An Outline for Sociology of ‘Di̇zi̇’ in Turkish Society
Since the 1980’s, The Turkish TV industry opted for a range of TV dramas or dramas (dizi, in Turkish), with a variety of focuses on major sociological themes. These include issues such as on gendered family sagas, heavy dramatization of folkloric stories, mafia organizations embedded in everyday life, adaption of foreign productions, and popularized versions of classical fiction. The world of Turkish-produced TV dramas reproduced unique discursive and rhetorical tools and their methods of reproducing certain types of moral reasoning. The negotiation of identities between the traditional and the modern cultural markers, the venues where different voices are provided certain symbolic spaces are sociological indicators of positions, if not directly on legality, certainly on morality. Whether or not these voices, for example, de-mystify certain ideologies and power games help us to understand if and how justice claims are dialogically reflected and negotiated. It is presumed that storytelling in TV dramas has the power to either reveal or conceal these inner tensions of negotiations in creating, let’s say, a dialogical self. The actions and utterances of individuals reflect upon different moral claims, and the constant evolution and thriving of these keep audiences alert. The scenario of TV dramas, thus, provide substantial clues and keys to decipher societal formations formed through diverse characteristics of individuals and cultures. Thus, this paper aims to outline the potential for innovating the conceptual framework for the 'sociology of dizi' based on a series of examples from television drama productions.