Zeynep Sertbulut

During a period of intense struggle over the proper definition of Turkishness, this ethnography will investigate the behind-the-scenes tensions and debates among Turkey’s producers of very popular soap operas as they work under state censorship. How do these media producers who create globally renowned productions negotiate what it means to be ‘Turkish’ and how to represent ‘Turkishness’ in a proper and acceptable way in contemporary Turkey? Through this case, my research aims to understand recent transformations in Turkish society and culture; more broadly this work speaks to the question of how cultural forms are produced when the interests of and pressures on media producers are complex and contradictory