Documentary in artistic practice: accented essays from Turkey

Online talk via Teams, 1 December Wednesday, 14:00-15:00 (link)

Documentary and art are seemingly two words in conflict with one another: the former implies a kind of documentation that encloses an objective record of the real world while the latter is defined and evaluated by subjectivity and creativity. Nonetheless – as Grierson’s famous definition of documentary also suggests – subjectivity and creativity are two concepts that inevitably become significant during the documentary filmmaking process as they can produce and/or prevent conventions, possibilities and limitations in a film’s narrative. Moreover, the historical collaboration between documentary filmmakers and visual artists is an indication of the range of forms documentary can take.

As part of the Centre's research seminar series, Elif Akçalı's paper will look at the use of documentary filmmaking in artistic practices in Turkey, especially focusing on those contemporary works that adopt a first-person, subjective viewpoint, made by artists in transition. Akçalı's case studies are Didem Pekün’s Of Dice and Men (2016), Şener Özmen’s How to tell of peace to a living dove? (2015) and Aykan Safoğlu’s Off-white Tulips (2013), which she categorizes as accented essays. Akçalı will analyze the aesthetics of these three works especially in terms of how the subjective viewpoint in their narratives shape our understanding of the social and cultural context, which was largely shaped by the political events during the period in which they were made. The accented first-person address in these works, along with other stylistic choices prone to essayistic documentary filmmaking that they pursue, allow them to enjoy a multiplicity of meanings, raising personal questions that become relevant for collective issues of identity, belonging, culture, history and memory.

Dr. Elif Akçalı completed her PhD in Media Arts in 2014 at Royal Holloway, University of London, and she is Assistant Professor at the Department of Radio, TV and Cinema Department, Kadir Has University (Istanbul, Turkey) since 2015. She teaches the practice of film editing as well as a variety of theoretical courses in screen studies within the undergraduate and graduate programmes at Khas. Her works have appeared in a variety of journals including Critical Arts, Journal of Film and Video and [in]Transition. Her research interests include film style and aesthetics, documentary and essay film, gender and audiovisual production, and videographic film studies. Currently she is leading a two-year research project funded by TÜBİTAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) titled “Women on Screen and Behind the Camera: A Contemporary Outlook of Representation and Labor of Women in Film and TV Industries in Turkey (2017-2021).”

Famous monsters: mediations of celebrified sex offenders in contemporary US media

Online talk via Teams, 16 November Tuesday, 17:00-18:00 (link)

As part of the Centre's research seminar series, Sabrina Moro's paper will examine the imbrications of sexual violence and celebrity culture in contemporary US media. Even before #MeToo, the public fascination with everyman perpetrators of violent sex crimes has been instrumental in shaping cultural understandings of sexual violence. A critical analysis of the media framing of sex offenders who have become famous because of the crime they committed reveals how the celebritisation of sexual violence can be lucrative.

Because of its focus on sex-based offences and its trademark ‘ripped-from-the-headlines’ episodes, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC 1999-) provides an entry point to analyse the celebrification of perpetrators. This paper draws on SVU’s dramatization of the cases against Earl Bradley and Larry Nassar It first explores how celebrified pedophiles are constructed as monstruous abnormalities to maintain the mutual exclusivity of heterosexuality and violence. Even as there are many similarities between the Bradley case and the Nassar case – abuse of medical authority, serial assault of minors – their cultural resonance is not equivalent. The second part of this paper attends to this discrepancy. It shows that the media coverage of Nassar’s trial captures social anxieties related to gender, sexuality, race, and class, as well as the changing nature of fame.

 

Sabrina Moro recently submitted her PhD in Journalism and Media Studies at Nottingham Trent University and is currently a lecturer in French and Media at Nottingham Trent University. Her research interests include contemporary celebrity cultures, mediations of sexual violence, and feminist theory. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies and Journal of Fandom Studies. Her chapter on Maria Schneider’s sexual assault testimony will be published next Spring in Screening #MeToo: Rape Culture in Hollywood (SUNY Press).

 

Trigger warning: the paper deals with sexual assault of minors, but no details or depictions are included in the presentation.

The Centre is pleased to announce a seminar by Dr Colin Alexander, 3-4 p.m., November 3rd., 'Hegemony, Morality and Power: A Gramscian Theory of Public Diplomacy'

 

This research seminar examines ways in which public diplomacy should be understood at a theoretical level. It focuses on the key themes of hegemony, morality and power, using the philosophical writings of Antonio Gramsci as a guide. Gramsci is an important source of authority for many academics interested in International Relations (particularly World Order studies), Communications Theory, Culture Studies, Postcolonial Studies and Political Communications. His widespread absence from literature on public diplomacy is therefore interesting in and of itself but so too is public diplomacy’s general lack of sufficient theorisation. This seminar looks to engage with some of those issues and to create a debate about them. The seminar also serves as a book launch of Dr. Alexander's new edited volume 'The Frontiers of Public Diplomacy' (Routledge, 2021).

