You should use the erl_scan module to tokenize the string and erl_parse to convert tokens to the erlang term.
% Note the '.' at the end of the expression inside string.
% The string has to be a valid expression terminated by a '.'.
1> Str = "{\"x\",\"y\"}.".
"{\"x\",\"y\"}."
2> {ok, Ts, _} = erl_scan:string(Str).
{ok,[{'{',1},
{string,1,"x"},
{',',1},
{string,1,"y"},
{'}',1},
{dot,1}],
1}
3> {ok, Tup} = erl_parse:parse_term(Ts).
{ok,{"x","y"}}
4> Tup.
{"x","y"}
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