The gendered subject of melancholy
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Tarih
2010
Yazarlar
Dergi Başlığı
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Cilt Başlığı
Yayıncı
İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi
Erişim Hakkı
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Özet
Bu çalışmada melankoli ve toplumsal cinsiyet ilişkisi Julia Kristeva ve Judith Butler'ın çalışmaları kapsamında incelenmiştir. Çalışmanın ilk bölümünde Freud'un melankoli teorisi ve bu teorinin içerdiği tartışmalar ele alınmıştır. Freudcu melankoli kavramını tanıtan bu bölümden sonraki iki bölümde sırasıyla Kristeva ve Butler'ın bu psikanalitik melankoli kavramını toplumsal cinsiyet kategorisiyle nasıl ilişkilendirdikleri konu edilmiştir. Kristeva melankoliyi dil ve anlamlama bağlamında inceler. Kristeva melankoli durumunda özne ve dil, dolayısıyla özne ve anlam arasında sorunlu bir ilişki tespit etmektedir. Babayla sembolik alana girmesini sağlayacak gerekli özdeşleşmeyi kuramayan özne, annesel nesnenin kaybını ikame edememekte, bu kaybı reddetmekte ve umutsuzca annesel nesneye bağlı kalmaktadır. Kristeva, anneyle ve onun bedeniyle olan özgül ilişkisine işaret ederek, kadın ve melankoli arasında kaçınılmaz bir bağ olduğunu öne sürer. Judith Butler'ın toplumsal cinsiyet melankolisi teorisi melankoli ve toplumsal cinsiyet ilişkisi tartışmalarına iktidar meselesini sokar. Butler'ın çalışmasında, Foucaultcu bir sorunsal çerçevesinde, melankoli, normatif heteroseksüelliğin üretilmesinde iktidarın düzenleyici işleyişlerinden bir tanesi olarak, psişik ve toplumsal sonuçlarıyla birlikte ele alınır. Toplumsal cinsiyet melankolisi melankolinin toplumsal cinsiyete içkin olduğunu iddia etmesiyle özgün bir teoridir.
In this study the relationship between melancholy and gender is investigated in the works of Julia Kristeva and Judith Butler. In the first chapter Freuds theory of melancholy and several lines of discussions relevant to the issue are covered. In the two chapters following this chapter that introduces the Freudian concept of melancholy, the discrete ways in which Kristeva and Butler articulate the psychoanalytic notion of melancholy and the category of gender are presented successively. Julia Kristeva investigates melancholy in conjunction to language and signification. In the melancholy situation, Kristeva diagnoses an uneasy relationship between the subject and language, and thus between subject and meaning. Failing to establish the necessary identification with the father, which would entail her entrance into the symbolic realm, the melancholic cannot compensate the loss of the maternal object, renounces this loss, and ends up clinging to the maternal object. Kristeva, by pointing to the specific relation a woman has to her mother and to her mothers body, argues that there exists a necessary bond between womanhood and melancholy. Judith Butlers theory of gender melancholy introduces the issue of power to the discussions about the relationship between melancholy and gender. In Butlers work, within a Foucauldian problematic, melancholy is taken as one of the regulatory mechanisms of power in the production of normative heterosexuality, and together with its psychic and social consequences. Gender melancholy proves to be a challenging theory in its novel treatment of melancholy as intrinsic to gender as such.
In this study the relationship between melancholy and gender is investigated in the works of Julia Kristeva and Judith Butler. In the first chapter Freuds theory of melancholy and several lines of discussions relevant to the issue are covered. In the two chapters following this chapter that introduces the Freudian concept of melancholy, the discrete ways in which Kristeva and Butler articulate the psychoanalytic notion of melancholy and the category of gender are presented successively. Julia Kristeva investigates melancholy in conjunction to language and signification. In the melancholy situation, Kristeva diagnoses an uneasy relationship between the subject and language, and thus between subject and meaning. Failing to establish the necessary identification with the father, which would entail her entrance into the symbolic realm, the melancholic cannot compensate the loss of the maternal object, renounces this loss, and ends up clinging to the maternal object. Kristeva, by pointing to the specific relation a woman has to her mother and to her mothers body, argues that there exists a necessary bond between womanhood and melancholy. Judith Butlers theory of gender melancholy introduces the issue of power to the discussions about the relationship between melancholy and gender. In Butlers work, within a Foucauldian problematic, melancholy is taken as one of the regulatory mechanisms of power in the production of normative heterosexuality, and together with its psychic and social consequences. Gender melancholy proves to be a challenging theory in its novel treatment of melancholy as intrinsic to gender as such.
