Date

2022-2

Author

Sezer Toraman, Şermin

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This study discusses the reasons for the migration of women protagonists to another country and their subject formation processes in four novels whose stories take place in the 1960s and 70s in a diasporic context: Buchi Emecheta’s In the Ditch and Second-Class Citizen, and Emine Sevgi Özdamar’s Life is a Caravanserai- with two Doors, through one of which I came, and through one of which I left and The Bridge of the Golden Horn. Taking diaspora as the social context, this study deals with the subject formation processes of women protagonists against the backdrop of Rosi Braidotti’s understanding of nomadic thinking and subjectivity because it explores a search for subjectivity beyond the experience of migration and diaspora by highlighting the possibility of an alternative space, which Braidotti calls rhizome. Since the protagonists of the novels are women, I claim that feminine writing becomes a substantial part of their subject formation; thus, Helen Cixous’s theories on writing the body are consulted along with Braidotti’s theories on subjectivity. The protagonists showcase not only the subversion of prevalent identity markers such as gender, race, ethnicity, religion etc. but also the denial of these categories. They go through similar subject formation processes despite being ‘embedded’ in totally different traditions, histories and countries. Thus, this study claims that women characters migrate from their home countries to host countries to open up a rhizomatic space where they can get rid of patriarchal restrictions and engage in liberating subject formation processes.

Subject Keywords

Diaspora, Nomadic thinking, Nomadic becoming, Counter-memory, Rhizome

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/96210

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis