Turkish-German Cinema Reconsidered: Stereotypes, Ethnic Performance and Topographies of Loss in Karamuk, Third Text Volume 28, Issue 6, 2014 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Blurring or shifting boundaries? Concepts of culture in TurkishGerman migrant cinema
2008
This paper aims to explore the developments of different concepts of culture in Turkish–German Migrant Cinema before and after German Unification. Key questions addressed will be: 1. How do these films express cultural differences and to what extent does this representation follow traditional concepts of culture? 2. How is the interconnectedness of cultures articulated and how far does this relate to current notions of interculturalism and transculturalism? 3. Which are the key differences of former migrants’ cinematic representations in pre- and post-unified Germany? Unlike common perceptions, this paper will argue that most films, including productions by celebrated directors such as Fatih Akın, continue to draw on traditional concepts of culture that break with the strong transcultural perspectives voiced by the same directors. While there is a development from rather separatist multicultural and intercultural representations in Turkish–German cinema before Unification towards more interconnected transcultural portrayals in post-Unification films, many contemporary productions maintain monocultural perspectives. All this seems to follow trends originating from German Cinema about migrants but there is also evidence that a traditional concept of ‘Kanaken’ culture developed in and disseminated via Migrant Literature and Cinema has made its way into German film.
'Re-writing' Turkish-German Cinema from the bottom-up: Turkish Emigration Cinema
" 'Re-writing' Turkish-German Cinema from the bottom-up: Turkish Emigration Cinema." In: Ibrahim Sirkeci, Betül Dilara Şeker and Ali Çağlar (Eds.) (2015): Turkish Migration, Identity and Integration. London: Transnational Press. pp. 115-130. The history of Turkish-German cinema is constructed as a two-stage process of emancipation of the representations of Turkish emigrants: in the first stage, from the 1970’s to the early 90’s, the migrants would be mainly depicted as victims. In the second stage from the 1990’s to the present these images would change to more hybrid and playful representations of emigrants for whom issues of belonging were not crucial any more. The history of emigration in Turkish emigration cinema (Turkish: Türk Dış Göç Sineması) is not considered in this two-stage history. The paper will outline both academical discourses, a) on Turkish-German cinema and b) on the history of Turkish emigration cinema. The aim is to show the consequences of a non-integration of Turkish films into the discourse of Turkish-German cinema. By a comparative analysis on the representations of women and men in two recent honour-killing dramas, Feo Aladağ’s When We Leave (2010) and Ali Leven Üngör’s Mevsim Çiçek Açtı (2012), the Eurocentric view deriving from the topical academical discussion about Turkish-German cinema without Turkish emigration cinema and the epistemological one-sided-ness arising by it will be shown.
Turkish Studies, 2019
Popular imagination of an age-old and very common phenomenon – migration – depends on images and stories in circulation. Mediated images of migration, refugees and diasporas play an important role in ethnic and cultural identification processes. This article explores how Turkey has accounted for its own diasporic subjects through cinematic narratives. Focusing on two salient Turkish examples from the 1980s that contradict the dominant narrative tendencies in Turkish–German/German films of the time, this article aims to present a fresh outlook. It strives to explore how these films question stereotypes and problematize essentialist readings of Turkishness and nationhood via a descriptive-interpretive analysis.
Representing reality: literature, film, and the construction of Turkish-German identity
The Gastarbeiter and the subsequent Turkish-German community in Germany have prompted scholarly debate over the challenges such a settlement has posed to larger German society. Yet few among those involved in such discussions approach these issues from the perspective of the Turkish-German community and thus lack a critical viewpoint. This study seeks to address this limitation; yet, to do so, one must turn to less conventional sources. In the first chapter, I compare the historiography of Germany's Turkish minority to the literature of Turkish-German writers to determine how the addition of Turkish-German perspective complicates and fills out the findings of historians and social scientists. In the Chapter 2, I analyze films by Turkish-German directors and discuss what these works suggest about that community's development. Ultimately, I find that the Turkish-German artists and their creative works advocate and represent a blended identity that incorporates ethnic backgroun...
This article examined "the representation of Turkey-rooted women in German Cinema from past to present" in the context of trans-nationalism and hybrid identity. The study was set out by examining the chronology of immigration from Turkey to Germany, the identity-formation process of the Turkey-rooted generations in German within these two cultures since the beginning of the immigration, and the way how the identities of these immigrated individuals changed or were transformed from generation to generation. In this context, it was studied through movie analysis and literature review whether the change or transformation of the identities were reflected into the representations of Turkey-rooted women in German movies. Apart from the topics which were aimed to be analysed through movie analysis and literature reviews, interviews were made with 24 Turkey-rooted women, who were born, raised or spent most of their lives in Germany due to the work-related issues of their families,...
