This thesis analyzes the issue of performing self in the genres of oral poetry and weeping, which are performed by Dersimli women in the course of their everyday life practices. This study focuses on the case of Dersim (Tunceli) which is located in the east part of Turkey where Zazaki-speaking and Kurdish-speaking Alevi people constitute the majority of the population. I deal with these performances as repetitive actions, occurring in the course of everyday life. I focus on the narratives in the songs and issues related to giving voice with respect to acceptability, respectability, and experience. The personal narratives or social issues presented with these genres include a range of topics like dissatisfaction about life, a deceased child, loneliness, poverty, forced migration from the villages in the mid 1990s, regret of a woman for her marriage and old love stories. I found that performing those genres as repetitive actions in the course of everyday life practices has an important role both in the construction and the positioning of self. This study deals with songs as processes rather than products. Finally, in these processes, performers express their experiences, emotions, and ideas which are not narrated or spoken, or have limited expression, in the social interaction of everyday life. Although weeping practices usually reproduce expected gender roles however, the saying/singing practices as a whole may create the possibility of agency and certain spaces for resistance and contribute to the visibility of women in the community.

This thesis analyses the devices manipulated by Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice and Emma to foreground the &lsquo / female voice&rsquo / . The thesis argues that in these novels satire including irony and parody is used as a tool for revealing the place of women in eighteenth century England. In addition, themes and characters by which feminist conversations are constructed are also dealt with.

This thesis aims to analyse the construction of female identity from the beginning of the feminist activism in Victorian era whose rationale was formed during the eighteenth century, to the contemporary times in terms of patriarchy and motherhood in Timberlake Wertenbaker&rsquo / s The Grace of Mary Traverse and The Break of Day. This study is conducted with the historical development of the feminist movement that has had different agendas at different periods of history being taken into account. Fighting for women&rsquo / s emancipation and equality, feminism has helped women attain certain rights / however certain roles imposed on women that have been designed to define fema le identity cannot be said to have been eliminated. Rather, as this study shows, the oppression women have faced has just changed direction / but its nature is still the same. To this end, Wertenbaker presents the situation of women in different contexts of time and circumstances in her plays. Women&rsquo / s quest for identity has been interrupted and diverted by various oppressive mechanisms and institutions which are patriarchy and motherhood as the major focus of analysis throughout this thesis in Wertenbaker&rsquo / s plays.

In this study, possibility of establishing feminist solidarity, sustained and based on feminist politics in Turkey is examined. Commonality discourse, the notion of sisterhood and identity politics, creating illusionary homogeneity are criticized of being exclusionary and limiting. Contemporary accounts of feminist solidarity are investigated in order to find a way out for establishing solidarity across difference. However, it is seen that these contemporary approaches are far from designating a driving force to stimulate feminists / activists to come together. It is argued that in order to achieve feminist solidarity respecting differences is a must. It is also argued that solidarity has to become a powerful relation among feminists and to do so internalized inequalities and power holding within activism has to be interrogated. Consciousness raising among activists is offered as a means to overcome challenges to activism and barriers to solidarity. Furthermore it is argued that feminism has to become the motto of activism and feminist politics as the basis for establishing feminist solidarity.

This thesis analyzes women&rsquo / s status in the Russian Federation in the period after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Yeltsin&rsquo / s reforms radically changed the quality of political, economical and social aspects of Russian life. Yeltsin&rsquo / s period together with the policies of the subsequent governments proved to be mostly detrimental to women&acute / s status in the country. Women have become the ones who suffered most from the instability and lawlessness of the transition period. This study discusses increasing gender inequality and gender asymmetry in economy, politics and in social realms in post-Soviet Russia and examines the transformation of women&rsquo / s role and status in this period

