Turkish-German Relations in Literary History From the Fifteenth Through the Twenty-First Century
Propaganda and Alliance: Visual and Verbal Representations of the Central Empires in Illustrated German Postcards During the First World War
İrem AtasoyEvery 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).