Cultural anxieties on the silver screen : paranoia in new Turkish cinema

Abstract

This study aims to capture the affective cinematic imageries of anxiety and paranoia, as reflected in the New Turkish Cinema. My main objective in undertaking this study is to explore how cinematic representations seize the current period in terms of cultural anxieties and paranoia experienced both as an ordinary crisis as well as projected in terms nation's imagination and negotiation of its identity. Drawing on the recent affect theories and phenomenological film theory, I propose investigating the selected films as manifestations of affective sensations of paranoia and anxiety 'circulating' in the present moment, which are involved in a dialogical interaction with the cultural-political context.This study intends to approach anxiety and paranoia as affective-experiences and felt sensations embedded in the historical present with their cultural overtones apart from the clinical and neuroscientific understanding. To capture the vitalism of a nation's collective lived experience in the current cultural and political atmosphere, this study proposes moving beyond the conventional methodology of a symptomatic reading. The films selected for this study are: Beyond the Hills (2012), Ivy (2015), Frenzy (2015), and Inflame (2017).