A JOURNEY OF FEMINIST REBELLION THROUGH CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN’S SHORT STORY THE YELLOW WALLPAPER AND HER NOVEL HERLAND
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Abstract
This study handles American woman writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s works called The Yellow Wallpaper and Herland as the products of Gilman’s feminist rebellion or as parts of her feminist journey contributing to it. In the study, the aim is to reveal that each of these two works constitutes a different part of Gilman’s maturation journey as a feminist writer, basically feminist theory, and besides, text-based and comparison methods are adopted accordingly. While the writer’s story called The Yellow Wallpaper and dated 1892, is thought to be the product of the writer’s first years as a feminist or a basis for her feminist journey; her utopian novel Herland is considered to be the masterpiece or in other words, the peak of her feminist journey. It is no doubt that both of the writer's works are unique and significant in themselves separately. However, what is proposed here is that each constitutes a different part of Gilman's career as a feminist writer. Thus, the story called The Yellow Wallpaper - although the protagonist’s struggle for freedom, who can also be called as the female narrator remains unresolved- constructs the basis of Gilman’s feminist rebellion. Whereas Herland, displaying the characteristics of a feminist work not only with the matriarchal society handled in the novel but also in terms of the phenomena such as maternity, fertility, and labor sharing featured in the novel, carries Gilman’s feminist struggle or rebellion to its peak. Hence, through her two works, the writer's maturation journey as a feminist in time is discussed
Keywords
Abstract
This study handles American woman writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s works called “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Herland as the products of Gilman’s feminist rebellion or a part of her feminist journey contributing to it. While the writer’s story called “The Yellow Wallpaper” and dated 1892, is thought to be the product of the writer’s first years as a feminist or a basis for her feminist journey; her utopian novel Herland is considered to be the masterpiece or in other words, the peak of her feminist journey. It is no doubt that both of the writer's works are unique and significant in themselves separately. However, what is proposed here is that each constitutes a different part of Gilman's career as a feminist writer. Thus, the story called “The Yellow Wallpaper” - although the protagonist’s struggle for freedom, who can also be called as the female narrator remains unresolved- constructs the basis of Gilman’s feminist rebellion. Whereas Herland, displaying the characteristics of a feminist work not only with the matriarchal society handled in the novel but also in terms of the phenomena such as maternity, fertility, and labor sharing featured in the novel, carries Gilman’s feminist struggle or rebellion to its peak. Hence, through her two works, the writer's maturation journey as a feminist in time is discussed.