Teaching moralities of the modern nation through TV serials: the narrative analysis of Sıla

Abstract

This study basically argues that mass media through which various images are disseminated to the masses, becomes an important part of the daily lives of almost everyone, and it becomes more and more the primary source of identity formation, which was formerly held by traditional institutions. Based on this argument, it offers to redefine "education" in conjunction with cultural studies, and to expand our understanding of education so that education becomes identified with culture itself. This broadest view of education, by emphasizing the role of all sorts of cultural practices in the education of an individual, provides a way to consider not only pedagogy as cultural practice, but also the pedagogy of cultural practices such as television viewing. This study also argues that mass media, as ideological state apparatus, has a great importance in the project of building a modern nation, and, television serials which are successful in attracting the attention of mass audiences play a prominent role in the task of building a modern nation. By accepting the importance of television serials in the nation building process, this study on Sıla, one of the most popular melodramas in Turkey, analyzes visual as well as narrative qualities of the serial to investigate how modern-traditional dichotomy is constructed and tries to make narrative analysis of the serial to examine conflict-resolution processes occurring from this dichotomy throughout the serial. I have tried, through the narrative analysis, based on Turner's (1975) conception of "social drama", to introduce pedagogical messages delivered to audiences through unconventional ways of resolutions reached following conflict situations. The television serial Sıla appreciates the modern over the traditional through suggesting resolutions referring to submission to love instead of social hierarchy and to rule of law as well as social and economic development, to erase the problems based on töre (tribal customs).