Eleştiri ve Kültür Araştırmaları

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Animated critical theory: Nasrettin Hoca anecdotes as an animation of theories of Marx, Foucault and Simmel
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2010., 2010.) Balaman, Ayşe.; Voss, Stephen,; Baş, Işıl.
The purpose of this study at the global level is to draw attention to points of convergence in Eastern and Western sourced tendencies of pre-modern and modern/post-modern thought, while the immediate objective is to discover overlapping themes in the approach to cultural critique present in both. The study will feature, as an illustration of the former, selections of Nasrettin Hodja anecdotes which consist of very short narrations of incidents featuring the Turkish Nasrettin Hodja, a thirteenth century historical figure known as a folk philosopher with international eminence for his wise and humorous remarks concerning cultural practices. The latter will be represented by the critical and cultural theories put forward by the nineteenth century German political economist-sociologistphilosopher Karl H. Marx, twentieth century French historian-philosopher Michel Foucault, and the nineteenth and twentieth century German sociologist-philosopher Georg Simmel. Regarding the cultural critique in the anecdotes, this study will focus on the recognition of the dynamic quality of object and subject roles in a given cultural incident involving man to himself, man to man, man to animal or man to knowledge relationships. In the said theories, this dynamism is found in the form of a process of continual exchange between object and subject components, which finds a different meaning in each theory. In Marx’s theory, this idea is spelled out in terms of historical dialectic employed in the formulation of “revolutionary practical-critical activity”. With Foucault, this exchange emerges as the simultaneity of man’s object and subject roles in relation to possession of knowledge which he states to be consequential of the transfer from the classical to the modern eras of knowledge. Finally in Simmel’s writings the dynamism in object subject exchange is seen in the form of reciprocity between objective and subjective cultures, the discussion of which he employs in describing modernity and the relevant categories of social experience he analyses. This study proposes to demonstrate, through the method of content analysis, that the recognition of subject object role exchange present in a variety of forms in the abovementioned theories is depicted in practice form in the Nasrettin Hodja anecdotes, providing an animated theory. Considering the difference in the cultural origins as well as in the eras of the said approaches, discovery of this convergence in thought is meant to stimulate a rereading of the East/West and pre/post modern dichotomies.
Another way is possible: looking at women‟s lives through the filter of divorce
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2015., 2015.) Yıldırım, Mürüvet Esra.; Öztürkmen, Arzu,; Baş, Işıl.
This study primarily deals with women‟s experience of divorce in Turkey, and it aims to explore the following questions: how do the structure of marriage, the roles that women are expected to assume, and their perception of themselves within their families affect their decision to get divorced? Can any causality be established between the changing economic countenance of Turkey and the performance of manhood and womanhood on the decision of women to get divorced? What kind of strategies do women employ before and after divorce? Twenty-seven semi-structured life-story interviews were conducted in six different cities of Turkey. The average age of the participants is fourty-five, and the average length of time after divorce is ten years. The interviews lasted for almost thirty hours. The study demonstrates that the fatherhood performance women were exposed to when they were growing up plays an influential role on the decision mechanism in women‟s married lives, and the husband constitutes a second fatherhood from which women prefer to escape. Working life facilitates this escape. When children are involved, marriages are sustained until women decide to end it at the most appropriate time. Financial problems are experienced as a result of unemployment, and domestic violence in marriage are prevalent among the participants. Most of the participants interpreted divorce as a relief and a way out of an oppressive state despite its challenging results.
Bodily fluids and formless bodies: Bataille reads Küçük İskender
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2011., 2011.) Bozkurt, Abbas.; Baş, Işıl.
This study discusses the works of Georges Bataille and Küçük İskender by comparing the ways these two writers use “bodily fluids” as a subversive tool. A parallel reading of some of the major works of these writers demonstrates that the imagery of bodily fluids is a recurrent motif for both of them. This common imagery reveals similar strategies of resistance for Bataille and Ġskender, and in the course of this study, the possibilities and limitations of these strategies will constitute the focal point. Through these strategies of resistance, Bataille and Ġskender imagine an alternative order that is based on chaotic/anarchistic characteristics of fluids. In their models, fluids replace the realm of language which they perceive as the perpetuator of hierarchical power structures. In order to eliminate the power asymmetry that language solidifies, they suggest a “fluid communication” that establishes new methods of connecting different bodies. That kind of a communication, which uses the entire bodily repertoire without excluding the abject, relies on a horizontal principle instead of the vertical/hierarchical principle of language mechanisms. Contemplating on the possibility of such a non-discursive/bodily communication leads us to question our corporeality and inspires us to find new techniques of “bonding” with others. As a result, such an analysis of the two writers triggers many questions regarding contemporary theories of body politics and their relation to the realm of language.
