[Commlist] New publication: Torn is the Curtain: Early Film Cultures in Istanbul

New Book Publication: /Torn is the Curtain: Early Film Cultures in 
Istanbul/, by Canan Balan (Berghahn Books, 2025)

Communication and Media Studies scholars working on cinema history, 
spectatorship, exhibition cultures, transnational media flows, gender, 
and urban modernity may find this publication of interest.

/Description:/
/Torn is the Curtain/ examines Istanbul’s early film cultures between 
the 1890s and 1930s, tracing how cinema shaped and was shaped by the 
city’s multilingual, multiethnic, and gender-segregated social worlds. 
Drawing on newspapers, diaries, poems, shadow-play scripts, archival 
fragments, and surviving silent films, the book explores spectatorship, 
moral panics, vernacular modernity, and the intersections of media, 
gender, and public life. It also analyses Alevi-Bektashi cultural 
influences, women’s participation in cinema spaces, and the 
trans-imperial networks linking Istanbul to Europe, Egypt, and the 
Middle East.

/Bibliographic Information:/
Balan, Canan. /Torn is the Curtain: Early Film Cultures in Istanbul./ 
New York – Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-80539-339-8 (paperback)

/Table of Contents:/

Introduction: To Draw the Curtain

Chapter 1. The Ottoman Polity, Urban Spectatorship and the Pre-Cinematic 
Gaze
Chapter 2. A New Show in the City, 1896–1914
Chapter 3. The Great War, Occupation and Dressing the Spectators as 
Women, 1914–1923
Chapter 4. Ambivalence and the New Nation State

Conclusion: Tears (and Stitches) in the Curtain

Bibliography

*Index*

*Publisher page: https://bit.ly/48lcYRi <https://bit.ly/48lcYRi>
A 50% discount is available until 31 January with the code BALA2633.*

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