A Structural Approach to Turkish Western: Yahsi Bati (The Ottoman Cowboys)

Abstract

The western genre emerged in the early days of cinema and became one of the most popular genres for decades. Therefore, the genre has been examined through the framework of different academic approaches within the scope of film studies. For instance, in the 1950s, approaches to the genre were mostly within the mythical framework. Subsequently, westerns were at that time examined in the context of Auteur theory due to the prominence of the theory. In the 1970s, audience's interest in the genre decreased while academic interest increased. The prominent approach in this period was the structuralist approach that was mostly pioneered by Will Wright. Wright examined the westerns of 40 years with the structuralist approach and tried to unveil the modern myths of America in the westerns. Not only Wright argued that four different narrative structures were followed in the westerns but also they consisted of binary oppositions. In our study, Wright's structuralist approach was applied to Turkish western/comedy Yahsi Bati (Ottoman Cowboys, 2009). In conclusion, our study demonstrated that Wright's structuralist approach regarding the westerns was applicable to a fairly recent film that was produced outside the USA.