Browsing by Subject "Women in literature."

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Open Access
Ambivalence and ambiguity in Thackeray's attitude to his woman characters in Vanity Fair and Henry Esmond
(1994) Babaloğlu, Vicdan
William Makepeace Thackeray is ambivalent in his depiction of woman characters, which is primarily the result of the discrepancy in the attitude to women of the Victorian society· Like many of the contemporary novelists, he at once supports and questions the position of women and the double standards of his male-dominated society. His attitude to the Victorian concept of ideal womanhood is equally ambig^uous as that of the Victorian concept of the "fallen" woman. Thackeray portrays his female characters as contrasted pairs, usin^ the "bad" woman as a foil to the "g“ood" one. Such portrayal is in keeping' with the method of Victorian fiction; however, he questions the values of ideal woDianhood in the conventional novel. The ambivalence of Thackeray's attitude to his female characters makes it difficult for the reader to determine whether he prefers the good, submissive, but the boring parasite in the Amelia type or the bad, rebellious, yet attractive Becky type. Contributing to this ambivalence is Thackeray's irony as well as humor. Such ambivalence no doubt resulted from his contradictory attitude to his mother, wife, and the woman he loved. The ambivalence and ambiguity in his attitude is to be found in all of his novels, but most obviously in Vanity Fair and Henry Esmond. These are the two novels most memorable for their contrasted female characters. The pairs of women examined are Amelia Sedley and Becky Sharp of Vanity Fair and Rachel Castlewood and Beatrix Castlewood of Henry Esmond.
Open Access
Bilgiye açılan kapılar : Ahmet Mithat Efendi ve İsmail Gaspıralı'nın eserlerinde Avrupalı kadınlar
(2008) Çamkara, Ayşe
This thesis explores European women characters in selected works of Ahmet Mithat Efendi (1844-1912) and İsmail Gaspıralı (1851-1914). This particular focus allows the reader to revise some major claims and generalisations that have been made on post-Tanzimat literature and brings to the fore the plurality of views and approaches existing during that period. In the first part of the thesis, the novels of Ahmet Mithat Efendi titled Acâyib-i Âlem (1881-82) and Felâtun Bey ile Râkım Efendi (1876) are analysed. It is pointed out that in those novels the European women guide the Ottoman men thanks to their knowledge. European women are depicted as dominant characters who control Ottoman men and reverse the traditional hierarchy between genders. In the second part of the thesis, the focus is on İsmail Gaspıralı's novels who display similar characteristics: ―Frengistan Mektupları‖ (1887), Darürrahat Müslümanları (1887–89/1906), ―Sudan Mektupları‖ (1889), ―Kadınlar Ülkesi‖ (1890–91), ―Molla Abbas Fransevî‘ye Tesadüf: Gülbaba Ziyareti‖ (1908). Here too European women introduce positive sciences to ―Eastern‖ men and are portrayed as dominant characters in their relationship with ―Eastern men‖. Moreover Gaspıralı's utopian and dystopian novels are discussed with particular reference to the representation of women.
