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Cynical valley - conspiracy genres in the Turkish TV drama Valley of the Wolves
Abstract
The immensely popular and controversial Turkish franchise Valley of the Wolves has run for 12 years, encompassing 3 TV series and 4 feature films thus far, and making its way to much of the Arab world, the Balkans, the Turkic republics, and parts of Europe. Valley has been lauded by some for its exposure of hidden political truths while being panned by others for spreading disinformation and contributing to ethnic and political strife at domestic and international levels. Both sides of this argument tend to focus on two trends: Valley’s blending of fact and fiction and its engagement with conspiracy theory. An examination of the Valley text and the discourses surrounding it reveals abundant anecdotal evidence attesting to the naiveté of Turkish viewers and the speciousness of conspiracy theories that circulate among them. The current season, for example, expounds a story that puts the British dynasty at the heart of a global conspiracy linking the Ebola outbreak in Africa and the rise of the Islamic State to the Turkish domestic agenda. Critiques of the show and its viewers, however, must be placed in the context of a long and invested tradition of portraying portions of the Turkish public as ignorant. Furthermore, In a country marked by a past and present in which collusions between the state, media, big business, and organized crime are widely acknowledged, conspiracy thinking may be an important means for framing everyday life. In this paper I focus on the role of conspiracy in the Valley text and among its publics. Drawing on Valley, its media footprint, and interviews with members of its public, I engage the debate between more alarmist understandings of conspiracy theory (e.g. Hofstadter 1952; Pipes 1996; Byford 2011), which focus on its danger; interpretive approaches, which view it as a strategy for coping in a world where master narratives are increasingly scarce (e.g. Comaroff & Comaroff 2003; Fenster 1999; West & Sanders 2003); and those approaches that examine real conspiracies that have come to light and the social significance of transparency (e.g. Marcus 1999; Fortun & Fortun 1999; Aureli 1999). While all three approaches have their merits and shortcomings in explaining the Valley phenomenon, ultimately, I suggest that the circulation of conspiracy through Valley should be viewed as a genre-based phenomenon that entails a cynical response to Turkish socio-political life.
Discipline
Media Arts
Geographic Area
Turkey
Sub Area
None