Uluslar, Metinler ve Mecralar Arasında: Birinci Dünya Savaşı ve İstanbul’un İşgali ile Kurgulanan Sinema Seyirciliği

Balan, Canan (2022) Uluslar, Metinler ve Mecralar Arasında: Birinci Dünya Savaşı ve İstanbul’un İşgali ile Kurgulanan Sinema Seyirciliği. Kültür ve İletişim, 25 (2) (50), 447-474. (doi:10.18691/kulturveiletisim.1133401).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Concomitantly with Western Europe and Northern America, the institutionalization of the cinema in Istanbul began after the opening of the first movie theaters between 1900 and 1910. This institutionalization includes the establishment of the first domestic film production companies, first publications of film magazines and of articles on movie stars. It also coincided with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of the Turkish nation-state. In this process, the transnational dynamics of the film market were in harmony with the multi-national and multi-religious structure of Istanbul of that time. The loss of the war, the occupation of Istanbul and then the national struggle for independence also changed the nationality of the films shown in the city. All of these triggered gender-based discrimination in the cultural reception of films, especially among the male writers. One of the distinctive approaches to the cinema in literature belongs to Halide Edip Adıvar. Her approach to films exhibits prevalent aesthetic similarities between literature and cinema, and this is done through the depiction of cognitive processes such as memory, remembering, daydreaming and the reception of films. As well as the gendering of the cinema audiences based on the literature of the male novelists of this period, this study analyzes the difference between cognitive processes and the reception of cinema based on Halide Edip's novels. Evaluating this gendering, its connections with the impact of wars on transnational film distribution are established. Thus, from a feminist perspective, the study focuses on the film and audience culture of Istanbul during and in the aftermath of World War I and the occupation of Istanbul. In order to do this, first of all, I have searched the newspapers and trade records for documenting the national/international characteristics of film distribution. Secondly, in order to understand the effects of these distribution practices, I have examined literary fiction.

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