Open Access
Cumhuriyet öncesi kadın yazarların romanlarında toplumsal cinsiyet ve kimlik sorunsalı (1877-1923)
(2012) Günaydın, Ayşegül Utku
Womanhood and gender relationships have been one of the first questions taken up as the natural extension of the modernization paradigm between the declaration of the First Constitution and the Republic. Even though womanhood was declared to be a project, the fact that gender issues were never re-examined in a fundamental manner led to new problems vis-à-vis gender and identity. Opened up by the press, the new public sphere offered women the opportunity to discuss the woman question through articles and novels, and the most significant examples of inquiries concerning identity were expressed through one of the branches of traditional literature and through women‟s novels, a sub-genre that newly came into existence. The questioning of the oppressive mechanisms working on women and created by the responsibilities of the new female identity that went beyond the limits of the family, along with the male point of view floundering in face of this new identity, reflects a common female sensibility and sets forth the essence of this literature. The new female identity emphasizes rationality and the resilience of women, taking certain values of womanhood as its basis, and the female viewpoint is used to demonstrate the consequences of the dissonance between this “new” identity and the expectations of the male identity that represented the mindset of society in general, as personified by husbands, lovers, fathers, and relatives. The image of the isolated and struggling girl, who becomes more profound as she becomes more educated, is the symbol of the newly emerging intellectual woman of the Ottoman society. Opposite this woman in transition are the Ottoman men who are either already “impressed” or ready to be impressed. In short, the female novelists of the era express the need for a social transformation that would have to start at the very foundations of society and restructure the relationship between woman and man, i.e., sexual identities. In discussing the common themes, motifs, and sensibilities of women‟s novels, the dissertation examines the following works: Aşk-ı Vatan (1877) by Zafer Hanım; Muhâdarât (1892), Levâyih-i Hayât (1897-98), Refet, (1898), Udî (1899), and Enîn (1910) by Fatma Aliye Hanım; Uhuvvet (1895) by Selma Rıza Feraceli; Terbiye-i Etfale Ait Üç Hikâye (1895), Hiss-i Rekabet (1896), Bîkes (1897), Mükâfat-ı İlâhiye (1896), Sefalet (1897), Muallime (1899-1901), and Gayya Kuyusu (1920) by Emine Semiye Hanım; Dilharâb (1896-97) by Fatma Fahrünnisa Hanım; Münevver (1905- 06), Ölmüş Bir Kadının Evrak-ı Metrukesi (1905), Yaban Gülü (1920) and Nedret (1922) by Güzide Sabri Aygün; Heyûlâ (1908), Raik’in Annesi (1909), Seviyye Talip (1910), Handan (1912), Yeni Turan (1912), Son Eseri (1913) and Mev’ud Hüküm (1918) by Halide Edib; Şebab-ı Tebah (1911) by Nezihe Muhiddin; Aydemir (1918) by Müfide Ferit Tek; Kara Kitap (1920) by Suat Derviş and Sisli Geceler (1922) by Halide Nusret Zorlutuna.
Open Access
Düzenin ve kadının karşısında bir "garip" Oğuz Atay
(2011) Yavuz, Ayşe Duygu
One of the most important authors of the 20th Century Modern Turkish novel, Oğuz Atay's (1934-1977) works have not so far been taken into consideration in light of gender-focused literary analysis as a whole. In this thesis, I argue that the male characters in Oğuz Atay's fiction, who stand up against the patriarchal system, are in fact in conformity with the status quo when exhibiting a repressive attitude against women. In the course of the project, analyses on author's Tutunamayanlar, Tehlikeli Oyunlar, Oyunlarla Yaşayanlar and short stories titled ―Unutulan‖ and ―Beyaz Mantolu Adam‖ in Korkuyu Beklerken are presented. Dominance of male voice in the subject-matter literary works seem to stand as obstacles in reaching female voice. As a reading strategy for this specific context, the theory of ―polyphonic novel‖ of Mikhail Bakhtin's is employed. According to Mikhail Bakhtin, voice is a medium that expresses not only ―timber‖ but also consciousness. For a literary work to count as embedding ―polyphonic‖, characters are to have representations of consciousness that are independent of both the author, the ―meta-narrator‖, and each other. Given the emphasis by certain feminist theorists that Bakhtin's theory could be employed for gender-focused literary analysis, marginalization of female consciousness in Oğuz Atay's works is discussed. Means of the alleged marginalization is revealed by how male characters otherize female characters in the fictional worlds of Oğuz Atay's. In order to give an account for this analysis, two pioneers of the French school of feminism, Simone de Beauvoir and Luce Irigaray‘s stance on the dialectic of the I and the other is associated with Oğuz Atay's literary works. Regarding the short stories, the literary analysis rather focuses on the cases in which female characters, even when situated as the narrator of the fiction, cannot have an independent voice, and on the destructive character of gender roles. In another chapter, the question of how bourgeois tendencies are affiliated with married female characters in Oğuz Atay's literary works is addressed. Final remarks of the thesis are on how the married female characters of Atay's fictional worlds are situated in the hierarchy of social classes within the narrations, when Marxist and feminist approaches are in question.
