Abstract:

The body carries existence of the person to the concrete level, affecting the selfperception, personality and identity of the person, and makes it visible in both individual and social life. In the modern age, great importance is attached to disciplining the body and having ideal measurements. As a result of this situation, body characteristics such as height, weight, age, beauty, and physical health status which fall outside the ideal, cause people to be stigmatized, marginalized, and excluded from society because of their bodies characteristics. In addition, the body’s having characteristics that can be considered outside of the cultural ideals - either too lacking or too much - makes the mentioned body more fragile. In Kuru Kız named novel, written by Ayfer Tunç, one of the leading representatives of the current Turkish Literature, the body problem is placed at the center of the novel. In this study, which focuses on the representation of the body in the Kuru Kız named novel, the relationship between concepts such as “beauty”, “fragility” and “stigma” and the body is examined in a multifaceted and in-depth manner through the thematic analysis.I revealed that after the death of all the members of her family, the woman takes action to get rid of the life imposed by her stigma, and in this new life, she is liberated by starting to live in a space where she is valued for her personality, not through her body, which is considered “fragile”, “stigmatized” and “ugly”.

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