Orphan Black’te İnsan Ötesi Dişil Kimlikler ve Sayborg Aliceler

Bu makale Lewis Carroll’ın Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) ve Through the Looking Glass (1871) adlı novellalarının Orphan Black (2013-2017) adlı televizyon dizisindeki alımlanışını posthuman ve feminist kuram merceklerinden bakarak irdelemektedir. Alice'in büyüme kaygılarına benzer şekilde, dizide Leda adı verilen ve klon olduklarının farkında olan dişil klonların da kimlik bunalımı yaşadıklarını öne sürmektedir. Bu kimlik bunalımları, klonların gerek metaforik olarak yeniden doğumlarının takip ettiği yakın ölüm tecrübelerinde gerekse ayna ve ayna benzeri objeler aracılığıyla sestra'larıyla konuşmalarında görülmektedir. Bu makale posthuman koşuluna ve Rosi Braidotti’nin özne oluşumu için yeni yollar çağrısına dayanarak, bu klonların klon olduklarının bilincine varma süreçlerine odaklanmaktadır. Bu klonların oluşum sürecini Julia Kristeva’nın ayna evresi, sembolik ve semiyotik kuramlarıyla incelemektedir. Yirmi birinci yüzyılda sayborg dişil kimliklerini keşfettiklerinden dolayı, klon olduklarının bilincinde olan bu Leda klonlarının, Donna J. Haraway’in sayborg Aliceleri olarak okunabileceğini önermektedir. Nihayetinde bu klonlar varoluşsal krizlerini ve değişim gösteren kimliklerinden kaynaklanan bunalımlarını topluluk olarak birleşerek atlatırlar. Bu sırada, Alice kitaplarına yapılan göndermeler televizyon dizisi için sembolizm ve biçim kaynağı görevi üstlenmektedir. Beyaz Tavşan, Tırtıl ve Cheshire Kedisi’nin rehberlik ve ögütleri gibi, Leda klonlarını tavşan deliğinin derinliklerine ve aynanın öteki tarafına doğru takip ederken, izleyicilerin akıllarının karışmasına veya kaybolmalarına engel olmak için giderek daha derinleşip karanlıklaşarak dallanıp budaklanan Orphan Black evreninde işaret direkleri sunmaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

alımlama çalışmaları, kimlik, feminist kuram, feminist kuram, posthumanizm, sayborg, feminist kuram

Posthuman Female Identities and Cyborg Alices in Orphan Black

This article scrutinizes the reception of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1871) in the television series Orphan Black (2013-2017) through the lenses of posthuman and feminist theories. It argues that, reminiscent of Alice’s coming of age anxieties, in the series the self-aware female clones, called the Leda clones, go through their own identity crisis, which can be traced in their near-death experiences followed by metaphorical rebirths and in their conversations with their sestras through mirrors or mirror-like objects. It focuses on these clones’ process of becoming self-aware with regard to the demands of the posthuman condition and the call of Rosi Braidotti for new ways of subject formation. It analyses the clones’ process of becoming through Julia Kristeva’s theories of the mirror phase, the symbolic, and the semiotic. It suggests that these self-aware Leda clones might be read as Donna J. Haraway’s cyborg Alices, in that they explore cyborg female identities in the twenty-first century. These clones eventually overcome their existential crisis and their anxieties over shifting identities through community bonding. Meanwhile, the allusions to the Alice books serve as a source of symbolism and structure for the series. Like the guidance and council of the White Rabbit, the Caterpillar and the Cheshire Cat, they provide guideposts for the deepening, darkening, and branching Orphan Black universe to prevent the viewers from getting confused or lost as they follow the Leda clones deeper into the rabbit hole and through the looking glass.

Keywords:

identity, posthumanism, feminist theory, Reception studies, cyborg, feminist theory,

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