“Constructing the Self” :|representations of masculinity in Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar's novels

Abstract

This dissertation explores the representations of masculinity in Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s novels. Each chapter focuses on the principal themes and issues which play a significant role in the construction of masculinities in the novels. In this respect, this thesis examines fatherhood and filiality in Mahur Beste, health and illness in Huzur and Suat’ın Mektubu, militarism and nationalism in Sahnenin Dışındakiler, business life and entrepreneurship in Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü, and love and sexuality in Aydaki Kadın, to investigate the strategies Tanpınar uses for problematizing masculinities and the literary connotations of such problematization. The study primarily argues that the protagonists’ inability to construct socially accepted masculine identities puts them in a state of constant struggle with masculine norms. The portrayal of characters marginalized in the hierarchical gender regime provides the inquiry of the production, and the rooting of relations of dominance caused by such a regime. The protagonists’ relationships with other male characters performing different masculinities are also scrutinized in the study, which demonstrates that even characters who are admired for coming very close to constructing a successful masculinity fall short of the ideal. Thus, it is argued that the novels which depict the impossibility of a perfect model of masculinity question the features that are included and excluded in the definitions of ideal masculinity. Finally, the study sheds light on female characters’ “doing masculinity”, through which the novels undermine the stereotypes of femininity and masculinity.