Browsing by Author "Akcali, Elif"

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Flattery and the Misanthrope
(Wiley, 2025) Diken, Bulent; Akcali, Elif; Tuzun, Defne
Molière's Alceste is often discussed with reference to his misanthropic personality, but what he aspires to doing, truth-telling, has received relatively less attention. This is curious especially if we consider that Alceste defines flattery, the opposite of truth-telling, as his main adversary. Indeed, it is Alceste's hatred of flattery that explains his misanthropy, not the other way around. We will first discuss the significance of flattery. Then, we trace the consequences of this idea in the play drawing on Aristophanes, Plato, and Aristotle where they define flattery as a relation to untruth and in opposition to friendship. In Plato's Gorgias, however, a second sense of flattery transpires: distorting ideas and practices through instrumental use. We ask what a reflection on flattery in these two interrelated senses can contribute to our understanding of Molière's comedy. What frames our discussion is the relation between Alceste and Philinte (as a stand-in for the social), on the one hand, and the relation between Alceste and Célimène (as a stand-in for seduction) on the other. Alceste cuts an abject figure in relation to both Philinte and Célimène. We end with a discussion of how Alceste can, for all his abjection, continue to fascinate us.
Representation of Women in Two Different Adaptations of "the Little Mermaid" Fairy Tale
(Kadir Has Üniversitesi, 2022) Şen, Ecem; Akcali, Elif
The representation of women in fairy tales has been one of the focus areas of feminist studies for decades. The discourses of the tales, especially about the representation of women, can confirm the patriarchal system. Fairy tales are also noteworthy because they are often adapted to movies. The extent to which these adaptations adhere to the fairy tale or what they prefer to change obviously may vary; the film’s director, its context, and its genre can, for instance, determine how the film was shot, what type of production it belongs to and what kind of content it will have. The aim of this thesis is to compare two versions of Hans Christian Andersen's tale “The Little Mermaid” adapted for cinema, The Little Mermaid (John Musker and Ron Clements, 1989) and The Lure (Agniezska Smoczyńska, 2015), in terms of female representation. While making this comparison, the films; focusing on the fact that they belong to two different periods and that they were produced by production forms such as mainstream and independent cinema, the main objective is to investigate how the representation of women and the codes underlined by the tale are conveyed to the audience through their narratives. During this research, feminist film theory will be used and films will be examined mainly through formal analysis while reflecting on their contextual differences
Citation - Scopus: 1
Two Balloons Can Fly a Minaret: Parody and Fabricated Reality as Integral Qualities of Mock-Documentary in aya Seyahat
(Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2025) Tuzun, Defne; Akcali, Elif; Cengiz, Esin Paca; Behlil, Melis
This paper takes a close look at the critically acclaimed artist and filmmaker Kutlu & gbreve; Ataman's mockumentary Aya Seyahat (Journey to the Moon, 2009). We discuss the potentials and possibilities that the mockumentary mode brings to the film in detail, and address this mode as an aesthetic and critical manner that Ataman employs in his artistic practice. Through this discussion, we evaluate the ways in which the film is informed by and can be interpreted as a parodic observation of recurrent patterns in Turkish politics and representations of the national pasts. We argue that it exemplifies and endorses mockumentary's politically reflexive capacity to rethink history and the process of historiography in which historical truths are constructed. Mockumentary mode offers layers of meanings, exceeding the obvious narrative of historical parody, and invites the viewers to notice and problematize conventional narrational and stylistic methods of documenting a historical event. Thus, the film provides a criticism and comparison of the public opinion towards politics within two distinct periods in Turkey's history, namely the 1950s and the 2000s. It also opens up a space for a critical engagement with Turkey's troubled pasts and their construction as historical narratives in both cinematic and other representations.