M.A. Theses

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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Contested landscapes of belonging at the Turkish-Syrian border :|the (re)making of Antakya and Defne
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2021., 2021.) Medeiros Coelho, José Rafael.; Milagros Garcia, Maria Pilar.; Baykal, Güldem.
Based on the new metropolitan municipality system (Law No. 6360) Hatay, a multicultural province located at the Turkish-Syrian border, has undergone major cartographic changes. During this process, Defne has been crafted out of Antakya city as an ethnically and religiously segregated district. In this ethnographic study, I analyze the sociopolitical implications of this process. I examine how and why the Alawite and Christian Arab communities that identify themselves as indigenous peoples of Antakya have found themselves in the newly mapped Defne. I demonstrate how and through what spatial and identity practices these indigenous communities and key political stakeholders compete over the cultural heritage of Hatay and Antakya. Doing so, I aim to reveal the power relations behind the new cartography for Hatay while witnessing and documenting Antakya's (re)make and Defne's metamorphosis into the built and imaginary landscapes of the nation at the Turkish-Syrian border. My research has shown that Defne, now with its non-Sunni population, stands as a sign of difference and segregation in Hatay’s new ethno sectarian landscape, in contrast to Antakya, which has been Sunnified due to recent official districting practices. Nonetheless, the very same place (Defne) has proven to be a new public sphere for Hatay’s Arab Alawites to negotiate their local identity by appropriating its space for political and communal engagements.
"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.
Media representation of migration to Turkey :|a diachronic perspective
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2020., 2020.) Kavaklı, Sezgi Başak.; Akar, Didar.
This thesis investigates the effects of empathic motives of the political power holders on the treatment and media representation of large groups of displaced people that arrived in Turkey between 1950 and 2017. It provides a diachronic analysis of the terms through which the print media and Turkish migration policies identified different groups of displaced people along with the themes of discussions that surfaced in the collocates of these terms. The findings suggest that the media identification of the displaced people depends on the societal predisposition towards them and political motives of the government at the time rather than the definitions in the law The narratives on Bulgarian Turks and Turkmens adapts a positively inclusionary tone, in line with Turkey’s economic and social motives of improving farming practices and orchestrating an ethnically and culturally homogenous population. The terms used in media and by political representatives correlate in this period. On the other hand, the representation of the Iraqi Kurds and the Romani in the media are highly avoidant and exclusionary; and similar terms are adapted once again by the government and the media.The representation of Syrians is a mixture of these tones and parallels the polarized opinions in the political context. Thus, strong parallels between the economic, political, and social motives of political power holders and the representation of displaced people in the media are observed.
Kadıköy rock culture as an affectual environment in transition
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Çakmak, Bengi.; Demirhan, Başak.; Oğul, Belma.
This thesis takes an ecomusicological approach to analyzing Kadıköy rock culture as an affectual environment in transition. Kadıköy rock culture is examined as an ecosystem and the relationship between space, music, and affects is discussed as a significant component of the states of co-vibration and co-existence. The participants of the in-depth interviews, who are members of this ecosystem, co-exist within the cultural environment of Kadıköy rock culture, and subsequently experience an intense sense of belonging to a community. This sense of belonging is often expressed in the form of a home narrative, which was one of the major themes in the interviews. Kadıköy’s affectual character and the centrality of the home narrative manifest themselves in the discourses and narratives on the rock culture. I argue that sounds and affects are of utmost important in the transformation of the home narrative into shared emotions within this cultural environment. The transition of Kadıköy rock culture into a new phase along with the larger social transformations was a turning point from which new affects and certain emotional states emerged. Regarding that, the different conceptualizations of the home by nostalgia and solastalgia provide important insights about a fundamental ontological problem that has also been discussed in ecomusicological approaches Ecomusicological theorists have identified this ontological problem as a misconceived separation between nature and culture. I argue that such a misperception creates the fear of losing the home in Kadıköy rock culture as well and that this fear can replaced and alleviated with the notion of sustainability.
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.
Located subjecthoods :|gender and lived body in An Atlas of the Difficult World and Afiş
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Yıldırım, Yaprak Damla.; Milagros Garcia, Maria Pilar.
This thesis investigates whether feminist critical discourse analysis (FCDA) could be applied to poetry via the notion of lived body (corps vivant), as opposed to the conventional methods of poetry analysis which centralize male-oriented post- Cartesian subjecthoods based on rationale, transcendental agency, and coherency. It embraces lived body as a central theme in the poems and abandons the conventions of poetry analysis which have regarded poems as separate works, unaffected by the geographical and chronological locatedness the poets. With the aid of Elizabeth Grosz’s corporeal feminism which adapts the notion of lived body, the thesis applies feminist critical discourse analysis to explore the poetry collections An Atlas of the Difficult World and Afiş [Poster], published by Adrienne Rich (US) and Sennur Sezer (Turkey), respectively. Identifying the common discursive categories in the books as corporeality of subjecthoods and locatedness of subjecthoods within a community, the thesis suggests that together with FCDA, (feminist) lived body provides feminist scholars the grounds to approach poetry as a cultural text and identify the discursive methods in poetry to defy patriarchal power relations.
