Money, Religion, and Symbolic Exchange in Winter Sleep

in Religion and Society
Author:
Bülent Diken Lancaster University diken@lancaster.ac.uk

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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/arrs.2017.080106
Keywords:
capitalism; debt; guilt; mediocrity; money; Nuri Bilge Ceylan; religion; symbolic exchange
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ABSTRACT

Winter Sleep is the latest film from Nuri Bilge Ceylan, a Turkish director and screenwriter who has received international acclaim. For the purpose of social and cultural analysis, this article critically focuses on the film’s key themes and maneuvers that have diagnostic value from a social theoretical viewpoint. These themes are religion, the relationship between religion and capitalism, and symbolic exchange. Organized around these topics, the article examines the religion-capitalism-symbolic exchange nexus by analyzing the motifs of formation, intervention, and intelligibility as these themes arise. This site of intersection is the conceptual pivot around which the article configures itself. It explores Winter Sleep based on what the film shows and says on screen, how its thought processes emerge, and at what points this thought supports or conflicts with dominant societal opinions.

Contributor Notes

BÜLENT DIKEN teaches social and cultural theory at Kadir Has University in Istanbul and Lancaster University in the UK. His research fields are social theory, political philosophy, urbanism, cinema, and terrorism. His books include Nihilism (2009), Revolt, Revolution, Critique: Paradox of Society (2012), and God, Politics, Economy: Paradoxes of Religion (2016). E-mail: diken@lancaster.ac.uk

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Religion and Society

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Cover Religion and Society
Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
15
Keywords:
capitalism; debt; guilt; mediocrity; money; Nuri Bilge Ceylan; religion; symbolic exchange
Print Publication Date:
01 Sep 2017
Online Publication Date:
01 Sep 2017
Copyright:
© Berghahn Books 2017

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