Boğulmuyor, Çiziyor: Stevie Smith’in Direnişçi Vizyonu

Year 2025, Volume: 19 Issue: 1, 199 - 211, 30.06.2025

Asya Sakine Uçar

https://doi.org/10.47777/cankujhss.1646961

Abstract

Bu makale, İngiliz şair ve romancı Stevie Smith'in şiirlerinin ve basit eskizlerinin umutsuzluk ile yaratıcılığını ortaya koyarak hayatta kalma arasında nasıl gidip geldiğini ve özellikle “Not Waving but Drowning”, “The River Deben”, “Oblivion”, “Black March”, “Come, Death (2)” ve “Tender Only to the One” gibi şiirlerde görüldüğü üzere ölüm temasını nasıl karmaşık bir şekilde işlediğini analiz etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu çalışma aynı zamanda Smith'in ölümü korkulan, uğursuz bir varlıktan ziyade nazik bir dost olarak ele almasının ve hatta onu tanrı olarak yeniden çerçevelemesinin, yabancılaşma ve iletişimsizlikle gizlenmiş, yanlış anlaşılan bir güçten, yaşamın acı kısıtlamalarından arınmış, adeta arzu edilen bir nisyana kademeli bir geçişi ortaya koyduğunu savunmaktadır. Sonunda ölümün saygın ve somut kabulü ve onu hevesle bekleme boyutu, hayatın dayanılmaz yüklerinden ve çalkantılarından ebedi ve gerçek bir rahatlama sunar. Bu anlamda, Smith'in bazı şiirlerine eşlik eden ölüm konfigürasyonları ve çağrıştırıcı çizimleri, varoluşsal bir yalnızlık hissini yansıtırken aynı zamanda yaratıcı ifade yoluyla umutsuzluğa direnmiş olur.

Keywords

Stevie Smith , şiir , ölüm , çizim , direniş

Not Drowning But Drawing: The Defiant Vision Of Stevie Smith

Abstract

This article aims to provide an analysis of how English poet and novelist Stevie Smith’s poetry and simple sketches oscillate between despair and creative survival, intricately navigating the theme of death, as most notably seen in poems such as “Not Waving but Drowning,” “The River Deben”, “Oblivion,” “Black March,” “Come, Death (2)” and “Tender Only to the One.” This work also argues that Smith’s treatment of death as a gentle friend rather than a feared, ominous entity and even reframing it as a figure of god reveals a gradual transition from a misunderstood force, obscured by alienation and miscommunication to a desirable oblivion, liberated from suffering and constraints of life. Finally, a dimension of reverent, solemn acceptance and eager anticipation offer eternal and genuine relief from the unbearable burdens and turbulences of life. In that sense, Smith’s configurations of death and evocative drawings accompanying some of her poems mirror a sense of existential solitude while simultaneously resisting despair through creative expression.

Keywords

Stevie Smith , poetry , death , drawing , defiance

Ethical Statement

This is a research article, containing original data, and it has not been previously published or submitted to any other outlet for publication.

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