Halit ALKAN

THE NEW WOMAN THROUGH STRUCTURALISM IN SARAH GRAND’S THE HEAVENLY TWINS

Structuralism is an approach that seeks to decode the encoded whole consisting of a system to explore a textual work’s deep structure from the surface structure. This study tries to analyse the ‘New Woman’ in Sarah Grand’s “The Heavenly Twins” (1893) according to the structuralist approach. This novel is analysed synchronically. In terms of syntagmatic relation while Evadne Frayling marries George Colquhoun, Angelica Hamilton-Wells marries Mr. Kilroy. As for paradigmatic relation, homology of relationship is seen between two couples since there are unhappy marriages not only between Evadne and Colquhoun, but also between Angelica and Mr. Kilroy. In terms of syntagmatic relation while Angelica surrenders herself sexually to her husband after the death of her friend Tenor, Evadne surrenders herself sexually to her second husband after the death of her first husband Colquhoun. Syphilis and disguise in the novel’s surface structure are closed signs. However, in the deep structure these signs turn to be explicit signs as follows: When the signifier is syphilis, the signified is reprobate and death; when the signifier is disguise, the signified is freedom. In terms of the novel’s deep structure, the harmony performs on binary oppositions between Evadne and Angelica as follows: ignorant/educated, imprisoned/free, ill/healthy. Although the novel is over, the melody goes on since Evadne and Angelica can get only the role of a wife and a mother in patriarchal society. As for the novel’s deep meaning, women and men have no innate difference for mental capacity, but women face prejudices by patriarchal society because the male-dominant society does not provide women to take the same education as men.

Keywords:

Structuralism, Feminism, ‘New Woman’, Sarah Grand “The Heavenly Twins”.,

PDF

___

Aksan, D. (1977). Her yönüyle dil (ana çizgileriyle dilbilim) II. Ankara: TDK 439.
Alkan, H. (2018). George Eliot’ın Middlemarch, Sarah Grand’ın Cennetlik İkizler ve George Moore’un Esther Waters romanlarında kadının konumunun psikanalitik liberal feminizm yaklaşımıyla incelenmesi. (Yayımlanmamış doktora tezi), Ankara: Ankara Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü.
Barker, H. (2005). Women’s history: Britain, 1700-1850. London: Routledge.
Barthes, R. (1972). Critical essays (R. Howard, Trans.). Evanston: Northwestern Univ. Press. (The original was published in 1964).
Boulding, E. (1976). The underside of history, a view of women through time. Boulder: Westview Press.
Caine, B. (1997). English feminism 1780-1980. New York: Oxford Univ Press.
Cannon, C. (1999). The rights of medieval English women: crime and the issue of representation. In B.A. Hanawalt and D. Wallace (Ed.), Medieval Crime and Social Control (156-185). Mineapolis: Claredon Press.
Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Culler, J. (1973). Structuralist poetics. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.
Çaha, Ö. (2003). Feminizm. In M. Türköne (Ed.), Siyaset (559-589). Ankara: Lotus.
Doğramacı, E. (1992). Türkiye’de kadının dünü ve bugünü. Ankara: Türkiye İş Bankası.
Eichenbaum, B. (1965). Russian formalist criticism: four essays (L.T. Lemon and M.J. Reis, (Trans.). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. (The original was published in 1925).
French, M. (1983). Beyond power: on women, man, and morals. New York: Ballantine Books.
Gies, F. (1980). Women in the Middle Ages. New York: Barnes and Noble.
Grand, S. (1992). The Heavenly Twins. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Greimas, A. J. (1983). Structural semantics: an attempt at a method (D. McDowell, R. Schleifer and A. Velie, Trans.). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. (The original was published in 1966).
Hawkes, T. (1989). Structuralism and semiotics. Suffolk: Routledge.
Jakobson, R. (1971). Fundamentals of language. Paris: Mouton.
Kayahan, F. (1999). Feminizm. İstanbul: BDS.
Lane, M. (1970). Structuralism: a reader. New York: Basic Books.
Leach, E. (1973). Claude Levi-Strauss. New York: The Viking Press.
Levi-Strauss, C. (1963). Structural anthropology (C. Jacobson and B.G. Schoepf, Trans.). New York: Basic Books Inc. (The original was published in 1958).
Mangum, T. (1998). Married, middlebrow, and militant: Sarah Grand and the new woman novel. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
Michel, A. (1993). Feminizm (Çev. Ş. Tekeli). İstanbul: İletişim. (Eserin orijinali 1979’da yayımlandı).
Mill, J. S. (1869). The subjection of women. London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer.
Mohl, R. (1933). The three estates in Medieval and Renaissance literature. New York: Columbia University Press.
Pettit, P. (1975). The concept of structuralism: a critical analysis. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan.
Propp, V. (2005). Morphology of the folk tale (L. Scott, Trans.). Austin: University of Texas Press. (The original was published in 1928).
Ramazanoğlu, C. (1998). Feminizm ve ezilmenin çelişkileri (Çev. M. Bayatlı). İstanbul: Pencere Yayınları. (Eserin orijinali 1989’da yayımlandı).
Saussure, F. (1976). Genel dilbilim dersleri-I (Çev. B. Vardar). Ankara: TDK. (Eserin orijinali 1916’da yayımlandı).
Showalter, E. (1993). Daughters of decadence: women writers of the Fin-de-Siecle. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP.
Taylor Mill, H. (1994). The enfranchisement of women. In A.P. Robson and J.M. Robson (Ed.), Sexual Equality: Writings by John Stuart Mill, Harriet Taylor Mill and Helen Taylor (178-203). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Wollstonecraft, M. (1988). A vindication of the rights of women. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.