Title: The City and the Stranger between Monetary Relations and Spiritual Heritage
Abstract: This paper focuses on the rapidly-changing, hybrid face of Istanbul in light of the dichotomy between essential spiritual traditions and complex monetary relations and their ability to synthesise by means of intermediate forms. In this article, I ask the question of how the money economy has reformed the spiritual background of the city—which once was associated with the refulgent silhouette of the imperial periods—through the film A Run for Money (1999). This film depicts the complicated confrontation between past and future, between spiritual heritage and change, as well as between value and money. According to this film’s scenario, one day, Selim, the stranger—the protagonist who plays a well-behaved and honest merchant—finds a bag of money and succumbs to its evil, changing his life entirely. This transformation thus reveals, not only the story of a man but also the socio-urban experience of the city.
Publication Year: 2015
Publication Date: 2015-11-01
Language: en
Type: article
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