“I AM THE LINK BETWEEN THE SHORES WASHED BY THE CARIBBEAN SEA”: ERNA BRODBER’İN LOUISIANA ADLI ROMANINDA KARAYİPLER BAĞLANTISI VE ÇOK KÜLTÜRLÜ AMERİKAN GÜNEYİNİN YENİDEN YAPILANDIRILMASI

Amerika’nın güney eyaletlerini yansıtan küresel güney kavramı mikro kozmik düzeyde çok kültürlü topluluklar tarafından şekillendirilmiştir. Bu kültürel çeşitliğin fiziki sınırları ortadan kaldırdığı ve dolayısıyla bölge insanını ve edebiyatını derinden etkilediği yadsınamaz bir gerçektir. Yeni çalışmalar ve küresel hareketler güneyde Karayip adalarında gelen halklar Asyalı, Afrikalı, Latin kökenli ırkların ve kültürlerin varlığını kabul eden çok kültürlülüğe yol açmıştır. Çok kültürlülük bölgede devam eden kuzey/güney siyah/beyaz gibi dikatomileri ve güneyin istisnai bir bölge olduğu yönündeki görüşleri sonlandırmaktadır. Erna Brodber’s Louisiana (1994) adlı romanı, ana kahraman Ella Townsend`in antropolojik çalışması aracılığıyla, Amerika’nın güney eyaletleriyle Karayipler arasında var olan bu ortaklıkları irdelemektedir. Roman mekân olarak Louisiana eyaletini seçmek suretiyle bu ortaklıkları en iyi ve hibrid bir şekilde sunmaktadır. Çalışma kuramsal okumasına Homi Bhahba’nın The Location of Culture adlı eserinde Postkolonyal kuramında yer alan Hibridite ve eşiktelik kavramlarına dayandırmaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı Amerika’nın güney eyaletleri ile Global güney arasında nasıl bir bağlantı ve etkileşim olduğunu ve bu ilişkilerin diaspora haklarının hibrid kültürlerini ve kültürel kimlik tanımlamalarını olan etkilerini Louisiana üzerinde irdelemeyi amaçlamaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Güney, Hibridite, Tanınma, Çok kültürlülük, Kimlik

“I AM THE LINK BETWEEN THE SHORES WASHED BY THE CARIBBEAN SEA”: CIRCUMCARIBBEAN CONNECTIONS AND THE RE-VISIONING THE MULTICULTURAL U.S. SOUTH IN ERNA BRODBER’S LOUISIANA

The U.S. South has been acknowledged to be a microcosm of global souths shaped by multicultural communities and transformed into a global space through border crossings, liminality, and transnational turns, which inevitably led to incredible changes in the field of southern literature. New studies and global movements have given way to multiculturalism that recognizes the Caribbean, Asian, Hispanic, African, and indigenous presence in the South. Multiculturalism ends the black/white and North/ South binaries leaving the age of southern exceptionalism in the past. Through its protagonist Ella Townsend’s anthropological study, Erna Brodber’s novel Louisiana (1994) aims to discover the commonalities between the U.S. South and the circumCaribbean and thus create a syncretic southern space that embraces transnational identities and multicultural community. Louisiana as a setting presents hybrid and liminal spaces that depict commonalities between the U.S. South and the Caribbean. This paper’s theoretical concept is based on Homi Bhabha’s critical concepts of hybridity and liminality explained in his collection of essays on Colonial Theory, The Location of Culture. Within this context, this paper aims to discuss the relationship between the U.S South and the Caribbean and how these relations define cultural hybridity and identity formation in Louisiana.

Keywords:

The South, Hybridity, Recognition, Multiculturalism, Identity,

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