Irkçılık ve Söylem: Joseph Conrad’ın Karanlığın Yüreği ve Maggie Gee’nin White Ailesi

Joseph Conrad’ın Karanlığın Yüreği, kolonyal dönemdeki beyaz ırk ve siyah ırk arasındaki ilişkiyi konu alır. Roman, kendilerini üstün ırk olarak gören beyazların siyahlara hükmedişlerini gösterir. Maggie Gee’nin White Ailesi adlı eseri ise, beyaz olmayanların eğitim, özel mülkiyet ve çalışmaya ilişkin bazı sosyo-ekonomik haklar elde etmelerine rağmen, yine de ırkçılığa maruz kaldıklarını gösteren post-kolonyal bir romandır. Roman, sömürge sonrası toplumdaki siyahların, kendilerinden öncekiler gibi, akıl, ahlak ve sosyal davranış açısından beyaz ırktan aşağı görüldüklerinin altını çizer. Ayrıca, White Ailesi, siyahların kendilerini nasıl yabancı hissettirildiklerini ortaya koyar. Gee’nin romanında beyaz ırktan olmayanların isimleri İngilizce olmasına ve İngilizce konuşmalarına rağmen, Karanlığın Yüreği’ndeki soydaşları gibi, koyu tenleri nedeniyle ‘öteki’ olarak yaftalanırlar. Bu çalışmanın amacı, Joseph Conrad’ın Karanlığın Yüreği ve Maggie Gee’nin White Ailesi adlı eserleri üzerine karşılaştırmalı bir çalışma yaparak Batılı ırkçı söylemin siyahların hem sömürge hem de sömürge sonrası dönemlerde ırk ayrımcılığına maruz kalmasına neden olduğunu göstermektir.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Joseph Conrad, Maggie Gee, Karanlığın Yüreği, White Ailesi, ırksal ayrımcılık

Racism and Discourse: Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Maggie Gee’s The White Family

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness deals with the relationship between the white race and black race in the colonial period. The novel shows how the blacks are dominated by the whites who regard themselves as the superior race. Maggie Gee’s The White Family, on the other hand, is a post-colonial novel showing that although non-whites have acquired some socio-economic rights pertaining to education, private ownership and working, they are still exposed to racism. The novel underlines the fact that the blacks in the post-colonial society, like their predecessors, are regarded as inferior to the white race in terms of intellect, morals and social manners. Moreover, The White Family reveals how black people are made to feel themselves as foreigners. Although non-whites have English names and speak English in Gee’s novel, they, like their counterparts in Heart of Darkness, are stigmatised as ‘the other’ due to their darker skins. The aim of this study is to show that Western racist discourse causes black people to suffer from racial discrimination both in colonial and post-colonial periods by making a comparative study of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Gee’s The White Family.

Keywords:

Joseph Conrad, Maggie Gee, Heart of Darkness, The White Family, racial discrimination,

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