Negotiating community engagements and alliances :|Queer People of Color and Turkish migrants in Berlin
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Altay, Mehmet Tunay.; Milagros Garcia, Maria Pilar.; Savcı, Evren.
This thesis focuses on the relationship between queer people of color communities and new wave Turkish LGBTQ migrants in Berlin to understand how the perception of race/ethnicity plays a role in forming political alliances. In doing so, the thesis is centered on three main questions: "How do QPoC politics and place-making practices influence new wave Turkish LGBTQ migrants’ mobility in Berlin?", "What are the impacts of QPoC on new wave Turkish LGBTQ migrants’ understanding of race and ethnicity?", and finally "What are the impacts of QPoC communities on new wave Turkish LGBTQ migrants’ understanding of solidarity and transnational alliance?". Qualitative research of this thesis involves in-depth interviews with twelve participants between 24 and 33 years old, qualitative content analysis, and participant observation. The findings of this thesis argue that the experience of the participants as a group of racially ambiguous new migrants in Berlin complicates the binary distinction between "white" and "person of color" both in participants spatial interactions with QPoC safe space strategies and in their racial / ethnic self-identification. Moreover, this thesis shows that the study of critical ethnicity and identity have to take into consideration the racial dynamics of migrants' "homeland”. Overall, the ambivalent relationship between the participants and the QPoC challenges to the classic representation of Turkish migrants as being stuck "between-two-worlds" and discusses that the participants have expanded to multiple trans-local activities interconnected with other urban minority groups under QPoC in Berlin.
The representation of class-inflected masculinity in contemporary Turkish cinema
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Kahraman, Gürsel.; Fişek Emine.
This study aims to analyse the representation of masculinity, with a specific focus on disentangling the relationship between masculinity and class in contemporary Turkish cinema, by exploring four movies that have been produced during the last decade and received international recognition. It borrows the concept of hegemonic masculinity to characterize and locate the kinds of masculinities that are represented in the films Winter Sleep (Kış Uykusu) (2014) and Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da) (2011) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Majority (Çoğunluk) (2010) by Seren Yüce and Beyond the Hill (Tepenin Ardı) (2012) by Emin Alper. Pierre Bourdieu’s formulation of cultural and symbolic capital is also employed to demonstrate class denominators. Consequently, the thesis merges practices that stem from class status with masculinities, in order to locate them at the very juncture of class and gender. Through this conceptualization, this study argues that there are certain notions that are intrinsic to class statuses which are incorporated with gender, specifically masculinity. From this perspective, class status is intrinsic to the mode of masculinity in gender relations as depicted in these representative films from the canon of contemporary Turkish cinema.
Authorship in the culture industry:|Azra Kohen’s series of novels Fi, Çi, and Pi
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Varol, Cansu.; Öğüt Yazıcıoğlu, Özlem.
This study is an attempt to place the contemporary author somewhere between literature and the media culture of our day. On the best-seller shelves since 2014 when it was first published, Azra Kohen’s trilogy Fi, Çi, Pi has been frequently subjected to discussions in Turkish literature. As a result, the writer has become a popular figure who has been invited to television shows, universities, newspaper interviews since then. The story narrated in the trilogy also promised such rating for a production company that three years after its first publication, it was adapted to screen as internet series. This master thesis analyses Kohen’s contradictory attitude as a writer regarding the appearances in media and the series adaptation: while claiming that her only concern is to change the world, the writer comments on her authorship as frequently as possible. This ambivalent perception of (non) authorship is analysed in the light of literary, cultural and critical theories applied to the trilogy and the appearances in the media. In addition to a glance at the characters, the issues of corruption, fame and beneficial relationships in business and media platforms are comparatively analysed both in the trilogy and its screen adaptation. The reasons of the changes in the process of adaptation are discussed in the light of cultural theory. The result of this study shows that Kohen’s idealistic intentions are challenged by capitalistic motives throughout the process.
The cosmopolitanization of culinary "Consumption" : |Steakhouses as instances of the culture industry
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Akgül, Erdem.; Akar, Didar.
This thesis is one of the firsts in Turkish context and literature in analyzing how culture industry and transforms culinary consumption into a cosmopolitan practice through steakhouses. Using the methods of thematic analysis and discourse analysis, the data collected from 40 interviewees including both the people who have been to steakhouses and who have been not has been theoretically and practically analyzed. As a result, it has been observed that steakhouses have an expert, western-connoting, and socioeconomically high perception in the eyes of the consumers; and this perception promoted by culture industry has been observed to be reproduced in popular discourse. Furthermore, steakhouses have been concluded to be effectively functioning ideological instruments of culture industry operating in the co-existence of cosmopolitanism, globalization, and capitalism by selling perceptions full of associations symbolizing better life standards and high-level capitals. It has also been found that in addition to the primary and secondary functions of eating as existing theories suggest, dining-out at steakhouse can also be regarded as a tertiary activity in which people try for meaning-making via symbolic performance activities through which they continue to spend money, construct ideal identities, and buy cultural products such as high-SES experience.
