What does a study of modernity, not from the point of
view of official or high discourses or from the real conditions, but from the point of view of carnivalesque forms of popular culture tell us? How
do the representations in low discourses articulate
the power relations taken place in modern urban
space? Humour magazines in Turkey, far from being
just an escapist form of entertainment, have a long
history and almost always politically charged. A
study of popular humour magazines in Turkey shows us
both how the official-dominant discourses are
demystified and subverted but also the way the power
struggles operate through tastes, sexualities and
gendered bodies. This study through an analysis of
the representations of a popular humour magazine in
the early 1990 s context, shows that under the main
overriding theme of the duality of essence and appearance , modernity is signified as a
masquerade and a stake in the power struggles. And
bodies, sexuality and masculinity become the nodal
points and main spaces through which not only of
identity struggles of the social groups but also of
Turkish nation are represented.
view of official or high discourses or from the real conditions, but from the point of view of carnivalesque forms of popular culture tell us? How
do the representations in low discourses articulate
the power relations taken place in modern urban
space? Humour magazines in Turkey, far from being
just an escapist form of entertainment, have a long
history and almost always politically charged. A
study of popular humour magazines in Turkey shows us
both how the official-dominant discourses are
demystified and subverted but also the way the power
struggles operate through tastes, sexualities and
gendered bodies. This study through an analysis of
the representations of a popular humour magazine in
the early 1990 s context, shows that under the main
overriding theme of the duality of essence and appearance , modernity is signified as a
masquerade and a stake in the power struggles. And
bodies, sexuality and masculinity become the nodal
points and main spaces through which not only of
identity struggles of the social groups but also of
Turkish nation are represented.