Gender analysis of national identity discourse in twp novels : the case of Greece and Turkey

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Thesis Type: Postgraduate

Institution Of The Thesis: Middle East Technical University, Turkey

Approval Date: 2006

Thesis Language: English

Student: Pınar Karababa

Supervisor: MEHMET CİHAN ECEVİT

Abstract:

This thesis study analyzes the construction of a common national self, which bears the characteristics of a dominant male figure, over the mirror image of the other nation’s women. It is believed in this thesis work that without examining the complex gender relations and gendered identity politics within national projects, it is not possible to understand the concept of nation. Accepting that nation is an -imagined- product of modernism and gendered identity construction takes place in the core of the creation of nation, it is believed that novels constitute an appropriate field of analysis because of their imagined structure and because their subtexts enable the researcher to focus on the identity production. The cases of Greece and Turkey as two nation-states that construct their national selves over the reflection of the other provide a proper base for a comparative analysis. The main aim of this thesis, in this context, is to come close to the understanding of nations and the oppressive gender relations within the nation-states focusing on the creation of the male national common identity.