SOCIETY'S ROLE ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF INDIVIDUAL IDENTITY in JANE EYRE & THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

Ayse Ekici, Turkey, ID CLEaR2016-342;       Identity has been attempted to be explained and handled in a number of ways for many centuries. Since culture is a central figure for the formation of identity, Cultural Studies, as a diverse field of study encompassing a variety of perspectives; functions by borrowing freely from many disciplines and theories to figure out and explain the effect of society on individuals. Culture is a common way of life; therefore, Cultural Studies is concerned with what roles gender, language, ethnicity, economy, and biological bodies of individuals have for the construction of one’s identity. Since the society, in which people live in, has a great role on individuals, in order to analyze a literary work of art,  the social circumstances of the era should also be grasped at first hand. The present study deals with the two novels Dorian Gray and Jane Eyre and the Victorian society in which they were written. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyze the effect of society on the construction of individual identity in two of the famous novels- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.

Key Words: Cultural Studies, Society, Identity, Social, Individual