History and Identity Discourse in Orhan Pamuk Literature

History and Identity Discourse in Orhan Pamuk Literature aims to examine the forms of discourse in which the identity problems in Turkey are expressed in Orhan Pamuk's works, on an axis where literature and history intersect. A book that has a special place among them.

In his work, which contains the richness and depth of an interdisciplinary approach, Zafer Doğan examines how themes that have always been at the center of Turkish literature, such as national allegory, the tension created by the centre-rural and East-West opposition, modernization and tradition, are handled in Orhan Pamuk's literature; in itself, "How should we look at a work of literature?" It answers the question.

"Those who think creatively about tradition, memory and how it can relate to the present do not come from those who are closest to tradition or farthest from the influence of Westernization, but from those who are most open to this influence, like Orhan Pamuk himself. Orhan Pamuk, in the first years of the republic, was free from tradition." Unlike the intellectuals who thought that one could become modern by holding back, he sensed that such a thing could only lead to cultural barrenness; therefore, he benefited from Sufism and classical Oriental works as much as possible, and he did this by using aesthetic literary forms that our literary tradition was unfamiliar with and found strange. and it is logically different from the appropriation of tradition for the "resurrection of tradition" predicted by nationalist reflexes. It does not adopt such a localist attitude. In short, this attitude that modernizes the tradition is barren and like a tailor who opens the tradition like a fabric cabinet and cuts and cuts those fabrics. It goes beyond a colorless global modernity and a shallow traditionalist localism. This position of Orhan Pamuk allows him to easily navigate the gray, ambiguous area between East and West. This position also leads him to understand the anxiety and unrest arising from the clash of civilizations."
(From the Promotional Bulletin)



Number of Pages: 328

Year of Printing: 2014


Language: Turkish
Publisher: İthaki Publications

Cover Design: Şükrü Karakoç
Prepared for Publication by: Volkan Alici

First Print Year: 2014

Number of Pages: 328

Language: Turkish