A historical sociological inquiry into body imagination: Body representation from nation formation to present time in Turkey

This study scrutinizes the history and current state of body construction as a project in Turkey with a social historical perspective. Various approaches to body are compared in a three-stage historical process, namely pre-national stage, national stage and current stage. Body depictions in painting and sculpture at the pre-national stage, body depictions in photography at the national stage and body depictions in visual arts at the currents stage are the focus of the study since each stage has prevailing art mediums. Major developments regarding body depictions took place in Europe at the pre-national stage. Turkish body construction has developed as a response to those first stage depictions in European art. At the national stage, European art mediums were adopted in Turkey while photography dominated the art scene. Today visual arts are the leading medium demonstrating body images. A purposeful sampling was applied to choose the body images. The images are analyzed with visual analysis technique. What is more, in-depth interviews are conducted with nine participants comprised of artist-scholars or artists residing in Antalya and Karaman in Turkey. The interviews are analyzed using thematical analysis and evaluated with reference to the analysis of the images. National body construction from past to present is yet to be investigated in Turkey which is why the study gains importance.