Female experience of space: readings from two novels

Abstract

This thesis aims to reveal the spatial experience of Turkish women throughout time in the light of cultural and political changes in space and society through analysis of novels. The lived spaces are the loci of human beings and individuals’ everyday lives are staged in and around the lived space. The politics of gender difference is one of the most significant variables in one's experience and perception of space. Turkish context, having experienced multiple politics, regimes, and autonomous movements for women's liberation, provides a significant case for the research of gender-space relationships in various periods. By analyzing Hiçbiri (1921) by Suat Derviş and Kadının Adı Yok (1987) by Duygu Asena, the thesis attempts to highlight the multi-layered dimensions of the lived spaces with a feminist perspective. Two novels are chosen to depict the conditions in the first-wave feminist period at the end of the Ottoman Empire and the second-wave feminist period in the Turkish Republic after the 1980s. The research uses narrative analysis to enable a multi-disciplinary viewpoint combining the disciplines of architecture, literature, geography, and sociology. The analysis provides insight into spaces and demonstrations of women's everyday life, as well as into political and cultural influences on women's performance in public and private spaces. The main argument is that internalized socio-cultural norms, regulations and masculine control have an immense impact on women’s experience and perception of space even when the socio-political milieu implies progression in theory.