Women in Afet Ilgaz's novels and stories

Afet Ilgaz (1937-2015), one of the writers of the Republic Period, is a story, novel, children's novel, essay, travel writer, a translator and a columnist. The author, who includes people from all walks of life in her works; she especially pioneered female characters in his novels and stories, and wrote about their social and individual problems in a realistic and critical style. In this study, based on Afet Ilgaz's novels and stories, it is aimed to examine the female characters in her works and how these characters are depicted in the social and individual sphere. The author, who includes women from all walks of life in her works with a realistic approach, has depicted the female characters she deals with in her works according to her own intellectual adventure, and as the intellectual adventure of the author changes, the depiction of the mentioned female characters has also changed. As a matter of fact, the author, who classified her intellectual adventure into two separate periods as socialist/feminist and Islamic, also changed the typology of female characters in her works according to these periods. In our study, it is also aimed to examine the replacement of female characters in Afet Ilgaz's novels with the changing world view after 1990. This study consists of three parts apart from the introduction part. In the introduction, the beginning and the course of feminism in Turkey are examined with its main frameworks, and Afet Ilgaz and women's literature in Turkey are mentioned in general terms. In the continuation of this section, the method of the study is cascaded, and the course of the study is evaluated in detail in sub-steps. The woman in Afet Ilgaz's novels and stories has been examined in three parts in this study. These sections are "Afet Ilgaz in Socialist/Feminist Line" and "Afet Ilgaz in Islamic Line", which were created under the main title of "Political Tendencies and Its Effects on Literature" in the First Chapter. With these sections, the changes in Afet Ilgaz's worldview and their effects on her literature were examined based on her works. The second part, "Afet Ilgaz's Unique Female Sensitivity", is titled "Women and Authorship", "Motherhood-Love-Marriage", "Education and Work Life", "Existence Effort-Cultural Inquiry-Religion-Tradition", "Transformation into Male Characters and Universalization". In this section, which is divided into five sub-headings as "Transformation into Male Characters and Universalization", it has been examined what subjects the female characters in the novels and stories of Afet Ilgaz take place in the works and how they turn into male characters together with the intellectual adventure of the author; in the third chapter, under the main title "Afet Ilgaz's Representations of Individualization on Female Characters", "From Captive Femininity to Freedom: Fikret", "Individual and Non-Individual: Gülsüm and Sevda, "Towards Nature and Natural: Müjgân", "Modern Woman Individual: Dilara", "Famous, Secular Individual: Cahide", "Independent Woman, Individual Who Serves a Purpose: Nezihe", "Intelligent and Distinguished, Revolutionary Left Individual: Mestinaz" in Ilgaz's novels and stories only the individualization of women who serve the purpose and the qualities of female characters from these individuals are mentioned. In this way, the female characters that the author included in his novels and stories were examined in general terms. In the conclusion part of the thesis, the female characters in Afet Ilgaz's novels and stories, along with the author's worldview, were replaced by male characters, and the study was concluded by evaluating how the author's intellectual adventure spread to his works.