This article examined “the representation of Turkey-rooted women in German Cinema from past to present” in the context of trans-nationalism and hybrid identity. The study was set out by examining the chronology of immigration from Turkey to Germany, the identity-formation process of the Turkeyrooted generations in German within these two cultures since the beginning of the immigration, and the way how the identities of these immigrated individuals changed or were transformed from generation to generation. In this context, it was studied through movie analysis and literature review whether the change or transformation of the identities were reflected into the representations of Turkey-rooted women in German movies. Apart from the topics which were aimed to be analysed through movie analysis and literature reviews, interviews were made with 24 Turkey-rooted women, who were born, raised or spent most of their lives in Germany due to the work-related issues of their families, in order to enable the real individuals of the topic to express themselves freely. Thus, it was aimed to observe parallelism between the opinions put forward through literature review and the real life practices. In-depth interview and thematic analysis of Keyton were used in this research as qualitative methods for data gathering and analysis. It was concluded that the representations of Turkey-rooted women were turned into hybrid identities and gained a transnational feature within historical process.
Turkish Delight--German Fright: Unsettling Oppositions in Transnational Cinema
"Mapping the Margins: Identity Politics and Media," Ed. Karen Ross and Deniz Derman, Cresskill: Hampton Press., 2003
Current discourses about migrants and diaspora communities in Europe are often informed by a social worker's perspective and haunted by residual notions of supposedly pure and authentic cultures of origin. Between national entrenchment and transnational globalization, ethnic minorities are "imagined" as outsiders on a subnational level. The consequent othering of so-called "third" or "substate" cinemas by cultural producers, critics and policymakers is highly problematic. I therefore propose to reframe the discussion about such "minor" cinemas within a broader consideration of traveling cultures and global flows, of mobility between margin and center, between independent and mainstream productions, as well as crossovers between different genres and their reception across national boundaries.
Making of a Culture Repertoire: Turkish Migrants Perception in Europe through Movies
With the culture and identity-related events in Europe such as the Charlie Hebdo case, the need to reconsider the situation of Turkish people in Europe and their Muslim identity has (re)emerged. As it has been long acknowledged, culture is a socially and historically constructed term, which has been shaped by a number of common components including a shared history, language, and religion. During the construction process of culture, certain factors play initial roles to construct and maintain a culture repertoire to be presented to the society. Itamar-Even Zohar terms this process of choosing what to be presented to the society as " making of a culture repertoire ". By referring to his theory, this paper aims to discuss the perception/identity of being Turkish in Europe as a part of the process of constructing a specific " culture repertoire ". Within this brief background, the movies directed by European directors such as Die Fremde by Feo Aladag and Takiye: Allah Yolunda by Ben Verbong; and the movies directed by Turkish directors, namely Kuma by Umut Dağ and Gegen die Wand by Fatih Akın dealing with Turkish migrants in Europe are interpreted. It is possible to argue that deliberate actions, choices, and bias play crucial roles in representing and narrating a specific culture to another cultural majority and shape the perception regarding the represented culture. Moreover, when the tragic events overlap with fiction, the " culture repertoire " presented to a target audience becomes reinforced through repeated narratives. Keywords Constructivism, Culture Repertoire, Turkish Migrants in Europe, Movies as Cultural goods and tools.
My MA thesis addresses representations of young Turkish Germans in film. Three films from three distinct time periods (that correspond to three distinct paradigms in Turkish German film more generally) have been chosen for the analysis: Yasemin, released in 1988 and directed by Hark Bohm; Geschwister – Kardeşler, which came out in 1997 and was directed by Thomas Arslan; and Almanya – Willkommen in Deutschland from 2011 and directed by Yasemin Şamdereli. The main aim of the thesis is to observe the ways in which the selected films investigate issues of identity, language, and citizenship with regard to youth with a migratory background in the respective time periods. The notions of identity, language and citizenship are employed as steering concepts throughout the analysis. Despite going through the usual negotiations of identity in adolescence in general, diasporic youth needs to negotiate their identities on different levels, not only with regard to growing up, but also with regard to their – and their parents’ and grandparents’ – past. It is hypothesized that the chosen films respond to the dominant discourses and problems of their respective time period but that they can also be considered as interventions. This is due to the fact that the films entail a dimension of identification in the sense that the viewer might be able to see things through the eyes of the protagonist and therefore understand the situation differently from before. Moreover, through their focus on different issues than those that are prominent in mainstream political debates, the films are painting a more nuanced picture.