Genre strikes back: conspiracy theory, post-truth politics, and the Turkish crime drama Valley of the Wolves

Shortly after the July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, two talk show hosts suggested that the producers of the popular and long-lived Valley of the Wolves media franchise may have been involved with the coup. While these accusations received only minor traction in Turkish media, they are interesting both because they likely played a role in the franchise being investigated, and because they relied on a set of genre norms for conspiracy theory that had been popularized and codified in Turkey’s public sphere by the Valley franchise itself. This paper investigates the relationship between conspiracy theory, Valley, and the show’s public in a three-part argument. It begins by exploring the genre norms of conspiracy theory as they relate to Valley. Next, it turns to the performative function of conspiracy theory, suggesting that the Foucauldian approach to enunciation may explain an under examined role of such theorizing. Finally, it remarks on the ties between conspiracy theory, enunciation, and politics in the rise of what is often called the post-truth era.