Open Access
Halk anlatılarında ensest
(2011) Abalı, Nefise
The aim of this study is to ascertain incest theme in Turkish folk narratives and to analyse biological and psychological factors and social and cultural perception of incest phenomenon. In this sense, the incest theme in folk tales, folk stories, poetic epics, folk songs, threnodies and Turkish poems is the analysis in feminist perspective by making use of Jung’s archetypal symbolism. In the first section of the study, Jung’s analytical psychology and archetypes are specified. The ideas of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung on incest are referred to in the context of the Oedipus Complex. Sense of mother-son incest set forth in the Dede Korkut Oğuznameleri is examined while referring to the Oedipus Complex. In the second section, folk songs, folk tales and stories comprising father-daughter and father-in-law-daughter-in-law incest motives are analysed. In the third section of the thesis, the Arzu ile Kamber story which evokes brother-sister incest is assessed. The last section, deals wise brother-in-law-aunt-in-law and brother-in-law-sister-in-law incest in poetic epics, folk songs, threnodies and Turkish poems in the context of the line of descent interrelated by marriage. Incest theme differ according to the types of folk narratives, and any type of incest is examined within its own type of narrative. In consideration of folk narratives, the scope of incest is explained through the effects of Islamic religion and traditions within the framework of social and cultural structure.
Open Access
Nezihe Muhiddin, kadın gotiği ve gotik kahramanlar
(2009) Yeşil, Nilüfer
Three novels by Nezihe Muhiddin, İstanbul’da Bir Landru (A Landru in Istanbul) [1934], Benliğim Benimdir! (I Am The Master!) [1929] ve Sus Kalbim Sus! (Hush Now!) [1944], have not yet been related to the gothic tradition, not only because of the central position of realism in Turkish literature but also because of Muhiddin being a controversial figure in the political arena of the Republican Period. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the reasons why Muhiddin has used the gothic tradition in these novels. Following the theoretical framework for this study, the next chapter focuses on how the Byronic hero, necrophilia and liminality lead the way in the “child” woman’s adventure in the novel İstanbul’da Bir Landru. These three gothic elements which are associated with the past suggest Princess Nazlı’s longing for a period when she held power. The other two novels are studied in the next chapter to reveal how heroines struggle against violence inside and outside the house. These gothic heroines who have professionalized in their roles which have been set by the patriarchy can also be considered as signs of Muhiddin’s professional femininity. By means of such inquiries into the gothic tradition, a new light is shed upon the readings of these novels either as a criticism of the “Western” or the Ottoman or as a celebration of the Republican ideology. Nezihe Muhiddin as a writer of subversion in the female gothic tradition is thus given a distinct place among other writers in the Republican Period.
Open Access
Öteki metinler, öteki kadınlar : Ermeni harfli Türkçe romanlar ve kadın imgesi
(2007) Erğinci, Erkan
The first instances of the novel genre in Turkish literature were written in the Tanzimat period by Armenian-Ottoman authors. Despite having been written in Turkish, these works were printed in the Armenian alphabet. Akabi Hikâyesi, the first of these novels, was written by Vartan Paşa and published in 1851. According to the “Bibliography of Works Published in the Old Script” compiled by the Turkish National Library, the second novel to be published was Hovhannes Balıkçyan’s Karnig, Gülünya ve Dikran’ın Dehşelu Vefatleri Hikayesi, in 1862. Six years later Hovsep Maruş’s Bir Sefil Zevce became the third. To this day, neither of the latter two books has ever been published in the roman characters of the official modern Turkish alphabet. This thesis explores why these two hitherto-neglected works deserve to be studied as an integral part of Turkish literary history. According to established theoretical approaches, a work ought to be located and appraised within the literary tradition of the language in which it was written, without regard to the various alphabets in which it may have been published or any ethnic identity or religious persuasion ascribed to its author. This is the view defended in this thesis. Besides constituting the first domestic specimens of a genre originally foreign to the Ottoman Empire, these works hold the distinction of being the first to assert that Ottoman society’s stereotypical image of the woman needed to change. While there exists an extensive scholarly literature on the image of the woman presented in the first Turkish novels of Arabic script, there has been no study of the image of the woman in the first Turkish novels of Armenian script. Examining the latter novels’ revisionist image of the woman through their portrayal of the position of the woman in marriage, in the public sphere, and in the family, this thesis investigates why the Turkish literature’s first Armenian-Ottoman novelists adopted and championed this new image of the woman.
