Aylak Adam Ve Tuhaf Bir Kadin Sokaklarda Gezinirken: Ayni Sokaklar[Da] Farkli Deneyimler[Le]
The Idle Man and the Strange Woman Stroll the Streets: Same Streets, Different Experiences

Summary/Abstract: Every steps on the streets has many stories. The thousand-word stories of the people taking the roads are the proofs of how this world we live in contains many different experiences. The streets of cities change and gain new meanings with new people stepping them. For instance, a street for whom is dark and not walkable after a certain time may be the house of another people; a street which is open to be stepped anyone, every hour, may not be a place where inspires same feelings to every people passing in that street. Just like Beyoğlu… In this study, by following the novels of Yusuf Atılgan, Aylak Adam [The Idle Man, 1959] and of Leyla Erbil, Tuhaf Bir Kadın [The Strange Woman, 1989], both of which settled in Beyoğlu, it will be examined how male and female writers narrate different lives, feelings, thoughts and interpretations of men and of women walking on the streets. Moreover, the images of ‘flâneur’ and of ‘flâneuse’, rather than historical figures, will be discussed as critical metaphors with reference to the comparison between The Idle Man by Yusuf Atılgan and The Stranger Woman by Leyla Erbil. An analysis on the lives of Mister C, idle of the years 1950s, and of strange woman, Nermin who walks in Beyoğlu in 1980s, that refers to the different experiences of urban/public/street by men and women, will give a chance to a critical interpretation of the social history of Turkey and to a re-reading of past.

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