WOMAN IN SULTAN RAEV’S STORY OF THE BOY CATCHING THE SUN

Abstract

The place and rights of women in society is one of today's leading issues and research topics. It is stated in western studies that the status of women has gradually declined after the establishment of the patriarchal social structure. This situation, which worsened in the Middle Ages, especially in Western civilization, is the main reason for the feminist movement to begin, despite the scientific achievements achieved after industrialization and the developments in world view or perception. It is impossible for literature, whose focus is on human beings, not to be affected by this situation. Critical studies today are not restricted by the gender of the critic or the gender of the author. In our study, Sultan Raev, one of the male writers of Kyrgyz literature, has taken the long story titled The Boy Catching the Sun as a sample. The fact that there are more characters than expected from a story was effective in the selection as a sample. The events in the story take place in a village during the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The story deals with the problems experienced by the society during adaptation to a new system that has a different structure from the system and culture to which it is accustomed. An intricate structure is created by combining a plot centered on the characters named Basit and Mital with a second plot centered on the child catching the sun. Although social change is discussed, the story with so many characters also includes many female characters. However, the female characters, who are the focus of our study, are mostly in the second plot. Therefore, the plot in which they are involved has been the center of the study. The analysis of female characters was conducted in three stages. In the first stage; classifications were presented by looking from different angles in the center of the situation of female characters in the work. In the second stage; the existence of female characters in the work was examined through their attitudes and behaviors and their situations were revealed. In the next stage, the consistency of the information revealed about the female characters was discussed within the framework of their relationship with the fiction of the story and the situation of the female characters in the story "The Boy Catching the Sun" was discussed.