The meaning of ideology: a comparative analysis of George Orwell’s Animal Farm and Yaşar Kemal’s The Sultan of the Elephants and Red Bearded Lame Ant

In this work, the novels Animal Farm by George Orwell and The Sultan of the Elephants and Red Bearded Lame Ant by Yaşar Kemal are analysed comparatively through the Marxist literary theory benefiting from Georg Lukács, Terry Eagleton and Lucien Goldmann. This study examines how Orwell and Kemal from different geographies, nationalities and traditions have been influenced by the Marxist literary tradition. The figures in the two novels are compared according to their characteristics/profile, the changes they have gone through, and the protagonists’ endings in their own story. The features of the works have been also examined through an analysis of the writers’ lives. In the discussion part, the meaning of ideology in novels, and its reflections have been evaluated in terms of the selected writers’ biographies, and the ideological elements as well as sociological ones in their works. In addition, the aim of this work displays a comparative thematic and stylistic analysis of the two novels.