The Research Centre for the Study of Inequality, Culture and Difference is delighted to welcome Dr Lexi Webster from Manchester Metropolitan University, who will be giving a research talk titled: '“Eye of the Beholder”: Considering pluralism, relativism and un/intentional consequences in critical discourse studies'

Abstract: In its radical impetus, critical discourse studies prioritises what ought to be in seeking social transformation for the benefit of the powerless. By analysing how and why unequal power relations are constructed and reproduced in discourse, critical discourse studies scholars seek change towards a better and more equal world. I argue, however, that the unabashed normativity of critical discourse studies prevents its scholars from engendering such change. That is, without considering competing and intersecting perspectives on the social phenomena under analysis, it becomes largely impossible to evaluate whether good really can be done via any given critique. As such, I contend that an approach embedding pluralism and relativism might enable critical discourse studies scholars to enact the virtues that the discipline extols.  

To illustrate the role that pluralism and relativism can play in critical discourse studies, I reflect on my own work at the intersection(s) of language, gender, sex and sexuality. Focusing particularly on transgender discourse(s), including online antagonism and broader discussions of socio-legal recognition, I discuss how critique might consider multiple intersecting power structures and mechanisms in its aims towards social change. Specifically, I consider “winners”, “losers” and un/intentional consequences that might arise from proposed changes to social practice. I contend that accounting for such lateral and intersecting struggles is an ethical imperative in critical discourse studies, which might allow scholars to move recommendations for change from paper to practice. 

Bio: Dr Lexi Webster is a Lecturer in Linguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her research thus far has primarily explored transgender Twitter users’ behaviour and language use online, though she has also published and delivered invited lectures on ideological segregation, freedom of expression and the regulation of communication online. Lexi primarily uses corpus-driven approaches to critical discourse studies, focusing on the implications that identity construction/s and cognitive models have for actors, institutions and social structures. 

We look forward to seeing some of you there on Wednesday 30th June. All welcome!

 

Horror in the Archives

 

Social media, parades and protest in a Divided Society: Reflections from post-conflict Northern Ireland, Dr Paul Reilly from the University of Sheffield 1-2pm BST, Wednesday 28th April,

The NTU Research Centre for the Study of Inequality, Culture and Difference is delighted to welcome Dr Paul Reilly from the University of Sheffield 1-2pm BST on Wednesday 28th April, who will be giving a talk on Social media, parades and protest in a Divided Society: Reflections from post-conflict Northern Ireland. 

Abstract:

How are platforms such as Facebook and Twitter used by citizens to frame contentious parades and protests in ‘post-conflict’ Northern Ireland? What do these contentious episodes tell us about the potential of information and communication technologies to promote positive intergroup contact in the deeply divided society?  

In this paper, I  will explore these issues through the first in-depth qualitative exploration of how social media were used during the union flag protests (December 2012-March 2013) and the Ardoyne parade disputes (July 2014 and 2015). I examine the extent to which affective publics, mobilised and connected via expressions of solidarity on social media, appear to escalate or de-escalate sectarian tensions caused by these hybrid media events. I conclude by examining whether citizen activity on these online platforms has the potential to contribute to peacebuilding in divided societies such as Northern Ireland. 

Bio:

Dr. Paul Reilly is Senior Lecturer in Social Media & Digital Society at the University of Sheffield. His research focuses on social media sousveillance, digital activism and the use of digital media to promote better community relations in divided societies. He has written two books on the role of digital media in conflict transformation in Northern Ireland (Framing the Troubles Online and Digital Contention in a Divided Society, both with Manchester University Press). His work has also been published in a number of journals including First Monday, Information, Communication & Society, Journalism, New Media & Society, and Policy & Internet. 

The AAH Research Centre for Inequality, Culture and Difference is delighted to welcome Dr Emma Dowling from the University of Vienna, who will be talking to us about her recently published book 'The Care Crisis': March 24th, 2021 02:00 PM 

 

Valuing care and care work does not simply mean attributing care work more monetary value. To really achieve change, we must go so much further. As the world becomes seemingly more uncaring, the calls for people to be more compassionate and empathetic towards one another—in short, to care more—become ever-more vocal. The Care Crisis challenges the idea that people ever stopped caring, but also that the deep and multi-faceted crises of our time will be solved by simply (re)instilling the virtues of empathy. There is no easy fix. In The Care Crisis Emma Dowling charts the multi-faceted nature of care in the modern world, from the mantras of self-care and what they tell us about our anxieties, to the state of the social care system. She examines the relations of power that play profitability and care off in against one another in a myriad of ways, exposing the devastating impact of financialisation and austerity. The Care Crisis enquires into the ways in which the continued off-loading of the cost of care onto the shoulders of underpaid and unpaid realms of society, untangling how this off-loading combines with commodification, marketisation and financialisation to produce the mess we are living in. The Care Crisis charts the current experiments in short-term fixes to the care crisis that are taking place within Britain, with austerity as the backdrop. It maps the economy of abandonment, raising the question: to whom care is afforded? What would it mean to seriously value care?

