Springer 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.  Review “Başcı offers masterful, multi-layered, and complex analyses of an interesting selection of films on a traumatic event that continues to haunt people of Turkey, individually and collectively. She not only addresses the workings of nation-building, militarism, patriarchy and authoritarian politics but also delves into the conceptualization of childhood, family, and gender both at the time of the coup and historically. Examining the recent Turkish cinema as a site of national identity construction and a recording of memory that challenges and deconstructs the ‘official’ account, the book is grounded in theories of Cultural Studies but speaks to the concerns of a number of fields, disciplinary or interdisciplinary.” (Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat, Professor of Political Science, University of Connecticut, USA) “In Turkey, coups play a pivotal role in a power struggle for the nation's soul. In this sophisticated, articulate and thought-provoking book, Başcı analyzes how Turkish films about the 1980 coup have reimagined national history and identity, healing the repressed trauma of the coup period, while linking it to the dark side of Turkey's post-coup transformation into a ‘new’ society.” (Jenny White, Professor, Stockholm University Institute for Turkish Studies, Sweden) “An exhaustively researched, breath-catchingly timely look at how Turkish cinema has personalized and interpreted national trauma.” (Bob Mondello, NPR) From the Back Cover 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.  About the Author Pelin Başcı is Associate Professor of Turkish Language and Literature at Portland State University, USA, where she teaches courses on popular culture, cinema, and literature of Turkey. A recipient of various awards including a Fulbright scholarship for doctoral work, Başcı received her PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, USA, with additional doctoral coursework at Ankara University, Turkey. She is author of numerous cultural studies articles and reviews on women and gender in Turkey, the late-Ottoman popular press and advertising for women, the canon of Turkish literature, and coup films as counter-narratives. Her research and teaching interests cover modern Turkish literature and popular culture, Turkish cinema, and women and gender in Turkey.