ZELİLİN ZAFERİ: BORA CHUNG’IN “KAFA” ÖYKÜSÜNÜN KRİSTEVA’NIN PSİKANALİTİK KURAMI İLE ANALİZİ

Year 2023, Volume: 63 Issue: 2, 1179 - 1207, 25.12.2023

Yağmur Kızılay

https://doi.org/10.33171/dtcfjournal.2023.63.2.12

Abstract

Bu çalışma, Güney Koreli yazar Bora Chung’ın Lanetli Tavşan (2021) adlı kısa öykü derlemesinden “Kafa” öyküsünü Julia Kristeva’nın “zelil/iğrenç” kavramını esas alarak incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. İsimsiz bir kadın başkahramanın vücut atıklarından oluşan ve konuşabilen tüyler ürpertici bir kafa imgesiyle okuyuculara musallat olan “Kafa” öyküsü, onlara “zelil” kavramı ve sembolik düzenin zelili bastırma ve dışarda tutma yeterliği ya da Chung’ın öyküsünde temsil edildiği şekliyle yetersizliği üzerine kafa yormaları için zorlamaktadır. Chung’ın öyküsü, zelil konumundaki “kafa” nın kadın başkahramanın hayatının ayrılmaz bir parçası oldukça kadının kendilik ve bütünlük algısının giderek parçalanmasını çarpıcı bir şekilde yansıtmaktadır. Kadının kafadan kurtulmak ve sembolik düzeni sürdürmek için gösterdiği tüm çabalara rağmen kafanın kadının kimliği üzerindeki tehditkâr gücü en sonunda kadının yerine geçecek noktaya gelerek zelilin kaçınılmaz varlığına işaret etmektedir. Bu çalışma, Julia Kristeva’nın “zelil” kavramı üzerinden Chung’ın “Kafa” öyküsünde temsil edildiği şekliyle zelilin insan benliğine olan içkinliğine ve sembolik yasa ve kuralların zelili dışlama ve arındırmadaki başarısızlığına odaklanacaktır. Böylelikle, öykünün Kristeva’nın psikanalitik kuramıyla analizinin, öyküde “zelilin zaferi” olarak adlandırılabilecek durumla sembolize edilen semiyotik alanın kendi/öteki, içeri/dışarı, temizlik/kirlilik sınırlarını aşarak en sonunda simgesel düzene galip gelmesiyle bu sınırların dayanıksızlığını ve kırılganlığını fark etmemizi sağladığı sonucuna varılacaktır

Keywords

Bora Chung, Lanetli Tavşan, "Kafa", Kristeva, Zelil

THE TRIUMPH OF THE ABJECT: A KRISTEVAN ANALYSIS OF BORA CHUNG'S “THE HEAD”

Abstract

This study aims to explore South Korean writer Bora Chung’s “The Head” from the writer’s short story collection Cursed Bunny (2021) through the lens of Julia Kristeva’s notion of “the abject”. Haunting readers with its creepy image of a talking head made up of the nameless female protagonist’s bodily waste, “The Head” forces them to ponder on the notion of the abject and the competency of the symbolic order to repress or exclude it, or the lack thereof as represented in Chung’s story. Chung’s story strikingly reflects the gradual process of the disintegration of the female protagonist’s sense of self and unity when “the head” as “the abject” becomes an inseparable part of her life. Despite the woman’s efforts to get rid of the head and thus maintain the symbolic order, the head’s growing influence on the woman’s life as a threatening force on her identity to the point of replacing her in the end hints at the inescapable presence of the abject. By applying Julia Kristeva’s notion of “the abject”, this study will focus on the abject as an integral component of the human psyche and the failure of the symbolic laws and rules to ward off and purify the abject as represented in Chung’s “The Head”. Through a Kristevan analysis of the story, it will be concluded that the semiotic realm as symbolized by what could be called “the triumph of the abject” in the story eventually prevails over the symbolic order by transgressing the boundaries between self/other, inside/outside and cleanliness/defilement and thus making us realize the tenuousness and vulnerability of these borders.

