FA 49P.01 MALE SUBJECTIVITIES IN THE CINEMA OF TURKEY Fall 2014/2015 Instructor: Tolga Yalur E-mail contact: [email protected] Required Materials: Course packet -available at Ünal Kopya Assessment Method: Class participation, attendance 35% (Each attended week will be graded) Mid-Term 20% Term paper 45% Course Description: The conditions of being a male subject and cinema go roughly side by side. This course explores the ways how film studies have been influenced by male subjectivity and psychoanalysis, and investigates the ways in which studies of male subjectivity has informed cinema in Turkey, either through aesthetics or plotting and characterization. The course will provide an essential understanding of fundamental concepts of male subjectivity in psychoanalysis and will offer exercise in film analysis. Classes will begin with a film screening, continued by a discussion of concepts, and will conclude by a focus on intersection points of readings and films. By the end of the course, students will be able to develop main skills of analyzing male subjectivity in film, and to develop their own ideas about film in relation to male subjectivity and apply them to further examples. Week 1: The Male Subject of Lack Readings: Lacan, Jacques. “The Signification of the Phallus” in Écrits (London: Norton, 2005), pp. 575-584. Lacan, J. “Desire, Life and Death” in The Seminar II (New York: Norton, 1988), pp. 221-234. Silverman, Kaja. “The Dominant Fiction” in Male Subjectivity at the Margins (Routledge, 1992), pp. 15-51. Week 2: Yeşilçam’s Men Screening and Discussion: Komser Cemil (Melih Gülgen, 1975, 94 min.) Readings: See Week 1, Readings. Week 3: Woman as a Symptom of Man Screening and Discussion: Köçek / Kochek (Nejat Saydam, 1975, 71 min.) Readings: Zizek, Slavoj. From “Why Is Woman a Symptom of Man?” in Enjoy Your Symptom: Jacques Lacan in Hollywood and out (New York: Routledge, 1992), pp. 46-60. Week 4: Fantasy Screening and Discussion: Adı Vasfiye / Vasfiye is Her Name (Atıf Yılmaz, 1985, 90 min.) Readings: Suner, Asuman. “The Absent Women of New Turkish Cinema” in New Turkish Cinema: Belonging, Identity, Memory (London: I. B. Tauris, 2010), pp. 163-178. Weeks 5-6: The Uncanny Screening and Discussion: Anayurt Oteli / Motherland Hotel (Ömer Kavur, 1987, 101 min.) Readings: Freud, Sigmund. "The Uncanny,” Standard Edition 17 (London: Hogarth, 1955 [1919]). Weeks 7-8: The Gaze Screening and Discussion: Uzak İhtimal / Wrong Rosary (Mahmut Fazıl Coşkun, 2009, 90 min.) in comparison with Güz Sancısı / Pains of Autmn (Tomris Giritlioğlu, 2009, 112 min.), Üç Maymun / Three Monkeys (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2008, 109 min.) Readings: Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” in Screen No. 16 (3) (1975), pp. 6-18. Silverman, K. “The Gaze” in The Threshold of the Visible World (New York: Routledge, 1996), pp. 125-136. Week 9: Special Screening and Discussion Kırık Plak / The Broken Disk (Osman F. Seden, 1959, 102’) Week 10: Male Love? Screening and Discussion: Sevmek Zamanı / Time to Love (Metin Erksan, 1965, 89 min.) in comparison with Başka Dilde Aşk / Love in Another Language (İlksen Başarır, 2009, 94 min.) Readings: Miller, Jacques-Alain & Waar, Hanna. We Love the One Who Responds to Our Question: “Who Am I?” (Lacan.com) http://lacan.com/symptom/?page_id=263 (5 Jan. 2014). Salecl, Renata. “I can’t Love You Unless I give You Up” in ed. Salecl, R. and Žižek, S. Gaze and Voice as Love Objects (Durham and London: Duke University Press: 1996), pp. 179-207. Weeks 11-12: Trauma Screening and Discussion: Yazı-Tura / Toss Up (Uğur Yücel, 2004, 102 min.) in comparison with Nefes: Vatan Sağolsun / The Breath (Levent Semerci, 2009, 127 min.) Readings: Silverman, Kaja. “Historical Trauma and Male Subjectivity” in Male Subjectivity at the Margins (New York: Routledge, 1992), pp. 52-65. Yücel, Fırat. “The Land of ‘Manly Men’: Masculinity, Nation and War in a Turkish Film” in ArteEast (Spring 2007) http://arteeast.org/2012/02/22/the-land-of-manly-men- masculinity- nation-and-war-in-a-turkish-film/ (5 Jan. 2014). Weeks 13-14: (Dis)identity Screening and Discussion: Güneşe Yolculuk / Journey to the Sun (Yeşim Ustaoğlu, 1999, 104 min.) in comparison with Yozgat Blues (Mahmut Fazıl Çoşkun, 2013, 93 min.) Readings: Miller, Jacques-Alain. “Extimity” in The Symptom 9 (Lacan dot com, 2008) http:// lacan.com/symptom/?p=36 (5 Jan. 2014). .