Transnational Folklore, Politics, and Horror Film

The academic study of horror cinema has become increasingly established in recent years (with the Horror Studies journal launched in 2010, the Horror Studies book series from University of Wales Press launched in 2015, and the SCMS Horror Studies SIG launched in 2016), yet the study of the transnationalism of horror cinema has still been relatively limited. While the approach was discussed in the two anthologies on international horror co-edited by Stephen Jay Schneider in the early 2000s (Fear Without Frontiers, 2002; Horror International, 2005), and a handful of later collections devoted to particular national horror traditions (Korean Horror Cinema, 2013; Italian Horror Cinema, 2016; Hong Kong Horror Cinema, 2019), there is still much to be said about the specifically transnational dynamics of horror film production and reception. By investigating case studies of contemporary horror films produced in Sweden, Turkey, India and Southeast Asia, and tracing how they draw upon local folkloric and mythological traditions, this panel (proposed by Professor Chris Holmlund, Professor Rosalind Galt, Dr Cüneyt Çakırlar and Dr Iain Smith for SCMS2021 Virtual Conference) grappled with the cultural politics underpinning these complex interactions of the local and the global.

Chris Holmlund discussed the representation of the troll in Gräns (Border, 2018) and how Iranian/Swedish director Ali Abbasi presents an outsider’s perspective on Nordic folklore and Scandinavian values. Rosalind Galt followed with an analysis of the Malay folkloric spirit penanggalan and how the films Tamnan Krasue (Thailand, 2002) and Penanggal (Malaysia, 2013) deploy the figure in strikingly different political contexts. Cüneyt Çakırlar presented an analysis of the post-millennial emergence of horror films in Turkish cinema and how the djinn figure of Islamic mythology relates to the politicization of Islam in contemporary Turkey. Finally, Iain Smith investigated the invented mythology of the Goddess of Prosperity in the Indian folk-horror film Tumbbad (2018) and demonstrated how its specific combination of global/local characteristics has helped it overcome the traditional exclusion of Indian films from the international horror canon. Building on recent interventions in the field of transnational horror studies (Choi and Wada- Marciano, 2009; Och & Strayer, 2014; Siddique & Raphael, 2016), this panel therefore meet the pressing need for scholars to address exactly what the transnational turn in film studies scholarship means for the study of contemporary horror cinema.

Çakırlar's paper, titled "Djinns of Post-millennial Turkish Horror Film: Gender Politics and Toxic Kinship in D@bbe (2006-15) and Siccin (2014-19)", argues that the popularisation of the traditional and religious imagery in Turkish visual culture is symptomatic of the post-millennial politicization of Islam in Turkey following the electoral victory of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party in 2002. The shift from militarist secularism to neoliberal Islam in Turkish politics unsettled the Kemalist foundations of Turkishness, and provoked anxiety and polarisation. Reflecting on this anxiety, this paper focuses on the post-millennial emergence of horror films in popular Turkish cinema to locate them within Turkish political culture and its restoration of Muslimness. These films authenticate their horror by exploiting an image of Turkey as a new autocracy that has antagonized the state’s secularist republican legacy. Investing in the figure of the djinn of Anatolian folklore, Turkic shamanism and Islamic mythology, the films tell paranormal stories of witchcraft, black magic, demonic possession and exorcism. Hasan Karacadag’s D@bbe and Alper Mestçi’s Siccin have been the most popular horror series. Inspired by Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Kairo (2001), Karacadag’s D@bbe films refer to the Quranic verses on the summoning of all djinns (to lead the judgment day) by the creature Dabbe’t-ül Arz, which these films seem to depict as an evil force haunting people through digital media. While Karacadag’s transnational style appropriates a Japanese and American supernatural horror aesthetic, his use of the djinns of Turkish folklore and Islamic mythology narrates stories that represent toxic relations of family, kinship, class, and property in contemporary Turkey. In these films, demonic femininity, especially via vengeful mothers, mobilises djinns and demons across generations. Thematically resonating with the D@bbe series, Mestçi’s Siccin movies move from the found-footage “techno-horror” to hybrid “horror dramas” of familial grief, revenge, jealousy and class conflict, i.e. amorous and familial relations cursed by djinns and demons. Çakırlar's study discusses the ways in which the two most popular auteurs of this new genre cite folklore and religion to entertain, if not confront, their audiences with the contemporary horrors of gender politics and kinship relations in post-millennial, post-secular Turkey and its Islamic liberal-conservative project of rebuilding the nation.          

