her taboo story. By blending ecofeminism with feminine writing, this paper also investigates the interplay between woman and nature, and navigates how a female character courageously relocates her taboo story on a textual level from a feminist perspective in a natural setting, challenging the male-dominant Romantic tradition of the nineteenth century.
Journal of Modernism and Postmodernism Studies, 2023
Amerikan şair ve yazar Sylvia Plath, Amerikan edebiyatında 1950’lerde ortaya çıkan Gizdökümcü Şii... more Amerikan şair ve yazar Sylvia Plath, Amerikan edebiyatında 1950’lerde ortaya çıkan Gizdökümcü Şiir türünün öncülerinden biridir. Plath’ın genellikle psikanalist, feminist ve otobiyografik açılardan incelenmiş ve yaşamındaki trajik olaylarla ilişkilendirilmiş olan “Lady Lazarus” adlı şiiri, bu türün en iyi örneklerinden biri olarak kabul edilir. Şiir, ölüm ve intihar temalarını merkeze alarak, anlatıcının erkeklerin dünyasında güçlü bir kadın olma arayışını ve sanatsal bir eylem olarak tanımladığı ölümden sonra yeniden dirilişini anlatır. Plath’ın sadece öznel değil evrensel bir gerçekliği de arayan bu şiiri, “Lazarus,” “Anka Kuşu” ve “Nazi Soykırımı” gibi mitolojik, dini ve toplumsal çeşitli simgeler de barındırmaktadır. Plath, şiire adını veren ve öldükten sonra İsa tarafından diriltilen eril bir karakter olan Lazarus’u kadın bir karaktere dönüştürerek, ataerkil ve dinsel mitleri de yıkar. Türk edebiyatında ise Garip akımının şiir anlayışına tepki olarak, 1950’lerde ortaya çıkan İkinci Yeni hareketinden etkilenmiş bir şair olan Nilgün Marmara, “gizdökümcü” veya “itirafçı” şiir olarak bilinen türün öncülerindendir. Marmara’nın “Savrulan Beden” adlı şiiri gizdökümcü şiirin en iyi örneklerinden biri olma özelliğini taşır. Şiirde Marmara’nın anlatıcısı, zihninde kurguladığı intihar fikrini eyleme dönüştürme anını betimler ve ölümü,anlatıcısını yok ederek özgürleştiren bir eylem olarak tasvir eder. Evrimsel bir süreçten geçen anlatıcı, bedenini beyniyle yok etmeye karar verir. Bedenini varlıktan hiçliğe doğru savurarak bedensel temsilini ölümün yanında konumlandırır. Marmara için ölümü cazip yapan varlık değil hiçliktir. Plath’ın anlatıcısı için ise ölümü travmatik yapan, ölmek değil, ölememektir. Ölmeyi bir türlü başaramayan anlatıcı, yeniden dirilmeye karar verir. Varoluşçu açıdan baktığımızda, her iki şiirin de gizdökümcü anlatıcılarının, varlıklarıyla uzlaşamayarak kendilerine ve topluma yabancılaşmış kadın karakterler olduklarını görürüz. Bireysel yalnızlıkları ön plandadır ve özgürlüklerine kavuşma yolculuğunda ölümü farklı biçimlerde seçerler. Bu çalışmada, Plath’in “Lady Lazarus” ve Marmara’nın “Savrulan Beden” adlı gizdökümcü şiirlerindeki ölüm teması ve bu şiirler arasındaki zamansal ve uzamsal benzerlik ve zıtlıklar incelenecektir. Ayrıca, şairlerin seçilmiş diğer bazı şiirlerine de metinlerarası göndermeler yapılarak, gizdökümcü şairlik bağlamında ve varoluşsal teoriler ışığında bir karşılaştırma yapılacaktır.
RumeliDE Journal of Language and Literature Studies, 2023
Vorticism was a London-based avant-garde movement of art and literature in the early 20th century... more Vorticism was a London-based avant-garde movement of art and literature in the early 20th century. Launched by Wyndham Lewis with "The Vorticist Manifesto" in 1914, Vorticism employed the depiction of an image's movement and exalted the dynamism of the wartime machine age. Inspired by Futurism and Cubism, Vorticism is often considered masculinist, excluding women from the textual and visual canons. The British avant-garde poet and artist Jessica Dismorr (1885-1939) was one of the two female members of Vorticism. She contributed to the movement with her textual and artistic representations from its commencement to its demise; however, she was long overlooked by literary and aesthetic critics. This article, from intertextual, aesthetic and feminist perspectives, investigates how the textual and visual narrators in Dismorr's prose-poems "June Night" (1915) and "London Notes" (1915) and her painting, Abstract Composition (c.1915) problematize the exclusion of women in London's male-dominated city and public spaces and argues the relationship between urbanization and "Female Vorticism."
Book Chapter by Tugba Karabulut
Unbelonging in Postcolonial Literature Unbelonging in Postcolonial Literature , 2023
As one of the outstanding themes in postcolonial studies, the “sense of (un)belonging” covers a b... more As one of the outstanding themes in postcolonial studies, the “sense of (un)belonging” covers a broad understanding in cultural and literary texts. In tandem with other terms related to identity, (un)belonging stands out to be an umbrella term that has sparked the initiative behind this thematic collection of chapters in postcolonial literature. Authors of the chapters has endeavored to explore the issue of cultural identity through a number of critical terms to clarify the issue of the sense of (un)belonging in various literary texts. Also, the writers have achieved this exploration not only in the texts written in postcolonial era but in different texts written previously in different literary periods. Readers are assured to be satisfied with the theoretical backgrounds, critical overview of the texts, and to be knowledgeable about this specific literary theory.
International Theory, Research and Reviews in Philology, 2023
This chapter investigates the objects, concepts and symbols in Marianne Moore’s “The Fish” and re... more This chapter investigates the objects, concepts and symbols in Marianne Moore’s “The Fish” and reconstructs them with alternative meanings with reference to ecocriticism, a recently elaborated critical theory. In this article, I would argue that Moore’s narrator in “The Fish” merges human and non-human universes to draw attention to human exploitation of the marine world. I would also argue that, in this way, the narrative voice intends to construct social responsibility and ecological consciousness for protecting and renovating the marine environment. Thus, Moore’s narrator warns humans against about ecological threats by foreshadowing the future ecological issues. Within this concept, this article also intends to reveal the unique features of Marianne Moore’s poetic works, which disentangle her from her contemporaries.
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Papers by Tugba Karabulut
Book Chapter by Tugba Karabulut