Halide Edip Adıvar?ın ?Seviyye Talip? ve Michael Cunningham?ın ?Saatler? eserlerinde kadının özgürlük arayışı

The present thesis examines the restrictive effects of patriarchal system and the female quest for freedom who try to get rid of these oppressions in the patriarchal Victorian and Ottoman societies by focusing on Michael Cunningham?s The Hours and Halide Edib Adıvar?s Seviyye Talip. The two novels are analyzed and evaluated by putting the feminist and comparative approach on the basis of the historical contexts and cultural traits of the mentioned countries. Feminism that forms the basic point for this thesis and the superiority relationship between men and women are analyzed and subsequently the transformations of the female identity from tradition to modernity in the West and Ottoman Empire are explained in the first part. In the second part; the personal life stories and women perceptions of Michael Cunningham; Virginia Woolf who is claimed to give him muse and Halide Edib Adıvar are studied in details with the analyses of causal connections. Afterwards, female quest for freedom in the Hours and Seviyye Talip is analyzed on different points. At the end of the thesis, it is concluded that in the east or west ? even if the periods are different - the patriarchal system and conservative constitutions related to the religious-cultural norms are universal and unavoidable factors for shepherding women towards freedom quest. As a result, it is also seen that Halide Edib Adıvar, a woman writer brought up in such a country, is exposed to the social norms of the mentioned period, as well, and she reflects her personal experiences in her works naturally. Similarly, Cunningham analyses women issue successfully thanks to his talent of empathy.Keywords: Patriarchal, Oppression, Freedom, Quest, Woman, Feminism, Struggle