Open Access
Sevgi Soysal'ın yapıtlarında kadın kimliği (Tutkulu Perçem, Tante Rosa, Yürümek)
(2002) Somuncuoğlu, Gamze
Woman characters who are generally in the foreground in the literary works of the prominent Turkish author Sevgi Soysal (1936-1976), draw readers’ attention to the fact that they had been created with similar characteristics. When woman characters who are generally unsatisfied with themselves, especially in Tutkulu Perçem (1962), Tante Rosa (1968), and Yürümek (1970) are analyzed from a psychoanalytic perspective, it can be seen they experience not only personal crises, but also show such characteristics that would fit the definitions of neurotic personality and frigidity. One of the most evident characteristics of this unique type of woman is that she believes she can reach the way of life she had dreamed of by changing herself. However, in the works of Sevgi Soysal, no woman can succeed in this in real life. Sometimes it can be seen that Sevgi Soysal defends women’s rights by using woman characters she has created in her works. When Soysal’s attitude is analyzed in relation to feminism the following may be said: In her early works such as Tutkulu Perçem, Tante Rosa, and Yürümek, Soysal criticizes the perception of woman as “other” in patriarchal society, but her focus is predominantly on individual problems. The question of women in the later works of Sevgi Soysal is seen as part of social disorder and represented in this way. The thesis concludes that Sevgi Soysal cannot be considered a “feminist writer” or her literary works as “products of feminism”. Furthermore, there are quite a few autobiographical elements in the works of Sevgi Soysal. The facts that woman characters in her books carry similar characteristics, and are narrated in a very consistent way cannot be seen as coincidences. The strong correspondence between Soysal’s private life and her narratives shows that the writer was trying to find a solution to her own dilemmas through the fictional characters she had created.
Open Access
Tanzimat'tan Cumhuriyet'e Ressentiment'in dönüşümü : Nezihe Muhddin ve Leylâ Erbil
(2012) Dik, Tuba
Leyla Erbil, in addition to her handling the social and political facts in her literal work, has a unique place in Turkish literature because of her expression techniques. Nezihe Muhiddin, on the other hand, has reflected the problems of her own era to her works; critized the institution of slavery and concubinage. The facts that both Leyla Erbil and Nezihe Muhiddin adapt the sociological aspects of the life to literary texts, and they focus on woman issues make them significant to consider in this work. The aim of this paper is to make comparisons of these two writers who both examine the social events. This comperative work aims to evaluate/explain the problems occured due to the social statue of women, and how these problems are concluded; thus how these conclusions are reflected on literature. Considering the social statue of women; Nietzche's technical term "ressentiment", for which he uses to explain the slavery ethics, will be highlighted in the paper. In the first chapter, some background the information is presented about the identity of writers and their works which are examined in this paper. The works studied are Benliğim Benimdir!(I Am The Master!), Güzellik Kraliçesi(Beauty Queen), Sus Kalbim Sus(Hush Now Hush) which are written by Nezihe Muhiddin, and Leyla Erbil's Tuhaf Bir Kadın(A Strange Woman), Karanlığın Günü(The Day of Darkness), Üç Başlı Ejderha(Three Headed Dragon), Mektup Aşkları(Love in Letters), Cüce(The Dwarf) and Kalan (Remains). After the second chapter, titled as "The Notions that can be Associated with Modernism" which includes the explanation of the "ressentiment and triangular desire" , the modernisation process in Turkey is historically examined in the third chapter, titled as " The Critical view on Turkish Modernisation Project." A new perspective is brought by means of hegemonical menhood and gender. The emergence of ressentiment and the transformation of ressentiment in women's modernization process are examined and explained with the examples from the chosen works, in the last chapter titled as " The Ressentiment of Women on Literal Level".