FEMALE SELF-ASSERTION IN MODERN FICTION: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ADALET AĞAOĞLU AND DORIS LESSING

Abstract

Emerged in the early 1960s in the United States, the “second wave feminism” spread worldwide throughout the modern period in literature. Influenced by the social, economic and politic changes after the World Wars, the second wave feminists dealt with new issues as female sexuality, the role of women in family and society, the concept of motherhood, feminine liberty and employment. During this period, many female authors tended to reflect both their distaste about the restriction of patriarchy over women and their desire for female self-assertion in actual and fictive worlds. The Turkish Adalet Ağaoğlu and the British Doris Lessing were notable women writers that enhanced the idea of feminine self-assertion in patriarchal societies through their literary writings. This study, therefore, aimed at examining and clarifying the similar struggle of two female protagonists, created by Lessing and Ağaoğlu, for self-identity in different cultures. Within this scope, the novel, Ölmeye Yatmak by Adalet Ağaoğlu and the short story, ‘To Room Nineteen’ by Doris Lessing were comparatively analysed to present how women sacrificed their bodies, souls and lives to gain an identity in society. It was concluded, through the findings, that Ağaoğlu and Lessing depicted how the imposed roles of patriarchy could lead to female agony, despair, depression and loneliness.