Alternative narrative styles of architectural historiography: Presenting the story of Şevki Balmumcu's ankara exhibition house with the graphic novel "Phantom of the Opera House"

Subjective and narrative driven historiography that based upon post-structuralist and postmodern theories of history had blurred the boundaries between history and literary fiction. Representation methods of the historical narrative has flourished due to expanded and indistinctive boundaries of the discipline of history, and especially because of its close link with literary fiction. Is the revolutionary impact of Art Spiegelman's graphic novel Maus on narrative of history possible for architectural history as well? Postmodern historiography and its literary counterpart new historicism are focused on the neglected, marginalized and even hidden by the grand narrative that is idealized by modern historiography. What are equivalent to these micro-stories and how they can be represented? Answers to these questions are sought with the graphic novel The Phantom of the Opera House which is produced for this thesis. The story of The Exhibition House of Ankara's transformation to Ankara Opera House which is frequently used as an example for the contradictory circumstances of Early Republican Era of Turkey at the transitional period from 1930's to 1940's is reinterpreted by fictionalizing it with the sad story of Şevki Balmumcu by staying out of the conventional academic writing practice. Keywords: Postmodern Historiography, New Historicism, Architectural Historiography, Şevki Balmumcu, The Exhibition House of Ankara, Ankara Opera House, Graphic Novel