The Delight of Turkish Dizi: Memory, Genre and Politics of Television in Turkey [Paperback]

The first comprehensive study ofdizi, a television genre unique to Turkey akin to soap opera or telenovela. 

Standing at the crossroads of folklore, media, and performance studies, Arzu Öztürkmen explores the rise of thedizigenre in Turkey since the 1970s, when national television broadcasting began in the country.The Delight of Turkish Diziapproaches this unique genre—not quite soap opera or telenovela—as an art form that developed with the collective creative input of writers, producers, directors, actors, editors, musicians, and, lately, international distributors. Öztürkmen shows howdizi-making is a marathon run by sprinters, where production and broadcasting processes have been tightly interwoven, offering a mode of communication and consumption that is distinct to the Turkish television industry. The research consists of oral history with key figures indiziproduction and ethnographic surveys of film sets, international content markets, and award ceremonies. This first-ever monograph on Turkishdiziwill be a valuable addition to the field of performance and media studies while delighting the general reader as well.Trained in folklore studies,Arzu Öztürkmenis a professor at Bogaziçi University in Istanbul. Her research consists of oral history, folklore, and the history of performing arts. In addition to several articles on the cultural history of Turkey, she is coeditor ofCelebration, Entertainment and Theater in the Ottoman WorldandMedieval and Early Modern Performance in the Eastern Mediterranean.