436.2
Love in Turkish Cinema: I Don't Know Why I Love You

Wednesday, 13 July 2016: 11:00
Location: Hörsaal 14 (Juridicum)
Oral Presentation
Ozan GÜNEL, Beykent University, Turkey
Zeynep BAYKAL, Beykent University, Turkey
Man sees woman, woman sees man and they fall in love to each other immediately with an unbroken bound.  This synopsis is the most commonly used method in Turkish Cinema.  But what is the reason for this genetic overuse of love? And what can be the connection between the perception of love within the social structure and love as a phenomenon in Turkish Cinema?  The social structure of Turkey limits romantic encounters between men and women other than in a smallest percentage of population.  The power structure of family dynamics in Turkey strongly shaped by its traditional and religious background.  This background is not affected by modernity because Turkey’s power structure in 21th century mainly dominated by masculine, patriarchal, small congregational community erasing or not even creating social classes.   So these romantic encounters between man and woman fail to become a norm and turn into either melodramatic abuse or commercial consumption in most of the cinematic product.  Thus love stuck into two dimensional aesthetic.  The aim of this study is to elaborate on this connection through several contemporary movies which focus on love and some classics to measure time and social change.