Turkish culture has always straddled two worlds, with one eye glancing towards Europe and the West, and the other looking inward, to the East. For decades, the Turkish State deemed "westernization at all costs" its major objective. This was oftentimes at odds with a culture that has always been a mosaic of liberal and conservative, religious and secular, eastern and western.
In his new book, "Ideology in Turkish Cinema," Mustafa Mencütekin examines how film has developed within Turkey. Cinema was originally a western phenomenon, and Mencütekin explores the different ways that the medium has both engaged with, and conflicted with, Turkish society. While working within a western discipline, generations of Turkish filmmakers have tried to make it a vessel for the social values of their home country.
Mencütekin speculates that to truly explore the specific issues currently vexing Turkish cinema, one has to confront the aesthetic, technological, and ideological assumptions in the "deeply nationalistic and secular" approach to Turkish cinema and how they engage with the real social values of Turkish society. If one hopes to attain a cinema purified from all kinds of crisis, more democracy is required to create a cinema that is at peace with the past, present, and future of Turkish society.
About the author: Mustafa Mencütekin graduated from METU ELT in 1991, and taught in many different institutions before beginning his MA, in English Language and Literature, at Fatih University in 1998. Overwhelmed by the outstanding language of film as a particular genre, he applied and finished a PhD program on cinema at Istanbul University in 2001. He directed, and has been directing, all his academic interests towards comprehending the magical style of cinematic communication. The technical, psychological, sociological and communicative aspects of cinematic language are just some of the wide range of fields he has examined. His background in languages and literature lays a firm foundation for his further interdisciplinary studies. He is fluent in English and can communicate in German. He has penned and published several articles, in Turkish and English, about the communicative and morphological sides of film and cinema His personal hobbies include playing guitar, studying new cultures, studying the philosophy of visuality, writing poetry, and learning new languages.
Ideology in Turkish Cinema by Mustafa Mencütekin
ISBN: 9781935295501, 6 by 9, paperback $29.95, 116 pages
Publication: July 2014
Published by Blue Dome Press
Distributed by National Book Network, 800-462-6420800-462-6420, customercare@nbnbooks.com
About the Publisher: Blue Dome Press is a publisher of Islamic tradition and spirituality, Islamic history and arts books. At Blue Dome Press, we take special pride and dedication in the production of high quality, authentic and reliable publications. We aim to contribute to the proliferation of peace and common understanding throughout the world. For more information please contact Huseyin Senturk at 244 5th Avenue, Suite D-149 New York, NY 10001 Telephone: 646 415 9331646 415 9331 x210 Email: senturk@bluedomepress.com
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