Examination Of Turkish Science Fiction Cover Designs In The Context Of Search For A Local Style: Example Of Tbd Anthologies

Abstract

The science fiction genre is also seen in Turkish literature since the 19th century. As science fiction developed within Turkish literature, a domestic style problem emerged. Over time, attention has been drawn to this problem and efforts have been made to solve it. On the other hand, studies to solve the local style problem in Turkish science fiction literature generally remained at the text level. However, a book consists of content and cover. Cover designs constitute the first visual communication of the reader with the book, and it is one of the important branches of graphic design. Therefore, it is necessary to reflect the concerns for the content on the cover design. From this point of view, it is worth investigating whether the Turkish science fiction cover designs are examined in the context of the search for a domestic style, whether the efforts in this direction are reflected in the book cover designs, and if so, in what way. For the book covers to be examined in the research, the Turkish Informatics Association anthologies were selected as it is the most prestigious science fiction story competition in Turkey, the importance and encouragement it gives to the local style, its appeal to a wide audience of readers and writers, and the fact that it publishes books with regular publication intervals covering a wide period of time. Semiotic analysis method was used for the analysis and all the book covers were examined one by one with this method. The findings obtained from all analyzes were interpreted and discussed in the conclusion section, accompanied by the evaluation criteria in the book design, and suggestions for the future were made in the light of the findings as well as the current situation analysis.