ANNIE ERNAUX’NUN YAPITLARINDA TOPLUMSAL CİNSİYET
THE CONCEPT OF GENDER IN ANNIE ERNAUX’S NOVELS

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this study is to analyse the figure of woman and the roles of woman in Annie Ernaux’s works through autobiographical data and Philippe Lejeune’s The Autobiographical Contract. The study examines the concept of gender that shows differentiation more specifically in social structure and whose manipulations are much more effective in women’s life as it is reflected in Ernuax’s novels. Cultural values shape the attitudes and the behaviours of individuals in a society; individuals oppress and form themselves depending on social values in order not to be marginalized in the society they live in. Although women and men have sexual characteristics peculiar to themselves, their social roles may be divided into different parts. In this context, Annie Ernaux’s roles and her attitudes as a woman in her life, which she directly reflects in her novels are the roles of women that society impose as a burden; being a young lady, being a woman, beloved wife, mother, a woman who has an abortion and a woman who has breast cancer. Annie Ernaux discusses women issues in order to awaken her fellows and to draw a kind of map to survive in a male dominant society. This study emphasizes the importance of gender notion in Annie Ernaux’s life and the notion’s oppression upon women. The study also includes father figure as a male identity which represents a deprivation in Ernaux’s life. Philippe Lejeune’s The Autobiographical Contract is the most relevant method to evaluate the issues from different perspectives in overall analysis of the novels.

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