Bringing the Past into the Present: Cinematic Representation of History in Turkey since the mid-1990s Esin Paça Cengiz Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Royal Holloway, University of London 2014 DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I, Esin Paça Cengiz, 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: 15/09/2014 2 ABSTRACT Historicizing plays a crucial role in the building of nation-states, and during the nation-building process, dominant forms of history have promoted certain ethnicities and cultures over others insofar as the nation relied upon those ‘official’ histories which asserted the ‘continuity’ and ‘progress’ of a particular social group. However, through the agency of films in contemporary Turkey, contested versions of the past are coming to light and challenging the dominant discourses on history that have imagined the nation as a homogeneous entity and national history as a set of ‘glorious’ moments. As a result, the historical film form in Turkey has emerged as a site for the exploration of history, memory, trauma and historical representation in relation to the discourses that surround these fields. In this regard, this thesis examines cinematic representations of history in Turkey through an exploration of the similar and disparate ways that filmic representations since the mid-1990s have attempted to come to terms with the dark moments of the national past. By delving into the intimate and intricate relationship between history, memory, trauma and cinematic representation, this study proposes that the filmic representations of the past in Turkey that have been produced in the last two decades do not consolidate or challenge conventional ways of engaging with the past solely through their subject-matters and themes. In contrast, these films tend to either bolster or undermine traditional discourses on historical representation through the forms they deploy. By examining the cinematic treatment of both conventional stories and the traumatic moments of the national past, this thesis brings to the fore three divergent tendencies in representations of the past in contemporary cinema in Turkey and identifies a new historical film form which offers a critical route for engaging with questions about representations of the past in narratives, histories and films. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments 5 Chapter 1 Introduction: Questions on Representing the Past 7 Chapter 2 Historical Images and Imaginings of the Nation 65 Chapter 3 ‘Glorious’ History in Crises 94 Chapter 4 Trauma as History 137 Chapter 5 A New Historical Film Form 183 Conclusion 234 Bibliography 243 4 ACKNOWLEGMENTS First and foremost, I want to thank my superb supervisor John Hill for his guidance, patience and support during the course of my doctoral studies. His discipline, companionship and emotional and intellectual support have made it possible for me to complete this thesis. I am grateful to Robert Burgoyne and Manishita Daas for taking an extremely constructive approach to my work and turning my viva into one of the greatest experiences of my life. In the course of working on this thesis, I had the opportunity to meet with Robert Rosenstone and discuss my ideas with him. I would like to thank him for his encouraging comments, but more significantly, for being a great inspiration for those of us who study representations of the past in film. I would also like to thank the staff members and PhD students at the Media Arts Department at Royal Holloway who made my time there a wonderful experience. This thesis would not have been possible without the support of my teachers, colleagues and friends. I would like to thank Anshuman Rane for being like a brother and also a flat-mate; he always welcomed me, cooked for me and joined me to watch Turkish soap operas and films. I also would like to thank Ayça Çiftçi for the wonderful times we spent in the U.K. as fellow PhD students. Studying under Louise Spence has had a strong influence on my work as a scholar. I must thank her for teaching me how to study films and for inspiring me to explore unconventional histories. Mark David Wyers has read every word in this thesis, as well as thousands of others that are now in ‘leftover’ folders on my computer. I would like to thank him for his comments and suggestions, but most of all, I want to thank him for being an amazing friend. One person with whom I regularly discussed each chapter of this thesis was Defne Tüzün. Her critical thinking, her love for cinema and our endless discussions about my work, academia and life in general have helped me put my thoughts on paper. Defne, Çağrı Yalkın and Eser Selen read my thesis, gave me insightful feedback, and most importantly have always been there to pick me up me when I was going through difficult times. None of this would ever have been possible without the unconditional support and love of my family. Mete Cengiz, my father-in-law, passed away as I 5 was doing my doctoral studies at Royal Holloway. I would like to thank him and Candan Cengiz for their faith in me and for always supporting my pursuits. I am also grateful to my sisters Ebru and Esra; they always make me feel like the luckiest person on earth. And, most of all, I want to thank my loving, encouraging and patient husband Can Cengiz for being in my life. Thank you for being by my side, taking me on long walks, going cycling with me, and learning my thesis by heart. Your presence has filled my entire life with extraordinary experiences. I would like to dedicate this thesis to my parents, Emine and Mustafa Paça. They have told me stories, shared with me the most intimate of memories, and made me understand that there is always something about the past that remains unknown. 6 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: Questions on Representing the Past This thesis examines the cinematic representations of the past in Turkey since the mid-1990s through an exploration of the similar and disparate ways that filmic representations come to terms with the national past. By delving into the intimate and intricate relationship between history, memory, trauma and cinematic representation, this study proposes that filmic representations of the past in Turkey that have been produced since the mid-1990s do not consolidate or challenge conventional ways of engaging with the past solely with their subject- matters and themes, as is predominantly suggested in scholarly works on cinema in Turkey. In contrast, they tend to either bolster or undermine traditional discourses on historical representation, including films, through the form they deploy. Based on this model, this thesis aims to bring to the fore three divergent tendencies of representing the past in contemporary cinema in Turkey. Starting in the mid-1990s, there has been profound interest in Turkey in re-shaping the national past and this interest has grown as time goes by. In addition to the discourses of the current government, there has been a marked increase in scholarly works, television series, oral history projects and films that narrate different pasts and contest ‗official‘ narratives. These contested narratives have mainly focused on traumatizing events and the memories of diverse communities that have been suppressed by the state. They have sought to tell stories that have been excluded from the national narrative, such as the annihilation of diverse communities and atrocities carried out by the state to ‗forge‘ and ‗sustain‘ a homogenous national identity in the nation-building process and in subsequent decades. Thus, these works have been perceived as primal attempts to track down ways to confound dominant histories by evoking traumatic memories. Concurrently in Turkey, interest in re-shaping the national past has also become visible in the narration of conventional stories. These renowned stories of conquests, triumphs and victories have always had an established existence in historical texts, as well as in literature and cinema, and they constantly emphasise the ‗gloriousness‘ of the national past, the ‗unity‘ of the 7 nation and the ‗homogenous‘ status of national identity. As a result of the promulgation of contested narratives that have eroded discourses on ‗unity‘, ‗homogeneousness‘ and ‗glory‘, however, conventional narratives have also been remoulded in terms of their takes on the national past. As a result, historical representations have emerged that aim to respond to the demands of previously silenced communities and the divulging of the appalling acts committed by the state. Films have played a crucial role in these on-going negotiations in which there is an observable effort to find ways to come to terms with the past and re- define what national history is. This impulse to revise what the past means for the nation in the present day has coincided with a drastic increase in film productions and a revival of the film industry in Turkey, and since the mid-1990s more and more films have been made that represent both iteratively accounted and discounted past events. Each film that takes the past of Turkey as its subject, however, has either relied on or challenged conventional discourses that surround historical representations, and accordingly this has resulted in the emergence of divergent filmic tendencies. In this context, this thesis examines films that centre on the celebrated moments of the national past such as the nation-building process that led to the founding of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 and the peak decades of the Ottoman Empire. In other words, it delves into films that attend to the moments that have been iteratively represented in the cinema of Turkey since the advent of filmmaking practices in the early 1900s.