Postmodernism, Post-Marxism, and Mass Media in Aras Oren's 'Berlin Savignyplatz'

The following thesis is a study of Aras Oren's 1995 novel Berlin Savignyplatz. This novel moves away from the New Left's discourse on guest workers as helpless victims and toward a view that refuses to essentialize identities. The text does this by using instances of mass media to expose contradictions in the New Left's discourse on guest workers, by signaling poststructuralist understandings of the subject, and by showing the decline of a Marxist worldview.;In addition to scholarly works that speak to the writings of Aras Oren, this thesis utilizes secondary literature on media representations in society, postmodernism and postmodernist writings, poststructuralism, post-Marxism, and globalization. The first section "Aras Oren and Media" gives a brief biography of Aras Oren and explores some of his experience with different forms of media. "Mass Media in Berlin Savignyplatz" is an in-depth investigation of the concept of mediated reality and identity and mass media's presence in Berlin Savignyplatz. "Postmodernism and Post-Marxism in Berlin Savignyplatz" contextualizes this novel within a changing political and historical landscape using the concepts of postmodernism and post-Marxism. Finally, "Conclusion: Oren in Various Literary Contexts" attempts to locate Aras Oren and the novel in question within Turkish German literature, German literature, and also European literature.