Turkish Movies |
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Turkish \"Soap\" Power...
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08 Sep 2011 Thu 11:46 am |
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From: http://www.usak.org.tr/EN/makale.asp?id=2297
| Turkish "Soap" Power... |
| Lenka Kantnerova |
What about Slovaks´ understanding of Turkey? Thanks to the increasing number of Slovak tourists to Turkey, it can be claimed that its image in Slovakia has improved, however a significant amount of people still believe in stereotypes and myths connected to the cruelness of the Ottoman Empire, terrorist attacks, human rights violations, non-integration of Turks in Germany, etc…
Nowadays it can be said that the image of Turkey is slowly changing. What evokes this change? Is it because Turkey is becoming a significant player in international politics? Is it because people have the will to learn more about this country, and by that they understand that the universal truth they knew about Turkey was simply an overstated myth? Or is it because of the abovementioned tourism? None of them can be conclusively found as an answer to the question. The truth is that it is the power of Turkish soap operas which successfully freed Slovak society from this prejudice.
The main goal of soap operas is to pull viewers into its story as much as it is possible and make them live it. Successful soap operas actually have the power to do just that. They can easily reserve the valuable time of people’s normally busy lives and persuade them to watch an episode. Soap operas therefore create a kind of addiction in people. However, this addiction also has positive consequences. This dimension can be observed in Slovakia for example. In the last ten months, the most popular as well as privately owned Slovak TV channels have started to broadcast Turkish soap operas. Historically, it was the first time something of Turkish production had become part of Slovak society. Slovak society can still be described as conservative in a sense that people are afraid of “otherness” that is unfortunately linked mainly to everything related to Islam.
The first broadcasted soap opera was Binbir Gece, followed by Elveda Derken, Lale Devri, and Aşk ve Ceza. Undoubtedly, the aim of the television channels was not to improve Turkey’s image in the eyes of Slovak people, however that is what they caused. They successfully changed, unintentionally and indirectly, the inaccurate perception of this country in Slovaks` minds. Moreover, in some of the abovementioned soap operas, the name Allah is not translated into the Slovak language. It simply remains Allah. This is very important in removing prejudices, because now people know that Allah does not mean something negative or something they should be afraid of. Furthermore, they can understand from the scenes that Turkey is a democratic country where not every woman is beaten up and has her kids stolen by her aggressive husband. Turkish soap operas have also created the same effect on Arabic countries. The popularity of Turkish love stories pushed for a change in traditional understandings of Turkey among ordinary people.
All in all, soap operas can be perhaps be seen as a very simple form of entertainment, however on the other hand, they have secondary effects which can be powerful enough to alter how a society thinks. |
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| 2. |
08 Sep 2011 Thu 01:57 pm |
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Translating or not translating Allah is an interesting question. I happened to watch the wedding of Prince William from the Alarabiya channel. The church seremony was very religious and the reporter loyally translated every blessing and prayed into Arabic. And not any Arabic: she was using strong Islamic terminology which sounded humoristic because the couple was not exactly those who pious muslims would call mu´minin.
In Turkish, you have this word Tanrı. Is it neutral in colour? Does it express deity in general or does it have a paganic tone?
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08 Sep 2011 Thu 03:58 pm |
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Translating or not translating Allah is an interesting question. I happened to watch the wedding of Prince William from the Alarabiya channel. The church seremony was very religious and the reporter loyally translated every blessing and prayed into Arabic. And not any Arabic: she was using strong Islamic terminology which sounded humoristic because the couple was not exactly those who pious muslims would call mu´minin.
In Turkish, you have this word Tanrı. Is it neutral in colour? Does it express deity in general or does it have a paganic tone?
For religious people here, "Tanrı" is a kind of taboo word. They refrain from using it. They don´t accept it as a substitute for "Allah".
By the way:
Allah = Al ilah = The God (Al=The ilah=god)
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