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Carnivalization of Gender Hierarchies and the Body in Virginia Woolf's Fiction a Thesis Submitted to the Graduate School of S

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Carnivalization of Gender Hierarchies and the Body in Virginia Woolf's Fiction a Thesis Submitted to the Graduate School of S CARNIVALIZATION OF GENDER HIERARCHIES AND THE BODY IN VIRGINIA WOOLF’S FICTION A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY VICTORIA BİLGE YILMAZ IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE MARCH 2016 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences __________________ Prof. Dr. Meliha Altunışık Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. __________________ Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nurten Birlik Head of Department This is to certify that I have read this thesis and that in my opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. __________________ Assist. Prof. Dr. Elif Öztabak Avcı Supervisor Examining Committee Members Prof. Dr. Ayten Coşkunoğlu Bear (METU, FLE) __________________ Assist. Prof. Dr. Elif Öztabak Avcı (METU, FLE) __________________ Assist. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kırca (Çankaya Uni., TIS) __________________ Assist. Prof. Dr. Nil Korkut Naykı (METU, FLE) __________________ Assist. Prof. Dr. Selen Aktari Sevgi (Başkent Uni., ACL) __________________ ii I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name: Signature : iii ABSTRACT CARNIVALIZATION OF GENDER HIERARCHIES AND THE BODY IN VIRGINIA WOOLF’S FICTION Yılmaz, Victoria Bilge Ph.D., Department of English Literature Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Elif Öztabak Avcı March 2016, 221 pages Virginia Woolf is a leading figure in feminist literature and criticism. Woolf’s novels constitute the main channel through which her feminist ideas are expressed. The Voyage Out (1915), To the Lighthouse (1927), Orlando (1928) and Flush (1933) are the novels through which it is possible to see how Woolf sabotages the notions of stability and certainty, on which patriarchal ideology rests. Woolf’s characters wrestle with the so-called domestic sphere in which women are entrapped to serve men, reveal the weaknesses of the patriarchal figures and manifest their flexible subjectivities and gender identities. In this regard, this study contends that these novels lend themselves to a Bakhtinian analysis. The thesis argues that Woolf’s The Voyage Out, To the Lighthouse, Orlando and Flush carnivalize gender hierarchies and the notion of the stable body. The female characters in these novels tend to occupy a space where patriarchal norms are suspended; they obtain power to decrown the authoritarian father figures, and act in ways that transgress gender and sexual boundaries. However, the study also acknowledges that a total carnival sense of the world as conceptualized by Bakhtin is not yet possible in the period of time the novels are located. Keywords: carnival, the carnivalesque, grotesque, Mikhail Bakhtin, Virginia Woolf iv ÖZ VIRGINIA WOOLF ROMANLARINDA CİNSİYET HİYERARŞİSİ VE BEDENİN KARNAVALİZE EDİLMESİ Yılmaz, Victoria Bilge Doktora, İngiliz Edebiyatı Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Yard. Doç. Dr. Elif Öztabak Avcı Mart 2016, 221 sayfa Virginia Woolf feminist edebiyat ve kuramın önde gelen temsilcilerindendir. Woolf’un romanları feminist bakış açısını yansıtmaktadır. Bu romanlardan özellikle Dışa Yolculuk (1915), Deniz Feneri (1927), Orlando (1928) ve Flush (1933), Woolf’un ataerkil ideolojiye karşı savaş açtığı metinlerdir. Bu metinlerde Woolf, hayatın daima değişebilir olduğuna ve hiç birşeyin sabit kalmadığına dair yeni fikirler ortaya koyarak feminist bir karşı duruş sergilemektedir. Woolf’un romanlarındaki kadın kahramanlar, romanların yazıldığı dönemde kadınların erkeğe hizmet etmeleri için var olduğuna dair olan genel kabulü bozarak ataerkil şahsiyetlerin zayıflıklarını vurgulayıp, kişiliklerin ve cinsiyetin değişebilirliğine dair fikirler ortaya koymaktadır. Bu açıdan yaklaşıldığında, söz konusu romanların Bakhtinian bir çerçeveden incelenmesinin mümkün olduğu görülmektedir. Bu çalışma Woolf’un Dışa Yolculuk, Deniz Feneri, Orlando ve Flush adlı romanlarında cinsiyet hiyerarşisi ve bedenin değişmezliği düşüncesinin karnavalize edildiğini savunmaktadır. Woolf’un eserlerindeki kadın kahramanlar, bir süreliğine ataerkil kuralları baş aşağı edebilecek kadar özgür, ataerkil figürleri tahtlarından indirebilecek kadar güçlü, cinsiyetin ve bedenin değişkenliğini, sınırların geçirgenliğini gösterebilecek ölçüde imkâna sahip karnavalesk uzamda konumlandırılıyorlar. Ancak, tüm bu karnavalesk özelliklerin yanı sıra, romanların yazıldığı dönemde karnaval duygusunu içeren bir hayatı tam anlamıyla yaşamanın mümkün olmadığı da bu tezde ortaya konulmaktadır. Anahtar kelimeler: Mikhail