Külkedisi Masalını Yeniden Yazmak: Külprensi ile Vejetaryen Külkedisi Adlı Resimli Kitapların Karşılaştırmalı İncelemesi
Toplumun normlarını bilinçli şekilde genç dimağlara aşılamaya araç olan masallar; bilinçaltında, taraflı bir yaşam senaryosu için çok sayıda klişeleşmiş rol, konum ve eylem değerine yol açmaktadır. Bu çalışmada, Külkedisi masalının özgün dokunuşlarla yeniden yazıldığı, bakış açısının değiştirildiği, cinsiyetçilik, güçsüzlük gibi algıların yapıbozuma uğratıldığı Külprensi ve Vejetaryen Külkedisi adlı resimli kitaplar odağında postfeminist bir çözümleme hedeflenmektedir. İki farklı edebiyattan seçilen, aralarında yirmi iki yıllık zaman farkı bulunan, toplumsal cinsiyet kurgularını farklı yaklaşım ve daha eşitlikçi bir perspektiften yansıtan eserlerde; ikiliklere dayandırılan pozisyonların mutlaklığı sorgulanacak, köktenci yapılarla mücadele edilirken klişeler üretilip üretilmediği tartışılacak ve yeniden yazım sürecinde tespit edilen benzerlik ve farklılıklar üzerinde durulacaktır. Çalışmanın özgün değeri; tek yönlü çocuk yetiştirme temayülünü besleyen klasik masalların, resimli çocuk kitapları aracılığıyla postyapısalcı yöntemlerle yapıbozuma uğratıldığının tespiti ve çok boyutlu kavramlar merkezinde mutlak ve ideal addedilen durumların reddedildiğinin, cinsiyetler arasında insan eliyle yaratılan sınırların belirsizleştiğinin ortaya konulmasıyla çoğulcu kültürel bir karşılaştırmanın mümkün kılınmasıdır. Çalışmanın teorik çerçevesini, tüm mağduriyetleri üstlenen postfeminizm; metodunu postyapısalcı teorilerin yöntemi olan yapıbozum ile çözümlenen resimli kitapların derin yapısına ulaşmak ve söylem çözümlemesini yapmak için kullanılan metinlerarasılık ve göstergelerarasılık oluşturmaktadır. Çalışmada anlamı derin yapıdan çıkararak metnin ve resmin açık açık söylemese de varsaydıklarını ya da ima ettiklerini tespit etmek için yorumlayıcı bakış açısıyla metin ve resim odaklı çözümleme yapılacaktır. Çalışmanın amaçladığı yaygın etki, yazılı ve görsel bir uyaran olarak öne çıkan resimli kitapların empoze edilen eril tahakkümü reddettiğinin ortaya konulmasıyla farklılık fikrine vurgu yapılması, eşitlik yerine özerklik kavramının konularak farklı düşünme, farklı tercihlerde bulunma ve farklı olabilme hakkının talep edilmesidir.
Rewriting the Cinderella Tale: A Comparative Review of Prince Cinders and Vegetarian Cinderella Picture Books
Fairy tales, which are tools to consciously convey the norms of society to young minds, lead to many stereotypical roles, positions, and action patterns. This study analyses the picture books Prince Cinders and La Cenicienta Que No Quería Comer Perdices (literally translated as Cinderella Who Wouldn’t Eat Partridges, but given the title Vegetarian Cinderella in the Turkish version) with a postfeminist focus. In these books, which were written twenty years apart and from two types of literature, the tale of Cinderella is rewritten with original touches, the viewpoint is changed, and perceptions such as sexism and powerlessness are deconstructed. In the books, the validity of binary structures is questioned, and this article discusses whether clichés are produced while challenging radical situations. In addition, the similarities and differences detected during the rewriting process will be emphasized. The theoretical framework of the study is postfeminist theory; the methods of the study are deconstruction, which is a poststructuralist method, intertextuality and intersemiotics. In the study, text and picture-oriented analysis will be used from an interpretative perspective to determine what the text and picture assume or imply, even if this is not explicitly said. The widespread impact of the study is to emphasize the idea of difference by demonstrating that picture books reject imposed masculine domination and demand the characters’ right to think differently, make different choices and be different by substituting the concept of autonomy for equality.
This study sheds light on how patriarchal hegemony was represented through a comparative analysis of two picture books within the framework of the postfeminist theory. The modern rewritings of the tale of Cinderella from English and Spanish picture books are examined to discuss their approaches towards gender, sexual orientation, and the classical narrative structure of fairy tales. Two picture books, Prince Cinders in English and La Cenicienta Que No Quería Comer Perdices (which literally means Cinderella Who Wouldn’t Eat Partridges, and given the title Vegetarian Cinderella in the Turkish version) in Spanish are influenced by the socio-cultural and political environment of the post-1980s period. They undermine binary gender constructions and gender performativity (acting and actions restricted by gender norms) by fictionalizing characters such as the prince, the princess, the king, and the queen contradictory to the classical version of Cinderella. Despite the extensive work on adult literature through the perspective of gender studies, the analysis of picture books addressing children or adults is an understudied field in many respects. Therefore, the aimed questions of this study, which not only contribute to Turkish literature studies but also introduce and analyse these picture books from two works of literature, are as follows: How do feminist movements reflect on classical texts of children’s literature, which produces and propagates the male-dominated ideology? In reproducing answers, approvals, and critiques from the classical texts, how have the children’s books written from the viewpoint of feminist movements positioned themselves? If changes occur, do they reproduce a similar hierarchical structure? What kind of answer is formulated towards the clichés, and to what degree do the classical and their rewritten text versions differ from each other in the construction of gender? Do these picture books use feminine language, that deconstructs the dichotomies built based on contrasts and hierarchies? Do the texts and images show gender equality concerns? Are the texts a description of the pictures? Is children’s literature that provides autonomy to children being promoted? These hypotheses, which will be discussed with a multicultural postfeminist analysis, will bring about a new discussion into the literature and reveal that the binary construction of gender representations is no longer valid or that reversed gender roles have been formed contrary to classical texts that are favoring the woman.
This study concludes that the values matched with characters and actions in the picture books named Prince Cinders and Vegetarian Cinderella create alternative subject positions by rejecting stereotypical narrative strategies. In both works, the basic rules of children’s literature are transformed with creative and innovative uses, and the necessity of being beautiful, handsome, weak, muscular, or young, which is attributed to gender, is criticized. In contrast to the rescue of the princess by the prince in the original text, her unique existence is emphasized. Thus, it is possible to say that the two texts challenge the patterns of the classic fairy tale, that is, with the gendered traditional qualities. However, Prince Cinders reproduces a similar hierarchical structure while transforming the original text Cinderella tale on the axis of gender fiction. In other words, while it can be claimed that the Vegetarian Cinderella represents a break from the fairy tale tradition in the context of the original text, Prince Cinders maintains the hierarchical structure even though it has changed the fiction within the framework of gender stereotypes, and instead of hegemonic masculinity in the original text, it establishes hegemonic femininity. Prince Cinders criticizes character representations shaped by binary oppositions and features considered masculine in patriarchal ideology. At the same time the book highlights a physical standard, the inability of the character to act without the help of a fairy, finding each other by chance, a happy life with marriage, and punishing evil brothers, thus negatively constructing a situation with homosexual characteristics and maintaining the hierarchy created between jobs, all of which are indications that Prince Cinders produced a similar structure to the original fairy tale. The postfeminist analysis of these two picture books with images and short texts exemplifies that although they have a common point, which was to undermine the hegemonic masculinity, their methods differ from each other in so doing.
