Turkish-German Relations in Literary History From the Fifteenth Through the Twenty-First Century

EnglishTürkçe

CHAPTER


DOI :10.26650/B/AA09.2023.012.05   IUP :10.26650/B/AA09.2023.012.05    Full Text (PDF)

Propaganda and Alliance: Visual and Verbal Representations of the Central Empires in Illustrated German Postcards During the First World War

İrem Atasoy

Every war necessarily involves a propaganda that is constructed by different narratives which provide direct or indirect knowledge about war at collective or individual level. Civilians’ knowledge of war is usually produced, modified or dissolved (if necessary) by mass media. Media representations of war tend to draw intense public attention and try to influence public opinion. Therefore, the media is a powerful instrument of war. The fundamental system which is used by the medialization of war is language. However, representations of war are created and perceived on the basis of both verbal and non-verbal signs such as images, color, layout and font. Postcards were regarded as a medium of communication which was purchased by a mass audience in Europe during the World War I. They provided a figurative and literal frame in verbal and visual form to show the atmosphere of the war. In this regard, they were used for the establishment of prejudices about enemies and allies. Correspondingly, postcards were the vehicles of imperial propaganda. In the First World War, the German Empire used propaganda postcards to influence public opinion and to keep its allies on its own block. The aim of this study is to find out the representation of the Central Empires in illustrated German postcards during the Great War. Moving towards the visual images of the SELF and verbal codes implying the alliance in selected postcards, this paper also tries to determine the discourse about the Turks in Germany and Austria during the war. The selected postcards are analyzed with the multimodal discourse analysis theories of Theo van Leeuven (2008) and Gunther Kress (2010; 2011).


Keywords: Postcards, Visual and Verbal Representation, Propaganda, First World War, Central Empires

