30.10.2020 Internationaler Digitaler Workshop: OCCIDENTALISM & CINEMA (26.11-27.11.2020)

Ömer Alkin und Malte Hagener laden ein zum digitalen Workshop: OCCIDENTALISM & CINEMA East-West Dialectics in Audiovisual Culture

For more than thirty years, scientists have been exploring different concepts of 'Occidentalism'. Most of this research analyzes the dichotomic relationship between the Orient and the Occident and the complex discursive and historical entanglements in different regional and national contexts. Due to the discourse analytical approach of most of these investigations, which are oriented towards textuality, they neglect the media aesthetic features of the discourses. Although the investigations focus on radio broadcasts, photographs or other types of media, the non-textual media-aesthetic qualities (image, sound) are hardly considered. The consequence is that the aesthetic dimension of discourses remains analytically untouched. In order to understand the role of media-aesthetic features of discourses in the context of the constitution of Occidentalism, the research project pursues the following central question: How do media aesthetic qualities of discourses contribute to the constitution of Occidentalist discourses, i.e. discourses that are devaluing and demarcating the West in such a way that a non-Western identity is stabilized and consolidated.

For this workshop experts will discuss the question of how the connection between conservative politics and Turkish or Islamic-oriented media culture can be analytically grasped. The presentations revolve around topics such as the founder of an Islamic-conservative cinema, Yücel Çakmaklı, Turkish cinema and jihadist video strategies.