Reception of the representations of masculinity and violence in Quentin Tarantino's films among audiences in Turkey

This study focuses on how audiences in Turkey read and interpret the representations of masculinity and violence in the films of Quentin Tarantino, one of the most popular directors of Hollywood cinema worldwide. In order to understand the relationship between films and audiences and to observe the impressions films leave on audiences, it is important to refer to the ways audiences make sense of and experience the world. Therefore, it is essential to consider the historical and social conditions in which the act of watching (and even re-watching) takes place and to understand the discourses and historical contexts through which audiences speak while conveying their experiences and thoughts. Accordingly, this thesis uses Janet Staiger's historical materialist approach and ethnographic approaches within audience studies to examine the relationship between audiences' reading and interpreting practices and the historical, social, cultural, and political discourses in circulation. Analyzing the data obtained from the semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted within the scope of the study, how audiences read Tarantino films is discussed in three sections. The first two sections discuss the discourse of auteurism, which is found to determine how audiences interpret the films, and the category of "men's film", which functions almost like a genre. The final section examines how audiences relate to the films and interpret narrative and visual elements regarding gender roles and violence within the current historical and social context. The findings of the study reveal that the cultural, historical, and social context strongly influenced the participants' thoughts and interpretations. According to one of the significant findings of the study, the current political climate in Turkey encourages viewers to look for a sense of justice in films, for they feel they lack in their everyday lives, and the 'fulfillment of justice' in the narrative evokes pleasure and creates catharsis in them.