References

  • Adanır, F. (2021). Wandlungen des deutschen Türkeibildes in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts. In: Lohmann, I & Böttcher, J. (Hrsg.) Türken- und Türkeibilder im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert Pädagogik, Bildungspolitik, Kulturtransfer, 23–42. Leipzig: Verlag Julius Klinkhardt. google scholar
  • A History of Picture Postcards. https://www.co.seneca.ny.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Postcards-History- ADA.pdf [18.04.2023]. google scholar
  • Atasoy, İ. (2021). How can nothing be something? A multimodal analysis of the short film Zero. In: Andani, A.A. & Lomia, E. (Eds.) 4th International Conference on Evolving Trends in Interdisciplinary Research & Practices Fulltexts Book. 201–206, New York: Liberty Publisher. google scholar
  • Boer, I. & Haerkötter, R. & Kappert, P. (Hrsg.) (2002). Türken in Berlin 1871-1945: eine Metropole in den Erinnerungen osmanischer und türkischer Zeitzeugen. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. google scholar
  • Carline, R. (1979). Pictures in the Post. London: Gordon Fraser. google scholar
  • Carlson, J.D. (2009). Postcards and Propaganda: Cartographic Postcards as Soft News Images of the Russo- Japanese War. Political Communication, 26. pp. 212–237. google scholar
  • Chomsky, N. (2002). Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda. 2nd Edition. New York: Seven Stories Press. google scholar
  • Çakı, C. (2018). Birinci Dünya Savaşı’ndaki Alman Propaganda Kartpostallarında Kullanılan Karikatürlerde Türklerin Sunumunun Göstergebilimsel Açıdan İncelenmesi. Akdeniz Üniversitesi İletişim Fakültesi Dergisi, (AKİL) Haziran (29). s. 73–94. google scholar
  • De Vries, G. (2016). The Great War Through Picture Postcards. South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Military. google scholar
  • Deutschland und die Türkei. Elsass-Lothringisches Schulblatt, 45.15 (1915), p. 292–298. https://www.numistral. fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9420572j/f9.item.zoom [20.04.2023]. google scholar
  • Guenter, I. (2018). Postcards from the Trenches: A German Soldier’s Testimony of The Great War. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts. google scholar
  • Holzer, A. (2007). Die andere Front. Fotografie und die Propaganda im Ersten Weltkrieg, Darmstadt: Primus Verlag. google scholar
  • Keleş, N. (2016). Birinci Dünya Savaşı Öncesi ve Sonrasında Almanlarda Türk İmgesi. Pamukkale Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi Sayı 24, s. 113–142. google scholar
  • Köroğlu, E. (2007). Ottoman Propaganda and Turkish Identity: Literature in Turkey During World War I. London: Tauris Academic Studies. google scholar
  • Kress. G. & van Leeuwen, T. (2001). Multimodal Discourse. The modes and the media of contemporary communication. London: Arnold. google scholar
  • Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality. A social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. London: Routledge. google scholar
  • Kress. G. (2011). Multimodal discourse analysis. In: Gee, J.P. & Handford, M. (Eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis, 35–50. London: Routledge. google scholar
  • Lintunen, T. (2012). Filthy Whores and Brave Mothers: Women in War Propaganda. In: Vuorinen, M. (Ed.) Enemy Images in War Propaganda, 16–33. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. google scholar
  • Martin, A. (2009). „Der Marsch gegen Konstantinopel führt durch das Brandenburger Tor.“: Ernst Jäckhs kriegspublizistische Flugschriftenproduktion und ihre Inszenierung des deutsch-osmanischen Bündnisses (1914-1918). In: Eğit, Y. (Hg.) Globalisierte Germanistik: Sprache, Literatur, Kultur: Tagungsbeiträge; XI. Türkischer Internationaler Germanistik-Kongress. İzmir: Ege Üniversitesi Yayınları, S. 126-139. google scholar
  • Postcard History. https://siarchives.si.edu/history/featured-topics/postcard/postcard-history [18.04.2023]. Ristović, M. (2020). War, Humour and Propaganda (1914-1918). https://www.academia.edu/43419526/War_ Humour_and_Propaganda_1914_1918_ [18.04.2023]. google scholar
  • Rowley, A. (2008). Popular Culture and Visual Narratives of Revolution: Russian Postcards, 1905–22. Revolutionary Russia, Vol 21, No. 1, pp. 1–31. google scholar
  • Rowley, A. (2009). Monarchy and The Mundane: Picture Postcards and Images of the Romanovs, 1890–1917. Revolutionary Russia, Vol 22, No. 2, pp. 125–152. google scholar
  • Teusch, U. (2018). Der Krieg vor dem Krieg. Wie Propaganda über Leben und Tod enstscheidet. Frankfurt am Main: Westend Verlag. google scholar
  • Toklu, O. (2018). Türkische und deutsche Kriegspropaganda im Ersten Weltkrieg am Beispiel von Postkarten. Diyalog. Interkulturelle Zeitschrift für Germanistik 2018/2. S. 226-232 google scholar
  • Van Leeuwen, T. (2008). Discourse and practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press. google scholar
  • Welch, D. (2000). Germany, Propaganda and Total War, 1914-1918: the Sins of Omission. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. google scholar
  • Postcard (1) “Wir halten durch”. http://www.dortmund-postkolonial.de/?attachment_id=3877. [18.04.2023]. google scholar
  • Postcard (2) “Einigkeit macht stark”. http://www.dortmund-postkolonial.de/?attachment_id=4271. [18.04.2023]. google scholar
  • Postcard (3) “Wir wollen sein ein Volk von Brüdern”. http://constantinople.cards/category/constantinopleistanbul/ military/. [18.04.2023]. google scholar


SHARE




Istanbul University Press aims to contribute to the dissemination of ever growing scientific knowledge through publication of high quality scientific journals and books in accordance with the international publishing standards and ethics. Istanbul University Press follows an open access, non-commercial, scholarly publishing.