In this thesis, Amargi Women&rsquo / s Cooperative in Istanbul is studied as an example of diversity feminism in Turkey. Its feminist perspective and challenges faced in realizing its objectives in this context are analyzed based on a description of the process of Amargi&rsquo / s formation, the course of its activities and the debates within the group and especially the in-depth interviews held with ten volunteers. The group&rsquo / s accomplishments and problems encountered during the last ten years in its quest for &ldquo / doing politics together with women of diverse identities&rdquo / are at the focus of this research. The explicit invitation for diversity is one of the Amargi&rsquo / s differences, as one of the prominent feminist groups in Turkey. In this study, &ldquo / transversal politics&rdquo / is identified as the concept underscoring Amargi&rsquo / s approach to feminism. Difference and diversity among women are emphasized according to &lsquo / dialogical-situated epistemology&rsquo / and antimilitarist politics conducted in the Turkish context.

The aim of this thesis study is to understand the significance of today&rsquo / s feminist politics in Turkey for post-identity politics. When it is considered that identity politics is being widely practiced today, whereas there is still much vagueness regarding the ways of doing post-identity politics, in order to achieve the aim of this study it becomes necessary to make a critique of identity politics and to reveal post-identitarian tendencies through this critique of identity-based political mobilization. In this study, feminist identity politics is analyzed and criticized from the perspective of Judith Butler, who is a poststructuralist feminist questioning identity and its relation to gender politics. These issues are questioned through qualitative research method and semi-structured in-depth interviews are used as the data gathering technique. Five in-depth interviews were conducted with women who consider themselves feminist. The interviews aim at providing individual narrations of the participants to be exposed to deconstruction later on through the analysis process. Therefore, participants are not asked direct and categorical questions about their ideas on specific issues / instead, they are encouraged to talk about how they perceive the gendered world around them and how they respond to it and how these ideas are transferred to the political arena. It was found that the participants perceived sex, gender and sexuality in a dualistic framework to a certain extent and this relative fluidity enables them to realize the importance of doing post-identity politics, but they do not have a tendency to transfer this to the political arena in the near future.

The purpose of the study is to develop both a descriptive and critical understanding towards the phenomenon of femicide in Turkey. First, the answers to the questions who commits femicide, where it takes place, what the ages of the victims and perpetrators are, in what ways femicide is committed and what are the &#039 / reasons&#039 / of committing femicide will be revealed through news reports of incidents of femicide. Second, the news texts of incidents of femicide will be analyzed based on the framework of Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA). The discourse of framing the incidents will be identified. In particular, &#039 / justifying discourse&#039 / in the language of the news reports will be examined.

The aim of this thesis is to analyze women&rsquo / s shelters in the context of the Feminist Standpoint Theory by focusing on a case in Turkey. The majority of the previous studies has not regarded the women&rsquo / s entire subjective experiences of domestic violence and shelter stay. Rather they present a reductionist picture. In this study, women&rsquo / s experiences of violence and shelter stay are analyzed and discussed in relation to / their specificities, the shelter structure, and the system shelters are connected in Turkey, from the perspective of Feminist Standpoint Theory. The issue of to what extent empowerment is attainable within the existing structures of institutions is questioned through qualitative method. Participatory observation is the main data gathering method in this study / semi-structured in-depth interviews are also used as additional data gathering source. Interviews and interpersonal relationships with 78 women are analyzed. The interviews aim at providing individual narratives of these women concerning the experience of violence and the process afterwards. In addition, interpersonal communications with the shelter staff are also added to the analysis. It was understood that the subjective experiences of the women are not wholly understandable under a fixed womanhood categorization of gender / they are mostly underestimated in the existing system of structure / and that the constraints specific to each woman&rsquo / s case combined with the rigid structural practices in the aftermath of violence entrap many women in situations difficult to escape, and the &lsquo / mediating role&rsquo / of the structures and individuals are disempowering for the women.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the intersecting dynamics of gender and ethnic identities for Kurdish Migrant women in Turkey. For this aim, it attempts to investigate Kurdish migrant women&#039 / s everyday lives in their private and public domains, which include in-family, out-family social and ecomomic relations. It is expected that Kurdish women&#039 / s gender and ethnic identities will intersect in these domains and will be effective in creating a specific ethnic community