MYTHMAKING IN PROGRESS: PLAYS BY WOMEN ON FEMALE WRITERS AND LITERARY CHARACTERS A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY PÜRNUR UÇAR-ÖZB İRİNC İ IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH LITERATURE OCTOBER, 2007 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences ____________________________ Prof. Dr. Sencer Ayata Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ____________________________ Prof. Dr. Wolf König Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Prof. Dr. Nursel İçöz Prof. Dr. Meral Çileli Co-Supervisor Supervisor Examining Committee Members Prof. Dr. Ay şegül Yüksel (Ankara Uni.) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ünal Norman (METU) Asst. Prof. Dr. Nurten Birlik (METU) Dr. Rüçhan Kayalar (Bilkent Uni.) ii I hereby declare that all information in this document has been 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: Pürnur Uçar-Özbirinci Signature: iii ABSTRACT MYTHMAKING IN PROGRESS: PLAYS BY WOMEN ON FEMALE WRITERS AND LITERARY CHARACTERS Uçar-Özbirinci, Pürnur Ph.D., English Literature Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Meral Çileli Co-Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Nursel İçöz October 2007, 247 pages This thesis analyzes the process of women’s mythmaking in the plays written by female playwrights. Through writing the lives of female writers and rewriting the literary characters, which have been created by male writers, the women playwrights assume the role of a mythmaker. A mythmaker possesses the power to use the ‘word,’ thereby possesses the power to control ‘reality.’ However, for centuries, women have been debarred from generating their own myths, naming their own experiences, and controlling their own ‘realities.’ Male mythmakers prescribed the roles women were required to perform within the society. Feminist archetypal theorists believe that through a close study of related patterns in women’s writing, common grounds, and experiences, the archetypes shared by women will be disclosed. Unveiling these archetypes will eventually lead to the establishment of new myths around these archetypes. As myths are regarded as the source of collective experiences, analyzing how women have rewritten, revised, devised, and originated myths would thus permit women to reclaim the power to name, and hence to influence the so-called reality established by the patriarchy. Hence, this study analyzes the constantly developing process of women’s mythmaking/mythbreaking in Liz Lochhead’s Blood and Ice , Rose Leiman Goldemberg’s Letters Home , Bilgesu Erenus’ Halide , Timberlake Wertenbaker’s The Love of the Nightingale , Bryony Lavery’s Ophelia , and Zeynep Avcı’s Gilgamesh . iv These playwrights try to depose the stereotypical images attributed to women by male mythmakers. Keywords : Rewriting, Archetypes, Mythmaking, Mythbreaking, Feminist Archetypal Theory v ÖZ MİT YARATMA SÜREC İ: KADIN OYUNLARINDA KADIN YAZARLAR VE EDEB İ KARAKTERLER Uçar-Özbirinci, Pürnur Doktora, İngiliz Edebiyatı Tez yöneticisi: Prof. Dr. Meral Çileli Ortak Tez Yöneticisi: Prof. Dr. Nursel İçöz Ekim 2007, 247 sayfa Bu çalı şmada kadın oyunlarında mit yaratma süreci incelenmi ştir. Kadın oyun yazarları, tarihi kadın yazarların hayatlarını ve erkekler tarafından yaratılmı ş edebi kadın figürlerini eserlerinde ön plana çıkararak mit yaratıcısı konumuna ula şırlar. Bir mit yaratıcısı dili kullanma gücüne sahip oldu ğu için, gerçe ği kontrol etme gücüne de sahiptir. Ancak, yüzyıllar boyunca kadınlar, kendi mitlerini yaratamamı ş, ve bu nedenle kendi tecrübe ve gerçeklerini belirleyememi şlerdir. Erkek mit yaratıcıları, kadının toplumda oynayacağı rolleri belirlemi ş ve yaratmı ş oldukları kadın şablonlarını kendi eserlerinde kaydetmi şlerdir. Feminist arketip kuramcıları, kadınların yarattı ğı eserlerin incelenmesi sonucu kadınların ortak motiflerine, tecrübelerine ve olu şturdukları arketiplere ulaşılabilinece ğini savunmaktadır. Kadın sanatçıların yarattıkları arketiplerin belirlenmesi, yeni mitlerin ortaya çıkarılması demektir. Mitler toplumun ortak tecrübeleri olarak görüldü ğü için, kadınların mitleri tekrar yazmaları, de ğiştirmeleri ve yeni mitler olu şturmaları onlara ataerkil toplumun gerçeklerini sorgulama ve kendi gerçeklerini olu şturma gücü vermektedir. Bu nedenle, bu tezde Liz Lochhead’in Blood and Ice , Rose Leiman Goldemberg’ün Letters Home , Bilgesu Erenus’un Halide , Timberlake Wertenbaker’ın The Love of the Nightingale , Bryony Lavery’nin Ophelia ve Zeynep Avcı’nın Gılgamı ş adlı oyunlarındaki mit yaratma ve mit kırma süreçleri incelenmi ştir. Bu oyun yazarları, erkek mit yaratıcılarının olu şturdu ğu kadın şablonlarını yıkmayı ve kadınlı ğı tekrar tanımlamayı