The analysis of the Dede Korkut Ki̇tabi in the context of women's studies

The Book of Dede Korkut is the only written epic of the Oghuzes to date and is a literary, historical, sociological source of traces and mythical origins of the old Turkish peoples' life. Because of these important features, the "female characters" in the book, which are subject of many studies, have been examined frequently. However, these studies usually follow each other and include the same classifications. In addition, studies; were prepared with a patriarchal discourse idealizing the female characters according to gender stereotypes; include normative and essentialist perspectives. This discourse is far from critical reading of the epic text passed long after its production and is intended to reproduce the gender-based division of labor identified within the framework of the patriarchal structure. However, the text makes different forms of femininity and gender roles that exist in a historical period to followable. The aim of the research is; to re-read female characters in the work through the point of view of women. In this re-reading process, both the female characters in the text and the studies on the female characters in the text; the theoretical background provided by feminist theory and gender perspective were analyzed in detail. In this context, in the first part of the study, information is given about feminist theory and gender which cannot be separated from feminist movement. Afterwards, the historical and sociological framework of the analyzes was tried to be drawn by giving information about the book of Dede Korkut, which is a research object. Finally, research design; feminist critical approach and qualitative research processes are introduced; and female characters in the text are adressed by content analysis through family, marriage (spouse, lover, fiancé), motherhood and other themes. With this study, a woman reader action was tried to be realized by leaning on feminist theory. Thus, the elements shown in the basis of the traditional role of women, even in a work presented as the tradition itself is not as that perceived today; that gender roles may vary according to time and class, and that a certain historical subject may not have a uniform existence; furthermore, the necessity to take into account the effects of masculine domination on this existence if the woman is the subject.