Firuze: A Perfect Victim of Suppressed Female Talent in Elif Shafak's Black Milk

This paper attempts to shed more light on how womens talents and creative abilities are subordinated in the literary realm and how women writers experience what Gilbert and Gubar call female anxiety of authorship. This study adopts Elif Shafaks creation of an imaginary character named Firuze in Black Milk. It analyzes in depth Shafaks hypothesis on the tragic fate of Firuze. Shafak hypothesizes that if Fuzuli had a gifted sister, could she have been able to dedicate her life to developing her talent as he had done What would have been her fate (Shafak, 2007, p.31) Hence, the aim of this paper is to show how Firuze had suppressed her creative talent due to the patriarchal practice that was imposed on her. Although she had made an effort to liberate herself from intellectual imprisonment, Firuze failed and she ended up as a typical victim.