BECOMING A WOMAN IN A CONSUMER SOCIETY: TANTE ROSA AND “TO ROOM NINETEEN”
Abstract
This
study aims to analyse two works of literature; “To Room Nineteen”, by Doris
Lessing, and Tante Rosa, by Sevgi
Soysal, comparatively; our objective is to read these texts as cases which
illustrate the roles of ideal wifehood and motherhood, and to identify the role
of the capitalist consumer culture in shaping these identities. Although these
two works are the products of different cultures, the two texts share a lot in common:
both were written in the same decade, and both portray the social and economic
conditions of the period. Besides, the texts depict the female protagonists’
existence under the strain of consumerism as a form of struggle, because they
feel they do not belong to the consumer culture that they have been born into.
They search for identities, meanings other than those which are assigned by
this culture of consumerism. Both texts portray the dilemmas and struggles of
the authors, as well. The primary objective of this study is to identify the
roles of the ideal wife and the ideal mother imposed by modern consumer
culture. Taking these literary texts as cases in point, this study also
attempts to find out how women try to cope with the strains of fulfilling these
roles.
Keywords
References
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