Bakhtin, karnaval, karnavalize etmek, karnavalesk, Virginia Woolf v To Elay and Efe vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to my advisor Elif Öztabak Avcı for her precious help and guidance in the long process of thesis writing. She is a valuable source of knowledge, inspiration and imagination. Her positive and respectful attitude and smile on her face made me believe that thesis writing is not a tiresome activity. I would also like to thank Ayten Coşkunoğlu Bear for her belief in my ability to write this thesis. Her support throughout the writing process was a very significant impetus to continue. I would like to thank the jury members – Nil Korkut Naykı, Mustafa Kırca and Selen Aktari Sevgi for their constructive feedback and invaluable ideas. I also want to thank my family and my husband who have always believed that one day I will definitely finish my thesis. The most important people who deserve my gratitude are my sweet children, Elay and Efe, without whom this thesis would have been finished long ago. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM……………………………………………………………………….iii ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………iv ÖZ…………………………………………………………………………………….v DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………….vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………vii TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………..viii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………1 A. Woolf’s feminist politics and aesthetics………………………………….4 A.1 The domestic ideology: gender hierarchies and the “female space”…4 A.2 Woolf’s perception of gender hierarchies and the “female space”…11 A.3 Conceptualizations of the body: an overview……..………………..16 A.4 Woolf’s perception of the body……………………………………..22 A.4.1 Woolf’s notion of androgyny…………………………25 A.4.2 Woolf’s use of non-human imagery…………………..35 B. Literature review: Bakhtin, feminist criticism, and Woolf’s fiction…….36 B.1 The scholarship on Bakhtin, feminism and Woolf’s humour………36 B.2 Woolf’s fiction and carnivalization…………………………………39 II. MIKHAIL BAKHTIN’S NOTION OF THE CARNIVAL AND ITS INFLUENCE ON LITERATURE…………………………………...45 A. Bakhtin’s notion of the carnival…………………………………………46 A.1 The historical background of the carnival as a ritual……………….48 A.2 The nature of the carnival as a ritual in Bakhtin’s literary theory…..51 A.3 Ambivalent carnival laughter……………………………………….55 A.4 The grotesque……………………………………………………….57 B. Carnivalization: the influence of the carnival on literature……………..64 viii B.1 The Socratic dialogue……………………………………………….67 B.2 The menippea……………………………………………………….70 B.3 Dostoevsky’s carnivalized fiction…………………………………..76 B.3.1. Carnivalistic life………………………………………77 B.3.2 Free contact……………………………………………79 B.3.3 Carnivalistic mésalliances……………………………..80 B.3.4 Profanation…………………………………………….80 B.4 Rabelais’s carnivalized fiction……………………………………...81 B.4.1 The language of the marketplace……………………...82 B.4.2 Popular-festive forms and images……………………..85 B.4.3 Grotesque imagery…………………………………….86 III. RECONFIGURATIONS OF THE FEMALE SPACE IN THE VOYAGE OUT………………………………………………………...91 A. Merging of the inside and the outside…………………………………...92 A.1 Escape from stability………………………………………………..93 A.2 Escape from domestic norms……………………………………...103 A.3 Erasing the boundaries between the private and the public……….107 B. Free contact among people…………………………………………….111 IV. THE DECROWNING OF PATRIARCHAL AUTHORITY IN TO THE LIGHTHOUSE AND FLUSH………………………………………..117 A. The emasculation of patriarchal authority in To the Lighthouse……….118 B. Decrowning of the father figure in Flush………………………………132 V. GROTESQUE IN ORLANDO: ANDROGYNOUS MINDS AND BODIES………………………………………………………………...147 A. The androgynous mind…………………………………………………150 A.1 Manifestations of the androgynous mind in Orlando: the narrator and Orlando………………………………………….150 ix A.1.1 The narrator’s androgynous mind……………………151 A.1.2 Orlando’s androgynous mind and the challenges of being a woman……………………………………155 B. Ambivalent/androgynous/grotesque bodies: Orlando, Sasha and the Archduchess/Archduke………………………………………………...163 B.1 Androgynous sexuality in Orlando………………………………..169 C. Other grotesque images………………………………………………...174 VI. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………..180 APPENDICES A. BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………185 B. CURRICULUM VITAE…………………………………………………...196 C. TURKISH SUMMARY…………………………………………………...198 D. TEZ FOTOKOPİSİ İZİN FORMU………………………………………...221 x CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Born as Adeline Virginia Stephen in 1882 and raised in a Victorian environment, Virginia Woolf is one of the most prominent authors of English literature. Her fiction and non-fiction are widely discussed and analysed, especially in terms of feminism and modernism. Indeed, as Jane Goldman states, these two fields “are two
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