In this thesis, ipek Ongun&rsquo / s three books on good manners and etiquette, which especially aim at teenage girls, are analyzed in detail. Born in 1943, Ongun is a popular Turkish writer in teenage literature who has sold over a million books since 1980s. It is necessary to investigate especially the cultural, social and aesthetic messages given in her books.
The writer&rsquo / s non-fiction trilogy has been extremely influential on teenage girls in Turkey in the 1990s, and they still are. These are Bir Piriltidir YaSamak (Living Is a Glitter, 1991), Bu Hayat Sizin (This Life Is Yours, 1993), and Lü / tfen Beni Anla (Please Understand Me, 1995). The themes of major importance in the trilogy are social life, traditions, schools, parenting, beauty, and personal care.
This study examines the content of this trilogy from a critical perspective, especially raising questions regarding Ongun&rsquo / s messages leading the construction of female identities from a feminist viewpoint. The qualitative research method has been adopted for the analysis and
several comparisons have been carried out between Ongun&rsquo / s books and certain popular teenage etiquette books published in the US.
The study concludes that although some of Ongun&rsquo / s messages might be found beneficial for certain segments of the teenage population, the fact that she is not an expert in teenage psychology and development, poses several critical questions about the validity of her messages. Besides, Ongun&rsquo / s target audience seems to be the upper-middle classes of the society also raises questions regarding the universality of her messages.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12606860/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 December 2005 |
| Creators | Akun, Selen |
| Contributors | Akman, Canan Aslan |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | M.S. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | To liberate the content for public access |
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