Comparison Of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar And Leyla Erbil's Novels about a strange Woman In Terms Of Feminist Literary Criticism

Leylâ Erbil (1931-2013) has an important place in modern Turkish literature with her unique style. Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) is an American writer known for her autobiographical novel The Bell Jar (1963). In this thesis, Leyla Erbil's novel named Tuhaf Bir Kadın (1971) from Turkish literature and Sylvia Plath's Sirça Fanus from American literature are discussed with the methods of "feminist literary theory". The aim of our thesis is to reveal the similarities and differences between the two works. In this context, information about feminist literary criticism is given in the thesis and the contribution of feminist literary criticism to the works is explained based on the views of various theorists. The center of this thesis is the social and cultural pressure that the female characters of both works experience in the patriarchal society, the negative discrimination they experience in education and business life due to their biological gender, the sexist roles and responsibilities imposed on women, and the struggle for existence of the novel characters against the masculine society. In the study, the reflections of sexist approaches to literature were revealed based on the discourses and adventures of both female characters.