Orhan Pamuk and the East-West Dichotomy

Authors

  • Emilia Parpală University of Craiova
  • Rimona Afana

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12697/IL.2013.18.1.03

Keywords:

enunciation, identity, miniature, portrait, My Name is Red, Orhan Pamuk, transculturation

Abstract

The paper focuses on the manner in which O. Pamuk deconstructs the East-West dichotomy in his allegoric novel My Name is Red. We consider that the following isotopies are relevant for the interface between literature and the postmodern discourse on interculturalism and transculturation: (a) dialogism and indirectness (Pamuk replaced Eco’s semiotic theme with an identity theme, thus suggesting a retrospective reading of The Name of the Rose as a novel of European Christian identity); (b) the liminality of the chronotop (the decline of the Ottoman power, Istanbul as a transitional and cosmopolitan space); (c) the issue of style: miniature vs. portrait (the theocentric Islamic art vs. the anthropocentric Western art); (d) the polyphonic enunciation (Pamuk practises a literature of view points, a combination of Eastern and Western styles). Detrimental to political theories, the Turkish Nobel Prize winner pleads for an authentic personal and national identity, for the need for keeping the integrity through synthesis, tolerance, faith and self-consciousness.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

<p>Calvino, I. 1972. <em>Le città invisibili. </em>Torino: Giulio Einaudi Editore.</p><p>Corti,  M.  2000.  <em>Pentru  o  enciclopedie  a  comunicării  literare.  </em>[Şt.  Mincu,  transl.] Constanţa: Pontica.</p><p>Eco, U. 1975. <em>Trattato di semiotica generale</em>. Milano: Bompiani.</p><p>Eco, U. 1983 [1980]. <em>The name of the Rose</em>. [W. Weaver, transl.] Harcourt, Inc.</p><p>Eder, R. 2001. Heresies of the Paintbrush. <em>– New York Times Book Review</em>, 02.09, 7.</p><p>Farnsworth,  E.  2002.  Bridging  Two  Worlds.  – <em>The  News  Hour</em>,  MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, 1–6, <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/conversation/july-dec02/pamuk_11-20.html">http://www.pbs.org/newshour/conversation/july-dec02/pamuk_11-20.html</a>.</p><p>Florea, S. 2006. Intercultural Communication: on Cultural Liminality and the Loss of Self. – <em>Annals of the University of Craiova, Series: Philology-English</em>, 1, 170–178.</p><p>Freitag, B. 2003. Global Cities in Informational Societes. – <em>Diogenes</em>, 50, 1, 71–82.</p><p>Huntington, S. P. 1996. <em>The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order</em>. Simon &amp; Schuster.</p><p>Levi, J. 2001. Culture clash. – <em>The Guardian</em>, 15.09.</p><p>Knopf, A. A. 2003. A Conversation with Orhan Pamuk. <em>The Borzoi Reader Online</em>. Random  House,  1–3,  <a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/authors/pamuk/qna.html">http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/authors/pamuk/qna.html</a></p><p>Marcus. S. 2005. <em>Întâlnirea extremelor. </em>Piteşti: Paralela 45.</p><p>Ortiz, F. 1995 [1940].<em> Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar. </em>[H. de Onís, transl.] Durham, NC: Duke University Press.</p><p>Pamuk, O. 2001 [1998]. <em>My Name Is Red. </em>[E. Güknar, transl.] Shuster and Shuster.</p><p>Parpală, E. 2008. “The retaliation” of the Phenotext: Reading Umberto Eco’s “The Name of the Rose” through Orhan Pamuk’s “My Name is Red”. – <em>Annals of the</em> <em>University of Craiova, Series: Philology-English</em>, 2, 219–228.</p><p>Ricoeur, P. 1990. <em>Soi-même comme un autre</em>. Paris: Seuil.</p><p>Said, E. W. 1978. <em>Orientalism</em>. London and Henley: Routledge and Kegan Paul.</p><p>Scarpetta, G. 1985. <em>L’impureté</em>. Paris: Grasset.</p><p>Talvet, J. 2005. <em>A Call for Cultural Symbiosis</em>. [H. L. Hix, transl.] Toronto: Guenica.</p><p>Todorova, M. 1997. <em>Imagining the Balkans</em><strong>. </strong>New York: Oxford University Press.</p><p>Updike, J. 2001. Murder in miniature. A sixteenth-century detective story explores the soul of Turkey. – <em>New Yorker</em>, 03.09, 92.</p><p>Venn, C. 2000. <em>Occidentalism</em>. London: Sage Publications.</p><p>Werbner, P., Madood, T., eds. 1997. <em>Debating Cultural Hybridity: Multi-cultural Identities and Politics of Anti-rasism</em>. London and New Jersey: Zed Books.</p><p>Wolf, L. 1994. <em>Inventing Eastern Europe – The Map of Civilization on the Mind of the Enlightment</em>. Stanford: Stanford University Press.</p>

Downloads

Published

2013-06-17

Issue

Section

Articles