TEN DAYS IN A MAD-HOUSE: INCARCERATING THE IN/SANE IMMIGRANT BODY WITHIN THE AMERICAN CORRECTIONAL SYSTEM

In 1887, journalist Elizabeth Cochrane, using the penname Nellie Bly, went undercover for a mission to expose the dynamics of the Blackwell's Island Insane Asylum for The New York World, and following that the paper published her work Ten Days in a Mad-House. For this purpose Nelly Bly impersonated an insane woman, and even more interestingly a “crazy Cuban girl.” Her narrative Ten Days in A Mad-House demonstrates the reception of the racialized insane immigrant body in late nineteenth century American society as well as in the institutions of the time. The text is analyzed by contextualizing it within the eugenic and biopolitical framework of the era, which denationalized the insane immigrant body, since their 'disposable' bodies were seen as nothing more than a burden on the capitalist structure of the United States. Foucault's ideas on biopolitics and the carceral system are applied to Bly's text to question further the institutional operations within this power system. Moreover, Agamben's theories on the bare life of the homo sacer is used to demonstrate how the insane bodies of immigrants are unfreed within the correctional system. In this article, the incarceration of the undesired immigrant is analyzed in relation to how Nelly Bly performed the biopolitics of insanity, and used the power of writing as she crossed color, class and social lines as a white, professional woman impersonating an insane, impoverished immigrant woman.

TEN DAYS IN A MAD-HOUSE: 'AKIL HASTASI' GÖÇMENİN AMERİKAN ISLAH SİSTEMİNE HAPSEDİLİŞİ

1887 senesinde Nellie Bly mahlasını kullanan gazeteci Elizabeth Cochrane, The New York World gazetesi adına Blackwell's Island Akıl Hastanesindeki dinamikleri ifşa etmek için gizli göreve gittikten sonra Ten Days in a Mad-House adlı yazısı gazetede basıldı. Bu amaçla akıl hastası bir kadın rolüne, daha da ilginci akıl hastası Kübalı bir kadın rolüne giren Bly'ın Ten Days in a Mad-House adlı anlatısı akıl hastası göçmen bedeninin 19. yüzyıl Amerikan toplumunda olduğu kadar dönemin çağdaş enstitülerinde de nasıl karşılandığını göstermektedir. Metin, 'gözden çıkarılabilir' akıl hastası göçmen bedenin Amerika Birleşik Devletleri'nin kapitalist yapısına bir yük olarak görünmesinden dolayı ırk ıslahı, biyopolitika ve göçmen bedenin ulussuzlaştırılması gibi temel kavramlar ile birlikte incelenmektedir. Foucault'nun biyopolitika ve ıslah sisteminin işleyişleri üzerine fikirleri, erk sistemi içerisindeki kurumsal işleyişleri daha da sorgulamak için Bly'ın metnine uygulanmaktadır. Buna ek olarak Agamben'in homo sacer (kutsal insan)'in çıplak hayatı hakkındaki savları akıl hastası göçmenin özgürlüğünün ıslah sisteminde nasıl elinden alındığını göstermek için kullanılmaktadır. Bu makalede istenmeyen göçmenin hapsedilişi, Nelly Bly'ın deliliği biyopolitik bir performans olarak nasıl sergilediği ve akıl hastası göçmen bir kadını canlandıran beyaz bir kadın olarak hem ırksal hem de sosyal sınırları nasıl geçtiğiyle ilişkili olarak incelenmektedir.

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