Chaning conventions of landscape photography in Turkey: from Ara Güler to Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Seçil Yersel
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2007., 2007.) Ergener, Balca.; Ahıska, Meltem.; Baş, Işıl.
This thesis aims to investigate the conventions of contemporary landscape photography in Turkey by analyzing selected work by three artists, Ara Güler, Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Seçil Yersel and discussing them in the context of the canon of the landscape image, and landscape photography in the international contemporary art scene. A historical account of the landscape image, its historically and culturally specific conditions of emergence in the West, and its relationship with traveling and tourism is provided. Landscape is studied as a specific kind of relationship between humans and the physical world, which entails a distant viewer, looking and visually framing a physical environment rather than participating in it; and the transformation of a physical environment composed of multiple multi-sensory elements into a coherent, aesthetic object to be visually consumed. Ceylan’s and Yersel’s photographs make the distance and alienation intrinsic both to the notion of landscape and the practice of photography visible. Ara Güler’s proximity to his subjects, his engagement with documenting the contingent experiences of people specific to places and times and capturing fleeting moments result in fragmentary compositions of dynamic and inhabited landscapes transformed by and with people. Ceylan and Yersel’s distance to their subjects resulting in wide and exhaustive views that resemble paintings more than photographs because they are static and closed compositions resist appropriation and presenting ready meanings.
Formations of the body: Talal Asad and the secular
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2015., 2015.) Peksöz, Ömer Faruk.; Baş, Işıl.
The present study aspires to read Talal Asad’s Genealogies of Religion and Formations of the Secular not as works of anthropology of religion, but as one major contribution to body studies. The novelty of this thesis lies in its argument that Asad’s reflections on the religious and the secular in two separate works comprise in fact one theory of the body. Asad’s critique of the concepts of the secular and the religion is the ground upon which his theory of the body is constructed. His genealogy of the attitudes towards the body via the changing juridical practices in the European Middle Ages is Asad’s treatment of bodily pain in the economy of truth. Asad’s theory of the body is complemented with the examination of modern conceptions of agency, pain, and cruelty with regards to the concept of the secular and secularism. Accompanying this reading of Asad, this study is to maintain that “the religious” and “the secular” as opposites are but the products of modern thinking; that “the secular” precedes “secularism”; and, most importantly, that Asad deconstructs the binary opposition of “the religious” and “the secular” within the horizon of the body. Reading the shifts in the attitudes towards and understandings of the body especially in the history of Christianity, Asad develops a theory of the body. I attempt in this thesis as a consequence to introduce body studies to Talal Asad’s theory of the body.
Nietzsche and the self: the 'dissolution of the subject in The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil and disconnected by Oğuz Atay
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2008., 2008.) Talay, Zeynep.; Baş, Işıl.
The thesis discusses Nietzsche’s critique of the constitution of the modern self and explores the ways in which this Nietzschean theme appears in literature. I will focus in particular on the Nietzschean theme of the dissolution of the subject as it appears in The Man without Qualities by Robert Musil (1880-1940) and The Disconnected by O"uz Atay (1934-1977). In the first chapter I investigate Nietzsche’s critique of the modern constitution of the self and his own account of the self. In Chapter II, I treat Nietzsche's account of the self as an important background to The Man without Qualities, and in Chapter III, I do the same for The Disconnected. In doing this I not only attempt to indicate the positive meaning of the dissolution of the subject in these novels, but also seek to demonstrate how even experimental or exploratory approaches to the living of a life set limits to such an idea.
Reconstructing the city and the citizen through the İstanbul courses
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2014., 2014.) Çakıroğlu, Miray.; Baş, Işıl.; Aksan, Güneş Ekin.
