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Serdar Somuncu: Reframing Integration through a Transnational Politics of Satire
Author(s) -
Bower Kathrin
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the german quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.11
H-Index - 10
eISSN - 1756-1183
pISSN - 0016-8831
DOI - 10.1111/j.1756-1183.2012.00145.x
Subject(s) - german , turkish , politics , chauvinism , comedy , cognitive reframing , power (physics) , political science , media studies , sociology , gender studies , law , history , literature , art , psychology , philosophy , social psychology , linguistics , physics , archaeology , quantum mechanics
Following the success of Knobi Bonbon, the first Turkish German cabaret founded by Şinasi Dikmen and Muhsin Omurcu in 1985, Turkish German comedy has become standard fare on the German stage. Among the younger generation of Turkish German performers, Serdar Somuncu has distinguished himself through biting political satire targeting both German and Turkish societies and through his zealous engagement with the German past. Beginning with his Mein Kampf program in 1996, Somuncu developed a series of performances criticizing German Vergangenheitsbewältigung , the corrosive power of popular media, and failures of political leadership in Germany and Turkey. With escalating vehemence in his Hassprediger shows, Somuncu rails against the miasma of critical lassitude that renders the public susceptible to demagoguery, prejudice, and chauvinism and seeks to inoculate his audience against such influences by enacting a transnational politics of satire.