Between Nations, Texts and Media: Between Nations, Texts and Media: Spectatorship Created through the World War I and the Occupation of Istanbul

Cinema as a technological public spectatorship experience began in Istanbul in December 1896. First screenings were organised by Henri Delavalle (Stamboul, 12 Aralık 1896) and quickly became a steady part of the modern spectatorship culture in Istanbul. This steadiness brought about the instutionalization of cinema in the city. Following the opening of the first movie theaters between 1900 and 1910 in Istanbul, simultaneously with Western Europe and North America, this institutionalization can be summarized with the establishment of the first domestic film production companies, the start of regular film magazines and the publications on movie stars. It also coinsided with the transtion of the Ottoman Empire to the nation-state, World War I, the occupation period and the War of Independence. In this process, the transnational dynamics of the film market were in harmony with the multinational structure of Istanbul in this period. The loss of the war, the occupation of Istanbul and the national struggle for independence also changed the national backgrounds of the films shown in the city. All of these triggered a gender-based discrimination in the cultural reception of cinema, especially among male writers. One of the most distinctive approaches to cinema in literary literature is shown by Halide Edip Adıvar. In her novels, we come across a lot of aesthetic similarities between literature and cinema through the depiction of cognitive processes such as memory, remembering, daydreaming and cinema.