This study investigates into the imagination of the city, specifically İstanbul and the projection of identity for the İstanbulite urban subject within the context of İstanbul courses. The courses, inspired by an educational project carried out as part of İstanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture, became part of the primary school curriculum for the state schools in İstanbul. A similar course, “City and Culture: İstanbul”, was also designed to be offered as an elective for universities in the city. It is argued that the courses constitute an example of the consumer-capitalist ideology in the urban space and constitute one of the strategies of urban entrepreneurialism. They create and disseminate a normative discourse about the urban space with the help of the reproductive function of education. The thesis analyzes the course books in terms of the three criteria of “the world construct”, “history” and “the urban citizen”. It is argued that within the world construct that the courses project, İstanbul emerges as a postcard-city emptied out of its social and historical context for purposes of place marketing. History functions as a reservoir to contribute to this construct by providing myths concerning the city’s past. In this context, the desirable urban citizen that the courses aim to bring about is imagined as spectator, a tourist and a tourist guide. The courses therefore enable the reproducing of the consumercapitalist ideology in the urban space and raise the individuals that are properly integrated into it.
Resignifying the mainstream: transgender embodiment in cinema in Turkey
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2011., 2011.) Şeker, Berfu.; Baş, Işıl.; Erdoğan, Nezih,
This study focuses on the mainstream representation of the transgender phenomenon in the cinema of Turkey during a forty year period starting from the 1960s. In studying these images, the main argument of this thesis is that although mainstream cinema has been conceptualized as incapable of producing meanings that are anti hetero-patriarchal; factors such as audience reception, textual incongruity and directorial intentions might produce ambiguities in order to trigger subversive readings and identifications with these images. By reaching masses of audiences, mainstream representation of transgender embodiment might offer a possibility that might challenge the binary thinking and normative identificatory mechanisms. Conceptualized within their specific historical milieu and in relation to each other, these images also refer back to a historical subconscious in which the repressed desires return back to haunt the heteronormative binaries of gender and sexuality. Reading these films through gender parody, masquerade, heterosexual melancholia, shame and transnational circulation of transgender images, this study explores the relation between performance and performativity in order to resignify the mainstream from within.
The construction of space and audience in contemporary public art practices: three examples from Istanbul
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2005., 2005.) Sönmez, Beril.; Baş, Işıl.; Sarıkartal, Çetin.
Temporary art projects taking place outside conventional art institutions like museums and galleries have become common and popular practices in urban areas especially within the last decade. The selection of a public space to make and display "art" opens a new ground to discuss and reconsider contemporary art practices invarious aspects. The main question of the present study is to understand in which extent contemporary public art practices can contribute to overcome the hygienic distinction between the realms of art and everyday life by opening a different level of interactivity where these two separate realms are juxtaposed. This study argues that public art practices can be considered as suggestions about an overall and multi-dimensional transformation in the field of art. Two main axes based on which the transformatory potential of public art practices can be studied are the construction of space and audience. The construction of space, publicity and audience are critical issues in public art practices since different constructions of these concepts in different projects can result in totally diverse practices. Considering that there are multiple manifestations of public art the presentstudy highlights temporary public art projects in which space is conceived in terms of spatial practices of the agents using that space, interaction with the audience is emphasized, people living around or passing-by are considered as creators and participants of the project together with the artists. The whole project, in that sense, refers to a process during which space, artwork and participants are mutually constructing each other. Furthermore, this study points out that public art practices have also the potential to suspend social hierarchies by underlining the possibility of different subject positions for each contributor at least during the project period. Inother words, public art practices are claimed to have the potential to open an alternative platform of changing positions, new sociabilities, interactivity and play. Based on this theoretical framework, specific examples selected from Istanbul are studied in detail in terms of the continuities and discontinuities with museum and gallery practices. With reference to space and audience construction of these three public art projects this study exposes in which dimensions they propose to challenge and transform established definitions of the art world, and to what extent they managed to diverge from conventional art practices and offer new alternatives of making and experiencing art.
"The Entel" representations of a degenerated intellectual figure in cartoon strips
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2006., 2006.) Öperli, Nadir.; Ahıska, Meltem.; Baş, Işıl.