amaçlamı şlardır. vi Anahtar Kelimeler : Yeniden yazma, Arketipler, Mit Yaratma, Mit Kırma, Feminist Arketip Kuramı vii To My Family viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I should like to express my sincerest gratitude and thanks to my supervisor Prof. Dr. Meral Çileli and my co-supervisor Prof. Dr. Nursel İçöz for guiding and assisting me at all stages of this work. I would also like to express my great appreciation to the other members of the supervising committee, Prof. Dr. Ay şegül Yüksel and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ünal Norman, for their invaluable vision, support, and encouragement. I deeply appreciate the help of Asst. Prof. Dr. Nurten Birlik and Dr. Rüçhan Kayalar. I can never forget all the help and support of my friends and colleagues Dr. Özlem Uzundemir, Dr. Meltem Kıran-Raw, Dr. Özkan Çakırlar, Dr. Laurence Raw, and Dr. Nil Korkut. I especially want to thank Dr. Defne Ersin, Dr. Sema Aslan, Dr. Berkem Gürenci, Saniye Çancı, and Esin A ğao ğlu, for never giving up on me. Finally, I want to thank my mother and father, my sister and brother, and my husband for their endless patience, help, and love. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM………………………………………………………......................... ii ABSTRACT....………………………………………………………......................... v ÖZ…...………………………………………………………………………………. vi DEDICATION…………………………………………………………………......... viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………………….... ix TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………………......... x CHAPTER INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………… 1 II. MYTHMAKING: DEFINITIONS AND MEANINGS………………………….. 13 III. PLAYS BY WOMEN ON FEMALE WRITERS……………………………….. 22 III.I. Liz Lochhead’s Blood and Ice ……………………………………………… 28 III.II. Rose Leiman Goldemberg’s Letters Home ………………………………... 52 III.III. Bilgesu Erenus’ Halide ………………………………………………….... 81 IV. PLAYS BY WOMEN ON LITERARY CHARACTERS………………………. 116 IV.I. Timberlake Wertenbaker’s The Love of the Nightingale …………………... 122 IV. II. Bryony Lavery’s Ophelia ............................................................................ 150 IV.III. Zeynep Avcı’s Gilgamesh ………………………………………………... 177 V. CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………........... 203 PRIMARY SOURCES & REFERENCES………………………………………...... 220 APPENDICES I. Turkish Summary……………………………………………………………… 232 II. Vita……………………………………………………….…………………… 247 x CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Before the woman writer can journey through the looking glass toward literary autonomy … she must come to terms with the images on the surface of the glass, with, that is, those mythic masks male artists have fastened over her human face both to lessen their dread of her “inconstancy” and by identifying her with the “eternal types” they have themselves invented to possess her more thoroughly. The Madwoman in the Attic Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar William McNeill declares that those truths shared by a social group, which “provide a sanction for common effort, have obvious survival value” (7). Whether or not the truth shared by the group possesses any validity, this truth supplies a certain refuge for the endurance of that group of people. McNeill continues by stating that, “without such social cement no group can long preserve itself” (7). For McNeill, sharing the consciousness of a common past “is a powerful supplement to other ways of defining who ‘we’ are” (7). Therefore, certain shared values help to ensure the future, as well as the identity, of societies. Some women playwrights have made use of women writers and literary women characters in their texts to question the previously established myths around these figures in order to reclaim their rightful place in the society, and to ensure their future. In order to discover some of the persistent patterns in plays of contemporary women, the following plays will be analyzed in detail: Blood and Ice by Liz Lochhead, Letters Home by Rose Leiman Goldemberg, Halide by Bilgesu Erenus, The Love of the Nightingale by Timberlake Wertenbaker, Ophelia by Bryony Lavery, and Gilgamesh by Zeynep Avcı. This dissertation will try to reveal the conscious, as well as the unconscious mythical patterns woven by these six women playwrights in creating, revising, and even deconstructing myths (mythbreaking) as a reference point for understanding their own experiences, acknowledging their own identities, and finally declaring their own freedom as women. 1 The consciousness of a similar heritage is the major trait of any society. Having a similar ancestral past, inhabiting the same lands, enjoying common traditions, and speaking