İstanbul Kadın Müzesi

LEYLA TOKSÖZ

Çalışmayı indirmek için tıklayınız Çalışmayı izlemek için tıklayınız

Çalışmanın Özeti

The aim of this thesis is to discuss the transformation of the definitions of "woman" and "man" in the modern world, but especially focusing on modern Turkey by taking Elif Shafak's one of the most popular and prominent novels, The Bastard of Istanbul.

The major changes and developments, affecting these terms, both in the east and the west will also be touched upon. The reason why The Bastard of Istanbul is the centre of this thesis is that it reflects today's lifestyle in Istanbul as well as in Europe; turning the dusty pages of the past, and also reflecting today?s point of view both from the East and the West.

When the reader comes to the last pages of the novel, he/she feels a big ambiguity of definitions for the things which are always thought to be plain and clear cut. These clear cut definitions are mostly the ones for nation, race, gender, yet which also ones have innate duality or even multiplicity. While reading this book, it is observed that the commonly used definitions for female and male are no more in our lives, but turned into the myths of societies.

We neither come across with the stereotype of fragile women, nor with the hero type, strong men within the society. Instead, both in this novel and in today's life, it is clearly seen that women stand on their own feet, without being dependent on anyone else, especially on men, but working with them, and living with them. Men also have lost their strength and power on women, also gotten accustomed to sharing the privileges they had in the past when compared to the last decades.

However, we still have the image of men as powerful, breadwinner, observer; and women as weak, fragile, and docile as if they were the norms and we still should have lived according to these norms. When we search for the feminist struggle, it is obvious that the issue of equivalence is the main reason for these arguments, as so many scholars such as Virginia Woolf, Mary Wollstonecraft, Jacques Lacan, and Susan Bordo etc also tried to explain the reasons for that situation and then tried to find out solutions for it.

Not only in Europe, but also in Turkey we have the supporters of feminism, and feminist rights; and one of the most well-known of these feminist writers is Duygu Asena. Though she is so well-known and respected, she is the one who misdirects feminism in Turkey and focuses on the restrictions created by the marital relationship and the domestic responsibilities.

(Özeti siteye yönlendirici: Nihan Dalbeler)