Social Trauma and Telecinematic Memory : Imagining the Turkish Nation Since the 1980 Coup

This book explores responses to authoritarianism in Turkish society through popular culture by examining feature films and television serials produced between 1980 and 2010 about the 1980 coup. Envisioned as an interdisciplinary study in cultural studies rather than a disciplinary work on cinema, the book advocates for an understanding of popular culture in discerning emerging narratives of nationhood. Through feature films and television serials directly dealing with the coup of 1980, the book exposes tropes and discursive continuities such as “childhood” and “the child”. It argues that these conventional tropes enable popular debates on the modern nation’s history and its myths of identity. Social Trauma and Telecinematic Memory 2 Acknowledgements 6 Contents 9 List of Figures 11 Chapter 1 Introduction 12 The Coup Film as a Telecinematic Remembrance 15 Primary Sources: Turkish Cinema and Television 18 Cultural Studies on Turkey 22 The Living Room Coup 25 Construction of the Past as Childhood and the Future as Citizen-Child 32 The Scope of Arguments: Political and Telecinematic Convergences 39 Political and Telecinematic Transformations 39 Organization of the Book 44 Chapter 2 Framing the 1980 Coup Films as a Cultural and Cinematographic Discourse 61 The Looking Glass of 1980: The Broken Childhood 62 The Historical Backdrop 64 The 1950s: Multi-Party Politics, Urban Migration, and Mass Society 65 The 1960s and 1970s: From Authoritarian Modernism to Socio-Economic Instability 67 The 1970s: The Rising Tide of Ideological Politics 69 The 1970s: Political Radicalization and Economic Turbulence 73 The 1980s and 1990s: The Military Takeover and Its Aftermath 75 1980–2010: The Military, the PKK and the Islamists 80 The Legacy 82 Telecinematic Journeys: Visualizing the Coup 84 Chapter 3 The Search for a Pre-Traumatized Childhood 106 Time of the Hunt: Burying the Innocence of Childhood 110 The Fog: Losing the Way to One’s Past 112 “Wait,” Said I to the Shadow: Possessed by a Traumatic Memory 115 The 80th Step: The Orphaned Child 119 Vizontele Tuuba: The Question of Innocence 121 Zincirbozan: The Perils of Childhood 123 Chapter 4 Films of Trauma Unfolding: Confinement 134 The Child Confined 135 The Way: The Question of Breaking Free 135 All the Doors Were Closed: Can One Nurture the Child Within? 137 Don’t Let Them Shoot the Kite: Keeping Peace Alive 140 Dad Is in the Army: How the Children Cope 143 Where the Rose Wilted: The Formation of Our Children 146 Homecoming: Regression into Childhood 150 Children of Wh—s: All Children Deserve a Better Home 155 Chapter 5 Films of Trauma Unfolding: Disorientation and Loss 169 The Child Lost: Accommodation 169 The Child Disoriented: In Search of History and Community 171 The Voice: In Search of Language 171 You Sing Your Songs: In Search of Community 173 The Other Side of the Water: In Search of History 174 September Storm: In Search of Recovery 175 My Father and My Son: In Search of Continuity 177 The Internationale: In Search of Perspective 178 Chapter 6 Reconstruction of Innocence: The Embroidered Rose on My Scarf 190 Television: The Final Frontier 190 Embroidered Rose on My Scarf Entices Audiences to Historicize 191 The House of Our Childhood Contains a Mosaic of Turkey 193 Comparing and Contrasting the Fictional Past and the Fictional Present 194 Rights and Violations 197 The Need to Remember: Where Have Our Memories Gone? 199 The Film Within the Film: Living and Reflecting 203 The Childhood of Our Present, The Citizen-Child 205 Chapter 7 Television Searches Deeper and Farther: Remember, My Darling 210 The Historical Script 212 The Dramatic (Fictional) Script 215 Intersections 220 Spaces of an Alternative Televisual Narrative 226 Transmitting Vestiges of the Past 229 Music 231 The Distant Land of Childhood 233 Beloved of Memories, Memories of the Beloved: Genre Blending 235 Chapter 8 The Impossibility of Forgetting: Would This Heart Forget You? 248 What the Heart Remembers: The Story Line 250 Dramatic and Historical Linkages 258 Genre-Blending 260 Children and Childhood 262 The Novel, the Journal, the Psychotherapy Sessions: The Significance of Narration 263 The Coup as the Symbol of Authoritarian Politics 266 How Does it End? 267 Chapter 9 Conclusion 273 Audience Interactions 274 Visual Conventions: A New Generation of Clichés, Icons, and Celebrities 279 The Child Remakes the Family 282 Casting and Directing 285 Changing Spirit of the Times? 288 The Ordinariness of the Coup and the Familiarity of Coup Films 290 Appendix: Feature Films used as Primary Sources 299 Bibliography 301 Index 330 Front Matter ....Pages i-xiii Introduction (Pelin Başcı)....Pages 1-49 Framing the 1980 Coup Films as a Cultural and Cinematographic Discourse (Pelin Başcı)....Pages 51-95 The Search for a Pre-Traumatized Childhood (Pelin Başcı)....Pages 97-124 Films of Trauma Unfolding: Confinement (Pelin Başcı)....Pages 125-159 Films of Trauma Unfolding: Disorientation and Loss (Pelin Başcı)....Pages 161-181 Reconstruction of Innocence: The Embroidered Rose on My Scarf (Pelin Başcı)....Pages 183-202 Television Searches Deeper and Farther: Remember, My Darling (Pelin Başcı)....Pages 203-240 The Impossibility of Forgetting: Would This Heart Forget You? (Pelin Başcı)....Pages 241-265 Conclusion (Pelin Başcı)....Pages 267-292 Back Matter ....Pages 293-340 This book explores responses to authoritarianism in Turkish society through popular culture by examining feature films and television serials produced between 1980 and 2010 about the 1980 coup. Envisioned as an interdisciplinary study in cultural studies rather than a disciplinary work on cinema, the book advocates for an understanding of popular culture in discerning emerging narratives of nationhood. Through feature films and television serials directly dealing with the coup of 1980, the book exposes tropes and discursive continuities such as zchildhoody and zthe childy. It argues that these conventional tropes enable popular debates on the modern nation's history and its myths of identity Annotation This work explores responses to authoritarianism in Turkish society through popular culture by examining feature films and television serials produced between 1980 and 2010 about the 1980 coup. Envisioned as an interdisciplinary study in cultural studies rather than a disciplinary work on cinema, the author advocates for an understanding of popular culture in discerning emerging narratives of nationhood Pelin Başcı. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 295-323) And Index.