A Psychoanalytic Approach to Leyla Erbil’s A Strange Woman and Cuniçiro Tanizaki’s the Key in terms of Woman Identity

As one of the most important writers of the modern japanese literature, cuniçiro tanizaki’s novel the key is mainly about the sexual desires, fantasies and dreams of a couple who keep their diaries secretly. this work, in which tanizaki impresses on the difference between traditional and modern life, has also the traces of woman’s search for identity in spite of the patriarchal structure of the society. leyla erbil, on the other hand, also deals with the statue of women in the conservative society and in her novel a strange woman is the story of a woman, nermin, who has to live under the pressure of her mother as well as the patriarchal society. in this paper it is aimed to compare and contrast the two women characters who are in search of their identity while living under the pressure of patriarchal society. as the works are categorized as psychological novels and the writers stress the psychological condition of their characters, this paper intentionally focuses on the psycho-analytic approach.