From cinematograph to video: cinematic experience in Turkey and reflections of cinema on Turkish literature

This study was realized in accordance with its potential contribution in explaining the social history of Turkish cinema by the historical aspect and sociological prospects of literature, and filling the gaps left in movie-oriented cinema history studies as well as the reckoning of the author of the multifaceted and heavy interest of Turkish writers towards cinema. Thus, the author explored the fact of cinema in pieces of Turkish literature mainly through short stories and novels. The study, which focuses on a 90 years period from early ages of cinema to an era where it lost its centrality on the social life as a consequence of evolving technologies like TV and video through qualitative research approach and historical perspective that associates Turkish literature and history of Turkish cinema, reveals that cinema was mainly reflected on literature in terms of modernization, the fact of Yeşilçam and issues related to these topics. Certainly within the prospects and borders of literature, this study uncovers themes like social experiences related to cinema which became the symbol and means of modernity throughout the period where Turkish modernization evolved from Westernization to Americanization; reflections of the tension between the tradition and modernity on issues about cinema; role of cinema as a socio-spatial element of Turkish urban modernization; various usages of cinemas other than being a location of watching films; typologies and professional identities of miscellaneous cinema workers that serve at different links of the cinema industry chain and their transitions throughout the historical development of the industry; the story of Yeşilçam from distinct voices of the industry; and the affection of Turkish society for cinema and Yeşilçam, all of which do not (or could not) take place in existing studies of cinema history. As a result of these distinctive findings, it is believed that this study would provide new perspectives for studies on Turkish cinema history.