Diasporic cinema: turkish-german filmmakers with particular emphasis on generational differences

DIASPORIC CINEMA: TURKISH-GERMAN FILMMAKERS WITH PARTICULAR EMPHASIS ON GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES

AYÇA TUNÇ

PhD

MEDIA ARTS DEPARTMENT

ROYAL HOLLOWAY COLLEGE

UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
2011

Declaration of Authorship

I, Ayça Tunç, hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated.

Signed: ______________________

Date: ________________________

ABSTRACT

This PhD dissertation seeks to explore the work and artistic trajectories of Turkish-German filmmakers, focusing in particular on generational differences between them. It privileges filmmakers with a migratory background, who have experienced dislocation, deterritorialisation and who have been marginalised. The thesis is based on the premise that the experience of migration and diaspora has had a manifest impact upon the creative process. Over forty films made by seventeen filmmakers between the 1980s and 2000s about the Turkish diasporic community and their experiences in Germany are analysed within four main thematic frameworks: changing narratives/discourses; the shift in the representation of space; the shift in the use of music; and the shift towards hybrid aesthetics and genres. This reasonably wide scope makes it possible to closely monitor presumed generational differences, and to draw attention to some lesser known filmmakers and their work. It also encapsulates the nascent third generation Turkish-German filmmakers, whose work has not yet been the subject of academic discussions. While this research project examines the concept of diasporic cinema in more general terms, it endeavours to apply key concepts such as the “dialogic imagination”, the “pleasures of hybridity” and the notion of an “accented style” to the specific case of contemporary Turkish-German cinema. In doing so, it combines a literature review, a textual analysis of the selected films and a critical content analysis of the pertinent news materials featuring Turkish-German filmmakers in the Turkish press.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 5

INTRODUCTION 7

chapter 1: theorising diaspora 17

The proliferation of terms: “diaspora”, “migration” and “exile” 18

diaspora and the question of identity 28

diapora in the age of globalisation 36

rethinking nation in the light of diaspora 39

The turkish community in germany: a diaspora? 52

chapter 2: theorising diasporic cinema 67

across national and transnational 68

beyond the frontiers: diasporic cinema as a particular category 81

distinctive features of diasporic cinema 91

chapter 3: generations of turkish filmmakers in germany 108

the question of generation 110

a wounded image or a confident self: narratives of victimhood versus

the pleasures of hybridity? 118

habitats of meaning: from prisoners of a country/culture

to inhabitants of cities 142

the use of music: a means of nostalgia or resistance? 157

not in-between but across: turkish-german encounters and beyond 169

chapter 4: hypenated identities: the reception of turkish-german cinema in the turkish daily press 181

the structure of the turkish press 184

filmmakers or diplomatic ambassadors? the role assigned to turkish-german filmmakers in the process of turkey’s accession to the european union 191

the ceaseless battle of inclusion and exclusion 203

conclusion 221
references 227
Films cited 265

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Ideas for this research project were developed and written over the past four years at Royal Holloway, University of London. I would like to thank the Turkish Council of Higher Education (YÖK), who made this possible by fully funding my PhD. I also gratefully acknowledge the funding I received from the University of London Central Research Fund, which enabled me to conduct archival research in Turkey so that I could trace the differences in the media reception of the first generation and subsequent Turkish-German filmmakers.

I am most grateful to Royal Holloway Media Arts Department for providing research and travel grants on various occasions so that I could participate in very invigorating workshops and conferences such as Rethinking German-Turkish Cinema, held at the University of Texas at Austin; Second Generation Research Dialogues Comparative Perspectives on Children of Immigrants, held at the Centre for Metropolitan Studies, Technical University Berlin; and 2008 Trans-Atlantic Summer Institute in European Studies: Representations of Self and Other, at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. I also wish to extend my thanks to the Center for German and European Studies, University of Minnesota for awarding me with a highly competitive CGES Fellowship and the University of Texas for the additional travel and maintenance grants. These events enabled me to present different parts of my work and to discuss them with fellow PhD students and established scholars from a variety of disciplines. My brief but invaluable interactions with Professor Donna Gabaccia, Professor Barbara Wolbert, Professor Barbara Mennel, Professor Deniz Göktürk, Klaus W. Jonas Professor Randall Halle and Professor Marco Abel at these workshops gave me very useful feedback, which consequently helped me develop a better understanding of my subject and strengthen my arguments.

I want to convey my sincere appreciation to the Graduate School RHUL, the Annual Fund RHUL and the Centre for Global and Transnational Politics RHUL, who awarded me funding in order to organise several workshops and conferences on my research area. I learnt a lot from the guest speakers Professor Paul Willemen and Dr. Zeynep Devrim Gürsel.