The Problem of Modernity and Identity in Turkey

What does a study of modernity, not from the point of view of official or ?high? discourses or from the ?real? conditions, but from the point of view of ?carnivalesque? forms of popular culture tell us? How do the representations in ?low? discourses articulate the power relations taken place in modern urban space? Humour magazines in Turkey, far from being just an escapist form of entertainment, have a long history and almost always politically charged. A study of popular humour magazines in Turkey shows us both how the official-dominant discourses are demystified and subverted but also the way the power struggles operate through tastes, sexualities and gendered bodies. This study through an analysis of the representations of a popular humour magazine in the early 1990's context, shows that under the main overriding theme of the duality of ?essence? and ?appearance?, ?modernity? is signified as a masquerade and a stake in the power struggles. And bodies, sexuality and masculinity become the nodal points and main spaces through which not only of identity struggles of the social groups but also of Turkish nation are represented.

Gökçen Ertu?rul is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Mu?la, Turkey.