This thesis tries to understand the emergence of the entel type, a caricature of intellectuals which became popular around the mid 80's in various Turkish cartoon magazines and newspapers. It is not an all encompassing research about cartoons that figured the entel type. Rather, it uses a collection of such cartoons to illustrate a trend that mocked and deprivileged intellectuals during this period, and tries to understand why and how the entel type has become so popular specifically during the mid 80's. Of course, such an endeavor necessitates contemplating on the changing mind sets and cultural climate of the era, as well as an overview of the parallel receptions of intellectuals in the Turkish historical context, which are the two essential issues dealt within this study.It is possible to claim that the entel figure has emerged as an extension of the intellectual-people opposition, the origins of which go back to the Tanzimat era. However, the entel has its peculiar characteristics which make him/her a representative figure of the mood of the post-80's era. In this study, the entel is analyzed first in terms of iconography, gender, and life style. The entel's adventures within the city venues, his/her encounters with other nascent urban figures are also discussed as well as his/her mood that is saturated with a feeling of melancholia and cynicism.
The limits of pluralism: How anti-semitism figures in the oppositional imaginaries in Turkey
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2017., 2017.) Çorak, Hazal.; Baş, Işıl.; Öztürkmen, Arzu,
This thesis interrogates the limits of pluralism in Turkey’s left by focusing on the concessions towards the anti-Semitic discourse in this realm. Through an analysis of Birikim, the longest standing pluralist leftist journal in Turkey and interviews with Jewish intellectuals and activists, the author aims to account for the historical transformations of Turkey’s left vis-à-vis the tension between pluralism and anti Semitism. By considering neither Jewishness nor the pluralist left in Turkey as monolithic structures, this thesis also offers a dynamic approach to understanding the interactions between these spheres. Considering the radical pluralist critiques towards liberal multiculturalist assumptions, provided by thinkers such as Judith Butler and Donna Haraway, the author also problematizes the notions of invisibility and silence which are often attributed to the Jewish community of Turkey.
The new "integration" tests and materials in the Netherlands, Germany, Baden-Wurttemberg, and the United Kingdom: the muslim other and the change from multiculturalism to assimilation
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2007., 2007.) Snyder, Loni Diane.; Baş, Işıl.
In the Netherlands, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, and the United Kingdom new “integration” tests and materials have recently been instituted. This thesis will examine these materials in an attempt to understand what their purpose is and why they have recently come into existence. In particular, it will be shown that the Netherlands and Baden-Wurttemberg tests specifically target Muslim populations: these tests will be analyzed to display the identities that are constructed within the tests and an attempt will be made to explain why it is specifically Muslims, and specifically these identities that have been targeted. The “integration” materials in general display an overall change in ideology from multiculturalism to acculturative assimilation, wherein liberalism has been empowered to make demands on immigrants for adaptation of the “core” culture. This in turn has been caused by antagonisms inherent within liberalism itself which are brought to crisis through confrontation with a critical Other which is defined as outside the understanding of the liberal system: particularly Muslims. The “integration” tests and materials are an attempt on the part of western liberal democracy to resolve the conflicts and repair the liberal system by empowering liberalism to make demands which would make the Other more compatible with the “core” culture of liberalism.
The Social construction and change of consumer identity, ideology and 'spectacle': a study of credit card commercials in Turkey from 1989 to 2004
(Thesis (M.A.)-Bogazici University. Graduate Institute of Social Sciences, 2005., 2005.) Kaya, Engin.; Baş, Işıl.
Starting from the liberalization period by the Ozal government in mid-1980s, the Turkish society has become increasingly dominated by consumption. Introduced around the same time, credit cards have spread exponentially and altered people's conception of and relationship with money and consumption remarkably. The simultaneous advance of advertising has supported and accelerated the transformation of Turkish society into a true consumer society.This study of forty credit card commercials from 1989 to 2004 has enabled an observation of this social and cultural transformation and of the way consumer identities and ideologies are constructed in advertising. Shifting the focus from the product towards the consumer and placing him/her in the centre of all consumption and communication efforts, credit card commercials have changed from a rational attitude to a persuasive one. They seek to draw consumers' attention and choice to the product advertised by addressing their innermost feelings, beliefs, values and desires. With a variety of enhanced visual, audio, narrative and rhetorical techniques, commercials create spectacles to compensate for the irrationalities of rationalized credit cards and simulate dream worlds consumers can escape into.

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