Defiance of Patriarchy in Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness / Le Guin’in Karanlığın Sol Eli Romanında Ataerkiye Meydan Okuma
Patriarchy can succinctly be defined as, to say the least, an oppressive frame of mind operating on the principle of dualities to ordain, maintain, and consolidate the absolute superiority of masculinity. Patriarchy’s ‘essential(ist)’ emphasis is predicated on a blatant heterosexist conviction de...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cyprus International University
2021-05-01
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| Series: | Folklor/Edebiyat |
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| Online Access: | https://www.folkloredebiyat.org/Makaleler/133483169__15.makale%20Le%20Guin%20%20Emre%20Say.pdf |
| Summary: | Patriarchy can succinctly be defined as, to say the least, an oppressive
frame of mind operating on the principle of dualities to ordain, maintain, and
consolidate the absolute superiority of masculinity. Patriarchy’s ‘essential(ist)’
emphasis is predicated on a blatant heterosexist conviction decreeing the austere
segregation of human species as female and male assigned to an unalterable as
well as unchallengeable sexual orientation. This imposed sexual edict involves
heterosexuality in the novel’s context and relevant gender roles issuing from
this ‘officially acknowledged and approved’ heterosexuality. This paper argues
that in her science-fiction novel The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) Ursula
Le Guin subverts the dualism of an obsessed, stringent, and simultaneously
‘stagnant swamp’ patriarchy as she delineates a mode of existence where rigid
female-male duality is wiped out through the introduction of alterable sexes.
This non-essentialist, or rather to be more precise, anti-essentialist ‘essential’
argument deftly displayed and handled in the novel convincingly demonstrates
that patriarchy along with its relevant attributes and attitudes directly
emanating from it focuses on the indoctrination and resigned internalization of
heterosexual female-male dichotomy. |
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| ISSN: | 1300-7491 1300-7491 |