Abstract:

The historical novel emerges as a result of the combination of the historical events assumed to be experienced and the author's fiction world. The subject of an important part of the popular historical novels in Turkish literature was the relationship between the Byzantine Empire and the Turkish states where we shared the same geography until 1453. In this period, the writers tried to strengthen the construction of the national identity within the framework of one language, one nation and one ideal with the Turkish heroes they created. Byzantine women supported Kozanoğlu's heroes, which he created within the framework of nationalist ideology. In his novels, Byzantine women who are in love with strong and invincible Turkish heroes; beautiful, charming, brave, courageous and chaste women are seen as. These women opposed Byzantium and helped Turkish men. The preference of the species against their own nations supported the supremacy of the Turks. However, all Byzantine women except the Byzantine woman who fell in love with the main hero; it was described as coquettish, lustful, and passionate about sexuality. Abdullah Ziya Kozanoğlu (1906-1966) and Murat Sertoğlu (1910-1989), who exhibited a popular language in the historical novel, which emerged intensely after 1923, are distinguished from other authors in terms of their main subject as Byzantine women in their novels or as Byzantine women being important heroes in their novels. The main subject of this article is to try to understand the point of view of the Byzantine women who were marginalized in Abdullah Kozanoğlu and Murat Sertoğlu's novels. In this article, nine works of these writers will be examined and the image of Byzantine women in these novels and the perception of Byzantine women will be determined.

Keywords: