Kristeva’nın Abject (İğrençlik) Kavramı ve HIV/AIDS: Jamaica Kincaid’in My Brother ve Sapphire’in Push Adlı Eserleri
Jamaica Kincaid My Brother (1997) adlı otobiyografik eserinde kardeşi Devon’un AIDS’e bağlı ölümünü anlatır. Sapphire ise Push (1996) adlı romanında 16 yaşındaki okuma yazma bilmeyen, obez, yoksul, HIV pozitif ve ailesi tarafından sürekli olarak istismar edilen Precious adlı Afrikalı Amerikalı bir kızın hikayesini anlatır. Hem Devon hem de Precious yaşayabilir bedenin sınırlarını ihlal ederek abject (iğrenç) bir varoluş sergilerler. My Brother’da Antigua’daki heteronormatif ve homofobik baskının Devon’u ayıpladığı ve suçladığı görülür. Devon bu yüzden toplumun dışına itilmiştir. Öldüğünde bile ona karşı dinmeyen bir nefret ve tiksinti söz konusudur ve bu onun sözüm ona sapkınlığından kaynaklanmaktadır. Push’da ise Precious’ın ailesinin onu devamlı istismar ettiği ve bu istismara göz yumdukları görülür. Bunun sonucunda babası Precious’a HIV bulaştırır. Beyaz fallokratik değerler sisteminin de altında ezilen Precious, giderek daha da iğrençliğe yaklaşır. Bu makalede amacım bu iki eseri Julia Kristeva’nın abjection (iğrençlik) teorisi ışığında incelemektir. İkisi de HIV/AIDS ile yaşayan, çeşitli ırksal ve cinsel söylemsel pratiklerin altında düzenli olarak ezilen dışlanmış bireyler olan Devon ve Precious, normal ve yaşayabilir bedenin standartlarına uymaz ve/veya uydurulmazlar. Aksine bedensel özellikleri düzenli olarak ihlal eden, bedenin sınırlarını aşan birer tehdit olarak ortaya çıkar ve böylece, Kristeva’nın da dediği gibi, saf olmayana dair bir aidiyet sergilerler.
Kristevan Abject and HIV/AIDS: Jamaica Kincaid’s My Brother and Sapphire’s Push
Jamaica Kincaid’s My Brother (1997) is a memoir in whichshe recounts her brother Devon’s AIDS-related death. Sapphire, inPush (1996), tells the story of a 16-year-old illiterate, obese, poor andHIV-positive African-American teenage girl living with her abusivefamily. Both Devon and Precious transgress the borders of livablebodies, thus appearing as abject. In My Brother, the heteronormativeand homophobic Antiguan discourse condemns Devon, pushing himto the margins of society. Even when he is dead, he is abhorred andrendered aberrant. In Push the continual incestual rape of her abusivefamily results in Precious getting HIV/AIDS from her own father. Thewhite phallocratic ethos, as well, oppresses the very being of Precious,exacerbating the familial tyranny under which Precious feels one stepcloser to abject. In this paper, my aim is to examine My Brother andPush through Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection to show that bothDevon and Precious, as both racial and sexual pariahs living with HIV/AIDS, cannot live up to the standard, livable bodies and transgress and/or forced to transgress the borders of somatic proprieties, thus appearas border-passing, abject threats, showing “the sign of belonging to theimpure” (Kristeva, 102).
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