The Relationship between City and Women in Turkish Cinema

Abstract

Femininity and masculinity –as a social construction- is reconstructed with the spatial disintegrations just as the other dynamics. Woman is drawn the line –time varying- by patriarchal structure within the context of relationship with the space. Social and economical conditions may constrict or cause to yawn these borders. Feminist theorists draw attention to the relationship between gender and space. Cinema is one of the fields to find clue about the connection between these areas –gender and space- In this context this study focuses on the relation between woman and city in Turkish Cinema after 2000s and how femininity is constructed in these films. In the study, according to the purposive sampling method, the films Last Stop: Salvation (Yusuf Pirhasan, 2012) and But Muzeyyen, This is a Deep Passion (Cigdem Vitrinel, 2014) were determined as samples. According to the results obtained from the feminist analysis of the films, it can be said that the relationship between female characters and space contains some crack lines. In the movie Last Stop Salvation, female characters make domestic spaces safe through solidarity. In But Muzeyyen This is a Deep Passion, the female character freely takes place in the city, plaza and beach. The strong subject position of Muzeyyen is in harmony with the diversity and publicity of the spaces in which she takes place. Especially the fact that she wanders freely and aimlessly on the streets of the city allows Muzeyyen to be read as a female flaneur.