Keywords

Bora Chung, Cursed Bunny, "The Head", Kristeva, Abject

References

• Beardsworth, S. (2004). Julia Kristeva Psychoanalysis and Modernity. Albany: State University of New York Press.
• Becker-Leckrone, M. (2005). Julia Kristeva and Literary Theory. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Berlatsky, N. (2022, December 9). In a Korean author’s U.S. debut, uncanny pleasures rear their ugly heads. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved Sept. 23, 2023, from https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2022-12- 09/in-cursed-bunny-uncanny-pleasures-rear-their-ugly-heads Biology Dictionary. (n.d.). Oviparous. In biologydictionary.net. Retrieved June 15, 2023, from https://biologydictionary.net/oviparous/
• Bora Chung. (n.d.). The Booker Prizes. Retrieved Sept. 22, 2023, from https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/authors/bora-chung
• Butler, J. (1999). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York and London: Routledge.
• Chung, B. (2021). The Head. Cursed Bunny. (A. Hur, Trans.) (pp. 5-22). Honford Star. https://www.scribd.com/read/491367027/Cursed-Bunny#
• Covino, D. C. (2004). Amending the Abject Body: Aesthetic Makeovers in Medicine and Culture. Albany: State University of New York Press.
• Cursed Bunny. (n.d.). The Booker Prizes. Retrieved Sept. 23, 2023, from https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/cursed-bunny
• Davis, C. (1995). The Abject: Kristeva and The Antigone. Paroles Gelées, 13(1), 5-23. Retrieved June 10, 2023, from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8qt465qh Discover the shortlist: Bora Chung, “This is the nicest dream I ever had.” (n.d.). The Booker Prizes. Retrieved Sept. 22, 2023, from https://thebookerprizes.com/bora-chung-international-booker-prize-2022- cursed-bunny
• Freud, S. (2000). Interpretation of Dreams. In I. Smith (Ed.). Freud Complete Works (pp. 507-1048). https://www.valas.fr/IMG/pdf/Freud_Complete_Works.pdf. (Original work published in 1900).
• Freud, S. (2000). On Dreams. In I. Smith (Ed.). Freud Complete Works (pp. 1049- 1098). https://www.valas.fr/IMG/pdf/Freud_Complete_Works.pdf. (Original work published in 1901).
• Freud, S. (2000). Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis. In I. Smith (Ed.). Freud Complete Works (pp. 2195-2239). https://www.valas.fr/IMG/pdf/Freud_Complete_Works.pdf. (Original work published in 1910).
• Freud, S. (2000). Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis. In I. Smith (Ed.). Freud Complete Works (pp. 3124-3501). https://www.valas.fr/IMG/pdf/Freud_Complete_Works.pdf. (Original work published in 1916/17).
• Freud, S. (2000). Some Neurotic Mechanisms in Jealousy, Paranoia, and Homosexuality. In I. Smith (Ed.). Freud Complete Works (pp. 3898-3909). https://www.valas.fr/IMG/pdf/Freud_Complete_Works.pdf. (Original work published in 1922).
• Freud, S. (2000). An Outline of Psychoanalysis. In I. Smith (Ed.), Freud Complete Works (pp. 4954-5011). https://www.valas.fr/IMG/pdf/Freud_Complete_Works.pdf. (Original work published in 1940).
• Gilleard C. & Higgs, P. (2011). Ageing abjection and embodiment in the fourth age. Journal of Aging Studies, 25, 135-142. Doi:10.1016/j.jaging.2010.08.018
• Grosz, E. (1989). Sexual Subversions: Three French Feminists. Australia: Allen & Unwin.
• Lacan, J. (1977). The Mirror Stage As Formative of The Function of the I As Revealed In Psychoanalytic Experience. In A. Sheridan (Trans.). Ecrits: A Selection (pp. 1- 5). London: Routledge. (Original work published in 1949).
• Lacan, J. (1977). The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious or Reason Since Freud. In A. Sheridan (Trans.), Ecrits: A Selection (pp. 111-136). London: Routledge. (Original work published in 1957).
• Lacan, J. (1988a). The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book I Freud’s Papers on Technique 1953-1954. J. Miller. (Ed.), J. Forrester (Trans.). Cambridge: Cambridge University.
• Lacan, J. (1988b). “Seminar on ‘The Purloined Letter’”. In J. P. Muller & W. J. Richardson. (Eds.), The Purloined Poe: Lacan, Derrida & Psychoanalytic Reading (pp.28-53). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University.
• Keltner, S. K. (2011). Kristeva: Thresholds. Cambridge, UK; Malden, MA: Polity Press. Kristeva, J. (1980). Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Kristeva, J. (1982). Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. (L. S. Roudiez, Trans.). New York: Columbia University Press.
• Kristeva, J. (1984). Revolution in Poetic Language. New York: Columbia UP. Kristeva, J. (1986). Stabat Mater. In T. Moi (Ed.), The Kristeva Reader (pp. 160-187). New York: Columbia University Press.
• Kristeva, J. (1992). Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia. (L. S. Roudiez, Trans.). New York: Columbia University Press.
• Lechte, J. (1990). Julia Kristeva. London and New York: Routledge. Merriam-Webster. (n. d.). Oviparous. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved June 15, 2023, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oviparous
• Millett, K. (2000). Sexual Politics. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.