Social Class, TV Series and Resistance: the Reception of Turkish Dramas by Greeks
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2421-454X/15366Keywords:
Social Class, Turkey, TV Series, Greece, ReceptionAbstract
Turkey has a leading role on the international media scene as far as the export of serial dramas is concerned. Turkish soap operas represent the preoccupations of poor persons and their (mis)adventures following their encounter with wealthy people. They thus combine the representation of the lifestyle of the wealthy classes with messages that, at the same time, criticize it and validate the lifestyle of the working-classes. Since the economic crisis, Greece is among the countries that systematically import Turkish soap operas. Through this article, the author analyzes how Greek audiences negotiate the power relations imposed on them by the capitalist system through the viewing of Turkish television soap operas. This research has revealed that the resistance of meaning receivers toward the hegemonic system is not always opposed to the media text. The results presented in this article are based on an ethnography of Greek audiences of Turkish soap operas as well as on an analysis of the representations of social classes projected through Turkish soap operas.
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