Disgraced of the West, Deserted of the East: Men in the Films Shame and Issız Adam (Alone)

Abstract

Apart from being shot in almost the same decades, Shame (Steve McQueen, 2011) and Issız Adam (Çağan Irmak, 2008) have other analogies that require to study on. Even though both men live in different cultures and have different relationship models, they struggle in life concurrently. While Steve McQueen’s Shame focuses on uncompromising sex addiction that overthrows a man’s life, Çağan Irmak’s Issız Adam takes it on a romantic level and presents a lonely man who cannot attach women. Though it seems an ordinary attachment problem on the surface, both men have deep social, sexual, familial problems that force them to be left alone. In consideration of adult romantic attachment theory of Hazan and Shaver (1987), both male characters will be examined under the topics of adult loneliness and love, romantic incest and sex addiction to analyze the reasons and the results of the bond that both male characters cannot have built.