DEĞİŞKEN ÖZGÜRLÜK ALGI VE DENEYİMLERİ: HESTER PRYNNE VE KÂTİP BARTLEBY ÖRNEKLERİ

Özgürlük pek çok filozof, teorisyen, bilim insanı ve sanatçı tarafından irdelenmiş, farklı şekillerde tanımlanmış ve benimsenmiştir. Bununla birlikte, her toplum kendi tarih, kültür ve geleneği açısından kendine özgü normlar üretmiş ve özgürlük algı ve deneyimleri aynı toplumun bireyleri arasında bile farklılık göstermiştir. Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’nin bağımsızlığının ilanından önce İngiliz Krallığı’nın boyunduruğunda olması, özgürlük fikrinin Amerikan toplumunda önemini arttırmış ve bağımsızlık savaşları esnasında özgürlük kelimesi broşürler, gazeteler hatta duvarlara kadar her yerde görülmüştü. Zamanla kendilerini özgürlük kavramıyla özdeşleştiren bir halkın temsilcileri olarak Amerikan Edebiyatının temsilcileri eserlerinde sıklıkla bu temayı işlemişlerdir. 19. yüzyıl Amerikan edebiyatının önde gelen yazarlarından Nathaniel Hawthorne’un Kızıl Harf/Damgalı Kadın (The Scarlet Letter) ve Herman Melville’in Kâtip Bartleby (Bartleby the Scrivener) adlı eserleri birey açısından özgürlük temasını işleyen iki eser olarak karşımıza çıkar. Bu çalışma bu eserlerde özgürlükleri kısıtlanmış ve dolayısıyla toplumla bir çatışma içerisine girmiş olarak resmedilen bir kadın ve erkeğin, Hester Prynne ve Kâtip Bartleby’nin yabancılaşmaları, farklı ötekilik pozisyonları ve direniş yöntemlerine odaklanarak iki farklı özgürlük algı ve deneyimini karşılaştırmaktadır.

UNSTABLE EXPERİENCES AND PERCEPTİON OF FREEDOM: THE CASES OF “HESTER PRYNNE” AND “BARTLEBY THE SCRİVENER”

Many philosophers, theoreticians, scientists and artists have examined the concept of freedom, then defined it and embraced it in their own ways. That being said, each society has produced their own norms based on their own particular history, culture and traditions. The perception and practice of freedom have, hence, differed even among the members of the same society. That the United States of America was under the rule of the British Empire before the Declaration of Independence paved the way for the American society to attach special importance to the idea of freedom. Accordingly, throughout the struggle for independence, such a premium set on this up-front concept of “freedom” by the American society made itself visible in words everywhere to every single eye through brochures, newspapers, and even the walls pervading streets. Considering themselves as the representatives of a people who identified themselves with freedom in due course, American litterateurs have frequently addressed this theme in their works. On that account, the following two works, The Scarlet Letter, and Bartleby the Scrivener, by the two leading authors of the 19th century American literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville respectively, dwell upon this theme of freedom with respect to the individual. Therefore, through a woman and a man, Hester Prynne and Bartleby the Scrivener who were depicted as characters of restrained freedom and hence in conflict with the society surrounding them, this paper focuses on their two distinctive perceptions and experiences of freedom on the basis of their estrangements, differing positions of otherness, and resistance strategies.

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