A female wizard’s cry for equal rights: Terry Pratchett’s Equal rites

In recent literary studies, fantasy literature has begun to be studied more and more frequently. The use of fantasy elements to deal with issues related to today's society also leads to a significant increase in the readership of this genre. Terry Pratchett, who is the writer of the Discworld series consisting of 41 novels, blends fantasy and satire skillfully in his novels. As the novel’s title gives some indication, Equal Rites, which was first published in 1987, is about equal rights in terms of gender. Talking about witches, magic, wizards and the Unseen University where women are not allowed to enter as a student or teacher, Pratchett combines the fantasy with serious topics about gender inequality. The story is set in Pratchett’s fantasy world -Discworld and the writer uses his other world to hold up a distorting mirror to our own. In this paper, how Pratchett deals with some serious gender-related issues such as male dominance in institutions, women’s struggles against the sexist point of view and stereotyped roles of men and women in his fantasy world are analysed via quotations from the novel. As a result of the analysis, it was found that the writer satirizes society by using elements of fantasy for all the inequalities that women face in different areas of life and offer various solutions to those inequalities.