The Red-Haired Woman: An Ecofeminist Analysis

This article analyzes Orhan Pamuk’s The Red-Haired Woman (2017) (hereafter RHW) from Alicia Helda Puleo’s ecofeminist perspective. It discusses Gülcihan’s character in RHW as a cultural figure who, standing beyond the essentialist division of culture / nature, develops a constructive interaction with the masculine world of the novel, prefiguring the reestablishment of life. The novel reviews the process of modernization in Türkiye through detailing the confrontation of the old and new via references to the mythological stories of Oedipus Rex, and Rostam and Sohrab. The references highlight the notions of patricide and filicide, pointing to rising tension between Eastern and Western aspects of Turkish cultural identity. This investigation challenges the dominant reviews of the references as pessimistic illustrations of the disappearance of historical Türkiye along with her environment and argues that RHW offers an alternative vision of modernization via Gülcihan’s narration as an optimistic stand toward industrial formation through enhancing self-awareness and intercultural understanding.