Persistent Othering in Turkish Cinema: The Stereotyped and Gendered Greek Identity

Abstract

In Turkish cinema, the regular narrative of exclusion or othering of minority ethnic, religious, and gender identities harnesses the nation-building process against groups that function as the 'constitutive outsider.' Although recent Turkish cinema has challenged many established cultural patterns, this challenge does not yet extend to stereotyped and heavily gendered constructions of Greek identity. In this paper, I argue that these constructions are persistent, and can be seen in recent films. Specifically, I demonstrate that Greek characters are limited to a few stereotypical names and roles, assigned heavy Turkish accents, and for the most part, confined to female roles depicted primarily as 'indecent' and/or objects of the male gaze.