Potentials of self-writing in the literature of Adalet Ağaoğlu: Femininity, authorship and female authorship

Adalet Ağaoğlu's first novel Ölmeye Yatmak [Lying Down to Die] (1973) has maintained critical attention for over fifty years, securing its place in modern Turkish literature. In her diary Damla Damla Günler I [Days by Drops] (2004), the novel holds a strong presence, as the process of its planning, writing, and publication marks a turning point for Ağaoğlu. Her memoir-novel Göç Temizliği [The Cleanse of Migration] (1985) also reflects on her experiences before and after writing Ölmeye Yatmak, offering key insights into the author's writing experiences. These three texts -Ölmeye Yatmak, Damla Damla Günler I, and Göç Temizliği- are linked by their shared use of first-person narration that directly conveys personal experience. The narrators are portrayed as misfit, killjoy, and willful subjects who attempt to rupture from family, society, and history, thereby presenting a form of feminist subjectivity. Sara Ahmed's Living a Feminist Life (2017) explores women's stories of rupture -from familial, social, and historical authority- and emphasizes the willfulness that underlies feminist acts. For Ahmed, telling these stories is a political act. Women who tell their stories write their own histories and create new space for themselves. The experience of being a female author thus becomes an act of resistance to male-dominated traditions. In this context, Ağaoğlu's experiences, examined through Ahmed's lens of willfulness and rupture, offers a new insights for feminist literary criticism. This thesis explores Ölmeye Yatmak, Damla Damla Günler I ve Göç Temizliği and Damla Damla Günler I through Ahmed's framework, aiming to offer a new critical perspective on Ağaoğlu's literature.