George Eliot'ın erken dönem romanlarının Kristeva'nın teorileri ışığında incelenmesi

This study attempts to evaluate Eliot's early novels, The Mill on the Floss and Silas Marner, in the light of the Kristevan theories and terms to indicate the construction of gender and identity with respect to the structures and conventions of Victorian society. It comprises of two chapters. Chapter I sets up the theoretical framework of the study regarding the feminist literary criticism and Kristevan criticism. This chapter is divided into three parts as early feminist criticism, modern feminist criticism and the theories and terms of Julia Kristeva. Chapter II overviews the historical background of Victorian period and attempts to evaluate Eliot as a woman novelist in the Victorian period. Besides, in this chapter, Eliot's early novels, The Mill on the Floss and Silas Marner, will be examined in the light of Kristevan criticism. In the second part of the chapter, The Mill on the Floss will be discussed since this novel reveals the protagonist Maggie's familial relations, gender dilemmas, ambivalence of identity, and social pressure. Therefore, The Mill on the Floss will be examined with regard to the semiotic, the symbolic, the theory of subjectivity, women's time, melancholia and revolt. In the third part of the chapter, Silas Marner will be investigated. This novel reveals the protagonist Silas's dilemma of religion, ambivalence of identity and social pressure concerning the circumstances and conventions of Victorian patriarchal society. Silas Marner reflects the contradictions and oppositions between the characters' position in the society and the subjective needs of the character to show his imaginations, feelings and drives. It will be examined within the frame of the notion of strangeness, the semiotic, the symbolic, the theory of subjectivity and women's time in the light of Kristeva's work. Through both novels, Eliot criticises traditional gender roles and social construction and position of two sexes. Both novels will be investigated with respect to Kristevan criticism by underlining Eliot's depictions and attitudes to her protagonists. Key Words: George Eliot, Julia Kristeva, the semiotic, the symbolic, melancholia, revolt