Fictions of masculinity in Peyami Safa's Sözde Kızlar and Melih Cevdet Anday's Aylaklar Novels

The idea that masculinity, like femininity, is a product of social gender construction has brought critical masculinity studies to the fore. As a result of these studies, men and masculinities have been examined within a critical framework. It is known that critical masculinity studies are less prevalent today than studies in gender research that focus on women. In addition, the increasing prevalence of masculinity studies across many disciplines has also made it possible to examine the notion of masculinity from different perspectives. The examination of gender and masculinity in literary studies has made it possible to trace the sociological and cultural phenomenon of masculinity through literary works. In this vein, this thesis examines Peyami Safa's Sözde Kızlar and Melih Cevdet Anday's Aylaklar novels within the framework of the concept of masculinity. Accordingly, the discourse of masculinity established in the novels under study is examined through the identities and roles of men. In addition, the scope of the study includes examining the historical conditions under which male identities were constructed within the context of the period and social structure. The primary reason for selecting the novels Sözde Kızlar and Aylaklar is that they represent the transformations in the perception of masculinity as a social gender during two important historical periods for the Turkish nation and literature: the early Republic and the Republican eras. In this regard, the thesis is divided into three sections in addition to the introduction. The introduction presents theoretical information about gender, femininity, and masculinity. The first section discusses conceptions of masculinity in Modern Turkish Literature within the framework of masculinity and literature, providing the theoretical background for the study. In the second and third sections, the concept of masculinity in Peyami Safa's Sözde Kızlar and Melih Cevdet Anday's Aylaklar, which are the subjects of the thesis, are examined in turn, and information about both the authors and their works is provided to ensure the integrity of the study. Along with this, the notion of masculinity in the texts has been examined within the framework of the ideas and ideologies reflected by the period and authors, including the concepts of body, ideal, and otherness. In the novels, it has been concluded that ideal and other masculinities are constructed around the concepts of "snobbery and idleness" in the context of modern society and modern human identities, as well as around the ideologies of nationalism and republicanism. Thus, in these works, the social norms and roles of masculinity, which is accepted as a social gender, are illuminated, and the variability of masculinity, which is a historical, cultural, and sociological phenomenon, is identified through two different novels, authors, and periods.