Views from the Varzharan :|negotiation of social identities through Armenian schools
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Lee, Minji.; Milagros Garcia, Maria Pilar.
Armenians in Turkey are an officially recognized minority group; however, they are unofficially (self-)regarded as 'semi-citizens' due to religious and linguistic differences from the majority of the population. There exist imagined boundaries between private Armenian and public Turkish spaces. There also exist institutions and members that occupy strategic positions 'between' them. Armenian schools and students represent one such case study. While the schools hold distinct spatial positions under the private/public binary, its students navigate complicated sociospatial positions. This thesis argued that Armenian students negotiate their identities differently based on their socio-spatial positions, and these differences could be measured through their language attitudes and practices within the Armenian school. Ethnographic data was collected through semi-structured interviews and participant observations at one Armenian high school in Istanbul. The main themes represented the Armenian school as a private, community-centered 'safe space' and 'second home', and Annenian students as holding variant socio-spatial identities. I discussed the school's mechanisms of symbolic power that promote a socialized habitus, as well as the students' (in)consistent language attitudes and practices that presented themselves as paradoxes in their complicated negotiations of social identity within these conditions.
Tragic thought in Oğuz Atay’s Tehlikeli Oyunlar:|Identity, culture, and histor
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Sofuoğlu, Yasin.; Köroğlu, Erol.
This work discusses how Oğuz Atay’s Tehlikeli Oyunlar calls the notions of identity, culture, and history into question from the standpoint of tragic thought. The term “tragic thought” is derived from Jean-Pierre Vernant and Pierre Vidal-Naquet’s main thesis that ancient Greek tragedy entails a form of critical (re)thinking in which human being and human action are interpreted as riddles and problems ridden with ambiguities, tensions, and contradictions evading definitive solutions. In ancient Greek tragedy, the notion of identity comes across as a pursuit of self-understanding while the concepts of history and culture are taken from a critical standpoint concerning one’s relation to his era in the prism of past, present, and future. To flesh out this critical core, I majorly concentrate upon the conflicts and double binds at play in Tehlikeli Oyunlar with respect to notions of identity, history, and culture understood as such. With an interdisciplinary approach, I examine how Atay’s tragic thought articulates the conundrums and paradoxes inherent in his own historical and cultural milieu and sheds light on the unmasterable contingencies and conflicts defining human condition. By demonstrating that pre-established structures and narratives do not provide satisfying answers to restless human search, I claim that Tehlikeli Oyunlar ultimately brings about the question of crisis. The concluding remarks illustrate that the crisis comes across as the experience of the vanishing of ground upon which one constructs his sense of identity in course of his pursuit of self-understanding and establishes his historical and cultural framework of relation to the self and the world.
Gendered experiences of modern cities in the novels of Turkish and Mexican women writers
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2019., 2019.) Akalın Arslanalp, Sena Hatice.; Tekdemir, Hande.
This thesis examines Adalet Ağaoğlu’s Lying Down to Die (1973) and María Luisa Puga’s Panic or Danger (Pánico o Peligro) (1983) to study how women writers in non-western geographies reflect upon the relationship between women and modern cities. Drawing on feminist scholarship on the gendered experiences of modernity and urban space, this thesis shows how Puga and Ağaoğlu illustrate the significant role that the daily experience of modern cities plays in the self-discovery and self-realization of women characters in the modernizing cities of Ankara and Mexico City. This process takes place via their encounters with patriarchal relations, class inequalities, and dominant political discourses that are embedded in the spaces of these two national capitals. The thesis also argues that Puga and Ağaoğlu’s literary reproduction of the cityscapes from the perspective of women protagonists is simultaneously a critique of and a contribution to the gendered cultural memories of the cities.
The role of narrative in creating the ideal woman: The case of Hayat Magazine
(Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2017., 2017.) Özbarlas, Zeynep.; Akar, Didar.
This study investigates the creation of ‘proper’ womanhood through the content analysis of celebrity women’s profiles in Hayat magazine, published between the years 1956 and 1960. The contextual framework of the study is the emergence of the modern nuclear family and women’s place in it as a new form of governmentality in the Turkish Republic as part of the modernization process. This study pays special attention to how ‘proper’ womanhood, one of the central ideological constructions of the new regime, was defined as being modern and at the same time as being first and foremost decent mothers and wives, the main regulators of the modern nuclear family. The main sources used are celebrity women’s profiles in Hayat in a period when the construction of the new regime matured to a great extent. The profiles are analyzed as important cultural products both reflecting and reproducing the discursive formation of ‘proper’ womanhood. Elaborating on Warner’s (2002) theory on the mass public subject, this study argues that strikingly different approaches of Hayat magazine regarding foreign female celebrities and local ones orient the readers to a direct identification with the local female celebrities while the foreign women’s celebrity profiles channel the readers to the normativity of marriage.
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.

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