A critical examination of Tom Stoppard's Indian Ink (1995) and Leopoldstadt (2020) through identity fetishism

The aim of this study is to examine whether there is a relationship between the historical interaction of society and fetishist identity. This study particularly focuses on the concepts of identity fetishism in Tom Stoppard's plays Indian Ink (1995) and Leopoldstadt (2020). The historical background of the changing consciousness during the process of modernism and subsequently evolving imperial thought influenced the entire world in the 20th century, leading to globalization and making the interaction between subcultures and mainstream cultures inevitable. At the intersection of lower and upper cultures, concepts such as culture, identity, colonialism and imperialism remain current in the 21st century. The analysis of these plays is important to understand the changing social consciousness, to understand the historical evolution of imperial thought, and to present the fetishistic feelings that arise in the interaction of cultures by deeply examining concepts such as culture, identity, colonialism. For this reason, the study examines Indian Ink and Leopoldstadt plays in terms of the concepts of identity fetishism. The theoretical background of this study consists of subheadings used by critical theorist Homi K. Bhabha in cultural studies, such as third space, hybridity, ambivalence, mimicry, to understand the process of cultural interaction. Tom Stoppard's visits to the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries in the late 1970s enabled him to turn to a critical style that addressed the issues of imperialism, colonialism and identity in life. In these two plays, Stoppard puts terms such as identity fetishism, hybridity, as well as the effects of the concept of culture at the center of his plays, and focuses on the reflections of identity fetishism in the plays. The aim of this study is to expand the colonial and imperial focal points of identity fetishism, as a result of the intersection of subculture and high culture, to include its characteristics in a historical context.