Reading William Shakespeare’s Macbeth as a Political Text

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Year-Number: 2019-30
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Number of pages: 903-914
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Abstract

Bu yazı William Shakespeare’in Macbeth’ini kültürel materyalizm çerçevesinde politik bir metin olarak incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Shakespeare’in, otoritenin meşrulaştırılması ve toplumdaki otoriteye karşı gelinmesi için siyasi motivasyonunu keşfedecektir. Macbeth’te Shakespeare, 1. James’in hükümdarlığının politik meselelerini, monarşi kültürü ve aynı zamanda gücün kullanılması ile ilgili endişelerini yansıttı. Shakespeare, kralın, kralların ilahi kimliklerini ve haklarını yücelten teorisini kültürel hafızaya kazırken, diğer yandan da ona karşı itirazlar hakkında yazdı. Büyücülüğün politik yönlerini kullandı; cadıların kehanetleri, siyasi düzenin yıkılmasını motive etti. Bu yazı Macbeth’teki cadıların kehanetlerine bağlı olarak hâkimiyet ve muhalif kapsamlarını araştırmaktadır. Kültürel materyalist bakış açısına göre, bu yazı Shakespeare’in metninin tarihsel bağlamını, geleneksel düzene, monarşi kültürüne ve kralların tanrılığına güvenen politik ve ideolojik algıların ötesinde incelemektedir. Macbeth'te, dominant, residual ve emergent bakış açıları sayesinde kültürün gelişimine odaklanır. Güçlü olanların zayıf olanlara uyguladığı gücün işleyişiyle açıkça ilgilenmek yerine, dominant kültür içinde rekabet eden güçleri araştırıyor. Dominant kültürün kontrolü elinde tutmak istemesine rağmen; onu sorgulayan, gizeminden arındıran ve düzenini bozan pek çok muhalif ürettiğini ortaya koymaktadır.

Keywords

Abstract

This paper aims at analysing William Shakespeare’s Macbeth as a political text within the framework of cultural materialism. It will explore Shakespeare’s political motivation for legitimation of authority and challenges to it in society. In Macbeth, Shakespeare reflected political issues of James I’s reign, his concerns with the culture of monarchy and also the operations of the power. Shakespeare inscribed his theories of kingship that glorified divine identities and rights of the kings on cultural memory, on the other hand, he wrote about the contradictions to it. He employed the political aspects of witchcraft; witches’ prophecies motivated the destruction of the political order. This paper searches the scope of control and dissidence in relation to prophecies of the witches in macbeth. From Cultural materialist perspective, this paper explores the historical context of Shakespeare’s text beyond the particular political and ideological perception that trusted traditional order, culture of monarchy, and divinity of kings. It focuses on the development of culture in Macbeth through dominant, residual and emergent perspectives. It does not explicitly concern with the operations of power that is exercised by powerful ones on weaker ones, instead, it explores the competing forces the dominant culture. It presents that despite the fact that the dominant culture desires to keep control in hand; it produces many dissident subjects that question, demystify and subvert it.

Keywords


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