 

Inequality, Culture and Difference seminar 24^th February 2021, 2-3pm  

The Centre is very happy to welcome Professor Ursula Huws for a talk entitled, 'Reinventing the Welfare State' 

Abstract: 

In this talk, Ursula Huws will discuss some of the ideas in her recent book, Reinventing the Welfare State: Digital Platforms and Public Policies, which looks critically at the UK welfare state and discusses how it might be reinvented for the 21^st century. Drawing on her recent empirical research on platform labour, as well as the conceptual framework she presented in her 2019 book, Labour in Contemporary Capitalism: What Next? she will argue that the welfare systems and labour protection institutions put in place in the mid-20^th century are no longer fit for purpose. Rather than attempting to patch them up, what is now needed is to revisit the original principles that underpinned it and find ways to reapply them in the new context. Looking, in particular, at the principles of universality, redistribution, decommodification and equality, she will ask what kinds of rights workers need in the digital age, how tax and benefit systems can be made more redistributive and how the potential of new technologies can be repurposed to provide new kinds of public service that both support social reproduction and help combat global heating.   

 

Author bio: 

Ursula Huws is Professor of Labour and Globalisation at the University of Hertfordshire. She has been carrying out pioneering research on the economic, social and gender impacts of technological change, employment restructuring and the changing international division of labour since the 1970s, combining scholarship with activism and popular writing. 

for joining information, please write to martin.oshaughnessy@ntu.ac.uk mentioning the title of the talk. 

Blurred Lines: Technologies of Heterosexual Coercion in ‘Sugar Dating’

On the 10th Feb at 2pm our very own Rocío Palomeque Recio will be talking about her fascinating research on 'Sugar dating' in a talk titled Blurred Lines: Technologies of Heterosexual Coercion in ‘Sugar Dating’ - all welcome and please share widely!!

 

Abstract: ‘Sugar dating’ is how a commodified relationship between an older, affluent male –Sugar Daddy– and a younger, financially disempowered female –Sugar Baby– is known. Among the numerous sugar dating websites that have mushroomed in the last decades in Britain to foster this type of encounters, Seeking.com stands out for not only providing an online meet-up place for Sugar Daddies and Babies, but also for acting as the matrix where the ‘sugar’ discourse is constructed. The site functions as a discursive producer of the subject inasmuch as Sugar Babies and Daddies are subjected and subjugated -through a process of assujettissement- by its discursive power. Interviews conducted with four women who had recently acted as Sugar Babies showed how Seeking.com’s discourse permeates the subjects and acts as a ‘technology of coercion’ (Gavey, 1992) that perpetuates hegemonic notions of heterosexuality, undermines the participants’ agency to refuse to engage in sexual intercourse, and effectively ‘blurres the lines’ of sexual consent.

The Monogamous/Promiscuous Optics in Contemporary Gay Film

Cüneyt Çakırlar & Gary Needham (2020) The monogamous/promiscuous optics in contemporary gay film: registering the amorous couple in Weekend (2011) and Paris 05:59: Théo & Hugo (2016), New Review of Film and Television Studies, 18:4, 402-430

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/17400309.2020.1800329

This article explores representations of same-sex intimacy in contemporary gay cinema by focusing on two films, Weekend (2011) and Paris 05:59: Théo & Hugo (2016). Both films spatialise intimacy, which is reflected in a formal appeal to monogamous and promiscuous optics. What interests us here is how the rela- tional politics of monogamy/promiscuity can be considered as stylistic and ideological registers in gay filmmaking. Informed by Leo Bersani’s work, we investigate how gay cinema tests the social viability/intelligibility of same-sex intimacy against a centring of the self. Furthermore, we explore how gay films use form and style to situate both their politics and their spectators through specta- cles of erotic relationality. Following Bersani, the article proposes a theory of cinematic optics that privilege the impersonal over the personal, and the onto- logical over the psychological. Weekend ‘ovalises’ intimacy and locates the couple formally and ideologically. The couple in Weekend’s space of sociality operates within a monogamous optic that presents intimacy through stabilising identities and psychologising subject positions. Théo & Hugo, however, reorients spectator- ship as impersonal and promiscuous in finding a way to express the experience of cruising and sociability in ways that are dispersed and extensible.