Evaluating Narrativization Practices in Turkish TV serials as a Venue of Popular Historiography

Abstract

This paper aims at constructing a bridge between narratives and morality, as represented in three selected TV dramas assumed to have symbolic power over Turkish audiences: Resurrection, You are My Homeland, and Yunus Emre. The storification of historical events and personalities through TV dramas is considered to increase understanding of how different moral argumentations are related with contestations over tradition and culture. The major assumption in this article is that understanding the basic rhetorical strategies in these programs has a major impact on the way in which we analyze current ideological tensions and tactics, which are positioned on a constantly shifting ground. In this paper, the voices used in the strategies of constructing a moral argumentation will be evaluated through a model based on discourses of divinity, community, and autonomy (Sheweder, Much, Mahapra, & Park, 1997). The role of narrative transactions in TV dramas is explicated so as to make an assessment on the significance of agency as well as the politics of interpretation.