Aile Yapısı ve Toplumsal Cinsiyet Rolleri Bağlamında Ayşe Kulin'in "Adı: Aylin" İsimli Romanının Değerlendirilmesi

The family, which is the most basic unit and building block of society, is a universal institution. However, it can vary according to societies, cultures, and periods. Especially in today's rapidly changing and transforming societies, the family is highly affected by this change. Sociological literature frequently emphasizes the family as a social institution and discusses its changing, transforming, and differentiating functions. One of the most important functions of the family as a social institution is that it ensures the socialization of new members of society by teaching and transferring social values and norms. In this process, one of the values expected to be acquired within the family is gender roles that draw the boundaries of how one should behave because one is a male or a female. The research underlines that gender roles differ especially in roles related to social life, family structure, and marital life. All these elements and dimensions of change concerning social life are the subject matters that are often highlighted by literary works that appear as a reflection of social life.In the novel genre, which comes to mind first among the literary work genres, socio-cultural values related to a social structure are reflected while conveying the events that individuals or families go through or are likely to go through in social life. From this point of view, this qualitative study analyzes the content of Ayşe Kulin's biographical novel "Adı: Aylin" (Her Name: Aylin), published in 1997, in order to evaluate the socio-cultural changes in Türkiye, especially in the context of family structure, marriage, women, and gender roles. In the novel, the character Aylin, while trying to maintain a modern lifestyle within traditional boundaries, refers to the differentiating and diversifying gender roles of women in the process of socio-cultural change with her efforts to be visible in both private and public spheres.