PAINTING THE SELF: FEMALE ARTISTIC IDENTITY IN THE AWAKENING AND ONU BEKLIYORUM

Abstract

This article examines the representation of female painters in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (1899) and Suat Derviş’s Onu Bekliyorum (1935), focusing on painting as a means of female self-definition. Drawing on feminist literary criticism and studies of female artistic identity, the article argues that artistic production provides a symbolic space where women construct autonomous selves in opposition to patriarchal definitions imposed by marriage, domesticity, and social convention. Although set in different cultural and historical contexts, both novels depict women artists whose creative aspirations challenge the traditional gender roles associated with marriage, motherhood, and domesticity. Through a comparative analysis of Edna Pontellier and Suzan, the study explores how painting enables the protagonists to assert themselves as autonomous subjects. For both protagonists, artistic practice becomes a means of articulating desires, questioning socially prescribed identities, and seeking personal autonomy. In this respect, Virginia Woolf’s Professions for Women provides the primary literary-critical framework, particularly through the metaphor of killing the “Angel in the House” and her conception of the persistent “ghosts” and prejudices surrounding women’s creativity. The article further examines the tension between artistic vocation and domestic expectations, demonstrating how patriarchal discourse attempts to redefine women primarily through their relationships with men. While Edna’s artistic awakening accompanies her rejection of conventional femininity and the emergence of an independent self, Suzan struggles to preserve an already established artistic identity against pressures that seek to confine her to the role of wife. By bringing together an American and a Turkish text, this study reveals that the female painter emerges as a transnational literary figure symbolising women’s struggle for self-definition, creative freedom, and agency. Ultimately, both novels present painting as a transformative act through which women claim authority over their identities and resist patriarchal forms of possession.