Women and Tradition in Turkish Television Culture : The Modern day representations of Rape and Pre-marital sexuality

Abstract: In this thesis, Women and Tradition in Turkish Television culture-The modern day representation of rape and pre-marital sexuality looks into how rape and pre-marital sexuality is represented under traditional gender roles. This is a cultural study that tries to understand the sexual identity of women trying to be represented on television series in Turkey. Two television serials “Fatmagülün Suçu Ne?” and “Hayat Devam Ediyor” are selected as case studies. The two main characters “Fatmagül” and “Hayat” are analyzed in both television serials. The main research question presented in the thesis, “With a particular focus on gender representation, how are the issues of rape and extra-marital sex addressed in the Turkish television serials “Hayat Devam diyor” and “Fatmagül’ün suçu ne?” The particular of representation of gender sexuality is in the traditional and social sphere. The theoretical framework is mainly based on theories based on “Feminism” with a focus on “Radical Feminism” and “Patriarchy”. The main methodological framework used is “critical discourse analysis”.  The findings in the thesis through the analysis of episodes dealing with rape and pre-marital sexuality the representations of the main female characters are more negatively in their social spheres. They are excluded from society and represented as the second-class citizen. With this study my aim is to look into the relationship of representations of gender, which will bring more attention to the sensitive topics of oppression of gender sexuality and the representation through gendered realities in the television serials.