Fictions of femininity in Turkish literature (1870-1908)

In this study, through the novels written by male and female authors between 1870 and 1908 and the contents of periodicals as a supporting element, the ways in which constructions of femininity are constructed in fictional reality and social reality, and how these constructions complement or reject each other, are comparatively revealed with the possibilities offered by feminist literary criticism. In the first part, a theoretical discussion on the relationality of the literary canon and constructions of femininity in Turkey is presented in order to reveal how women are received in canonical literature both as writers and as protagonists. In the second part, the hypothesis that women can be used as ideological representations for various purposes in the canonical literature of the period is verified through the works of male authors. In this section, it is determined that in novels with male authors, firstly, the ideal female identity is defined and determined, then the place of women in the family is reminded, then women are subjected to a test of hysteria by men, and finally, existing gender roles are reconstructed by the author around the female reading experience. In the third section, the fictions of femininity in the novels of women writers are analyzed and it is discussed whether the fictions in the canonical novels analyzed in the second section find a counterpart in novels with women writers, if so, what kind of a counterpart they find, and if not, what alternative fictions are put forward.