Elective Affinities: Women’s Agency and Televisual Flows Between Modi’s India and Erdoğan’s Türkiye

As the constitutional republics of Modi’s India and Erdoğan’s Turkey are being recast into ethnonational states, bilateral exchanges of television productions between them have soared, particularly dramas focused on women. Positing this as a socio-cultural rather than a merely industrial phenomenon, this article analyzes television flows between India and Turkey to theorize the concept of “elective affinities.” Elective affinities emerge through affects and resonances that exceed cultural proximities yet foster interest and identification across borders when audiences seek out and identify with transnational media that depict ideological, political, or social systems and values that resonate with their experiences. These elective affinities engender “interstitial agency” among women, content creators, and consumers, creating a dialectical space for women’s interests and concerns in televisual flows traversing two distinct yet connected national media contexts that are marked by the rise of authoritarian populism and its gendered politics.