Constructing The Balkans: Emotion Politics of Pop Culture and Balkanization Discourse

Abstract

In today's world, where technology has developed so fast and digitalization has spread to almost every area of life, visual artifacts have become an important research topic in the discipline of international relations. Visual popular culture products can also be easily evaluated this way. States constantly reproduce their discourses in international politics through popular culture and they fix the definitions of identity representations such as terrorism, race and gender. Therefore, popular culture should also be studied as a means of producing political discourse alongside the truth built by the power. In this article, popular culture, a tool of power that produces politics on its own, will be examined in light of Maria Todorova’s balkanization concept, Balkan geography and identity. In this case, popular culture uses emotions rather politically to produce the balkanized Balkans. Emotions, through the balkanization discourse, produce Balkan identity as the other. Hence, in this article, the works of popular culture produced in the twentieth century will be analyzed periodically and it will be displayed how the Balkan identity has been constructed as a body that was first “feared” and later regarded as “embarrassing” through the discourse of balkanization.

Keywords

• Balkanization
• visual politics
• popular culture
• emotions

Balkanları İnşa Etmek: Popüler Kültür ve Balkanlaşma Söyleminin Duygu Politikası

Öz

Teknolojinin çok hızlı geliştiği ve dijitalleşmenin yaşamın hemen hemen her alanına yayıldığı günümüzde, uluslararası ilişkiler disiplininde görsel üretimler giderek önemli bir araştırma konusu haline gelmiştir. Görsel popüler kültür ürünleri de kolaylıkla bu şekilde değerlendirilebilir. Devletler uluslararası politikadaki söylemlerini günümüzde popüler kültür aracılığıyla sürekli yeniden üretmekte ve terörizm, ırk, cinsiyet gibi çeşitli kimlik temsillerinin anlamlarını sabitlemektedir. Bu sebeple popüler kültür de siyasi söylem üreten bir araç olarak incelenmeli ve iktidarın inşa ettiği hakikat incelenmelidir. Bu makalede popüler kültürün tek başına politika üreten bir iktidar aracı olduğu Maria Todorova’nın ortaya attığı Balkanlaşma kavramıyla birlikte Balkan coğrafyası ve Balkanlı kimliği üzerinde incelenecektir. Popüler kültür burada balkanlaştırılmış Balkanları üretirken duyguları oldukça politik olarak kullanır. Duygular balkanlaşma söylemiyle birlikte Balkan kimliğini bir öteki olarak üretir. Bu sebeple bu makalede yirminci yüzyılda ortaya konulmuş popüler kültür eserleri dönemsel olarak analiz edilecek, Balkanlı kimliğinin balkanlaşma söylemiyle “korkulan” ve daha sonra “utanılan” bir beden olarak nasıl inşa edildiği gösterilecektir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Balkanlaşma
• görsel politika
• popüler kültür
• duygu

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