Utopia and history :|political movements, the explosion of communication and education, and unimaginable encounters in the 1960s and 1970s in Turkey

Abstract

This dissertation is a critique of historiography and presents a critical historical reading of leftist political movements of the GHI8s and GHJ8s in Turkey, including both youth and worker movements. It scrutinizes historical narratives and the historical process of the politicization of the period. First, the coup d’état of September G7, GHg8, is examined as both a rupture with harsh impacts on leftist politicization, especially on the practices of communication and education, as well as a constructive historiographical moment that sponsored a hegemonic historical narrative under the wave of neoliberalism. The study also analyzes the impact of the military memorandum of March G7, GHJG, questioning the supposition that the intervention separated the GHI8s from the GHJ8s. The dissertation analyzes testimonies and other historical narratives that have piled up since the late GHg8s to interpret the trends in the remembrance and forgetting of the leftist politicization of the period. Second, after introducing the concept of utopia as a theoretical tool to problematize the discrepancy between historical process and discourse, the dissertation conducts a critical historical reading via a problematized utilization of archival materials. It investigates the communication boom of the GHI8s and GHJ8s – the proliferation of communicative practices and cultural production around leftist movements. It then traces the education boom – the broad concept and manifold practices of education by leftist associations, organizations, and trade unions. These two historical trends and their utopian features such as the sociopolitical encounters of various social segments – which have been forgotten or rendered unimaginable in present narratives – are analyzed.